In a message to the legislature of the new state, Governor Burnett said, "That a war of extermination would continue to be waged until the Indian race should become extinct, and that it was beyond the power or wisdom of men to avert the inevitable destiny." The government sent three Indian agents west to manage things a little more delicately, and at the same time, January 14, 1851, they made their own appraisal of the situation: "As there is now no further West to which they can be removed, the General Government and the people of California appear to have left but one alternative in relation to the remnants of once numerous and powerful tribes, vis; extermination or domestication. As the later includes all proper measures for their protection and gradual improvement, and secures to the State an element greatly needed in the development of its resources, vis; cheap labor, it is the once which we deem the part of wisdom to adopt, and if possible consummate." (271-72) Savage Dreams (1994) |