[1][2] The Americans tracked the Wintu but were unable to locate the particular group responsible, instead locating another group on a part of Hayfork Creek south of the Hayfork Valley known as Bridge Gulch (in Wintu qookši čopči', meaning skinned hide) where they had made camp.
[7][8] Native Americans in California experienced several decades of genocide as the white settlers started to arrive from the east and the Midwest.
As more and more white settlers arrived, Native Americans were forced from their homelands and the most valuable lands, and conflicts erupted.
In addition to the loss of land and resources, and the conflicts over new settlements, Native Americans suffered from introduced diseases and were subject to violence and murder at the hands of the newcomers, sometimes aided or led by U.S. military troops.
Legal loopholes or the absence of a strong, local judicial system also prevented the white killers being brought to justice.
These notions may partially explain the indiscriminate killing of Native men and women in California after disputes in land settlements erupted.
The white settlers saw themselves as a superior race; as a result, they saw themselves as having a "manifest destiny" to hold all the land to the Pacific Ocean.