Timeline of Genocide Incidents in the Sacramento Valley Region
CONTENT WARNING: Many of the primary sources linked on this timeline contain racist language or sentiment and graphic accounts of settler-colonial violence against indigenous people.
| Appx.* | Date | Number killed
|
Location | Source | Source files |
| I | Before July 11, 1846 | 3 “several” | Sutter Buttes | Frémont, Memoirs, 517-518 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i1055a.pdf |
| III | June 29, 1847 | 10 – 14+ | “sixty miles above” New Helvetia (Sacramento) | Letter in California Star, July 24, 1847, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0653.pdf |
| III | “About” April 26 and 27, 1849 | 15 – 83+ | Daylor’s Ranch on the Cosumnes River and vicinity, 20 miles from Sacramento | Placer Times, May 5, 1849, 2; Daylor in Placer Times, May 12 1849, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0660a.pdf
|
| II | Before March 5, 1850 | 3 | Napa Creek | J.W.B., March 4, 1850 in DAC, March 16, 1850, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0117a.jpg |
| I | Before July 15, 1850 | 1 | Feather River | Gold Hunter, July 15, 1850 in DAC, September 12, 1850, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0022a.jpg |
| II | A few days before August 24, 1850 | 1 | Sacramento River Valley | Lord, August 24, 1850 journal entry in Lord, At the Extremity of Civilization, 281 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0131a.jpg |
| II | October, 1852 | 1 | Marysville | SDU, October 28, 1852, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0220a.jpg |
| II | February 25, 1853 | 1 | Near “Moon’s Ranch” in “Colusa county” | Sacramento Daily Union in DAC, March 6, 1853, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0229a.jpg |
| II | On or shortly after February 25, 1853 | 1 | “Moon’s Ranch” in “Colusa county” | Sacramento Daily Union in DAC, March 6, 1853, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0230a.jpg |
| II | March 15, 1853 | 3 – 4 | “Headwaters of Thom’s Creek…Colusa County” | Shasta Courier, April 2, 1853, 2 | |
| II | March 25, 1853 | 3 – 4 | Thom’s Creek, Colusa County | Shasta Courier, March 26, 1853 in DAC, March 30, 1853, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0236a.jpg |
| II | October 30, 1853 | 1 | Marysville | SDU, October 31, 1853, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0251a.jpg |
| II | Early December, 1853 | 1 | “near Oak Grove, in Butte County’ | Shasta Courier, December 10, 1853, 2 | |
| II | December 18, 1853 | 1 | Indian Valley | Carr in Butte Country Record, February 18, 1854, 2 | |
| II | Early February, 1854 | 1 | Near Johnson’s Ranch | Shasta Courier, February 11, 1854, 2 in Nevada Journal, February 24, 1854, 2 | |
| II | February 20, 1854 | 1 | Near Daylor’s Ranch | W.R.G. to Editors, February 21, 1854 in SDU, February 22, 1854, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0266a.pdf |
| III | After March 8, 1854 | 21 (including 3 women) | “coast range at the head of Toms’ and Stony Creeks, in Colus[a] county” | Daily Democratic State Journal, March 14, 1854, 2, reprinted in SDU, March 15, 1854, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0782.pdf |
| III | Between March 8 and March 11, 1854 | 21 – 23 | Dry Creek Canyon | Daily Democratic State Journal, March 14, 1854, 2; Butte Record, March 11, 1854, 2 | |
| II | Late June or early July, 1854 | 2 | Upper Rancheria, Sutter County | Sutter Correspondent to Jackson Sentinel in SDU, July 8, 1854, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0275a.jpg |
| II | After May 31, 1855 | 1 | Nome Lackee Reservation | Shasta Courier in SDU, June 11, 1855, 1; Butte Record, June 23, 1855, 1 | |
| III | June, 1855 | 7 | “Salt Creek, in the mountains about ten miles west of…Elk Creek” | Rogers, Colusa County, 87 | |
| II | May 19, 1856 | 1 | Sacramento | SDU, May 20, 1856, 2; SDU, May 21, 1856, 2; Daily Evening Bulletin, May 21, 1856, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0326a.jpg
|
| II | Before August 2, 1856 | 1 | Sacramento | Butte Record, August 2, 1856, 3 | |
| II | December, 1856 | 3 | Near Nome Lackee Reservation | Chard in San Francisco Sun, January 3, 1857 in Butte Record, January 10, 1857, 1; SDU, January 5, 1857, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0341b.jpg |
| II | December, 1856 | 2 | “near the Sacramento river” | Chard in San Francisco Sun, January 3, 1857 in Butte Record, January 10, 1857, 1; SDU, January 5, 1857, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0342b.jpg |
| II | Before January 30, 1858 | 1 | Near Marysville | Marysville correspondent in SDU, January 30, 1858, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0376.pdf |
| II | September 25, 1858 | 1 | Napa | SDU, October 4, 1858, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0401.pdf |
| III | April 21, 1859 | 14 | Near Antelope | Red Bluff Beacon, April 27, 1859, 2, reprinted in Nevada Democrat, May 4, 1859, 4 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0878.pdf |
| II | September 5, 1861 | 2 | “Bee Gum Fork, Shasta county….not more than 18 miles from Arbuckle” | Horsetown Argus in SDU, September 18, 1861, 4 and Nevada Democrat, September 24, 1861, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0492.pdf |
| III | April 26, 1862 | 13 – 17 | “near Jack Henderson’s, about six miles west of Nome Lackee Reservation” | Dispatch, May 4 in Nevada Democrat, May 6, 1862, 2; telegram, May 6 in DEB, May 6, 1862, 1; Red Bluff Beacon, May 8, 1862, 2; Gelrick, May 4, 1862 in SDU, May 5, 1862, 4 | |
| II | July 26, 1863 | 2 | “Chico” | Hanson to Dole, August 4, 1863 in USOIA, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1863, 96 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0552a.jpg |
| III | July 27, 1863 | 5 (“Dick, Pike and Charley, with one squaw and a little girl”) | Missouri Bend | Hanson to Dole, August 4, 1863 and attached Eddy to Hanson, nd in USOIA, Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1863, 96; Gillis and Magliari, John Bidwell and California, 272 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i1006a.jpg
|
| III | Before February 22, 1868 | 5 | Vicinity of Woodland, Yolo County | Correspondent in DAC, February 22, 1868, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i1046.pdf |
TOTAL ESTIMATED NUMBER KILLED IN REGION: 149-229
*Appendix (Appx.) refers to the reference’s location in:
Benjamin Madley, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016.
For full bibliographical references please refer to the text or Atlas credits & references
Abbreviations used in timeline:
DAC: Daily Alta Californian newspaper (San Francisco)
DEB: Daily Evening Bulletin newspaper (San Francisco)
SDU Sacramento Daily Union newspaper
USOIA U.S. Office of Indian Affairs
For full bibliographical references please refer to the text or Atlas credits & references