Mendocino War

Scholars, however, state that the damage to the area and natives in particular was even higher than reported, especially given the vast number of raiding parties formed outside of the Eel River Rangers.

Those that survived were moved to the Nome Cult Farm, where they experienced hardships typical of the reservation system of the day.

Round Valley, located in northeastern Mendocino County in Northern California, was home to various Native American tribes.

[3] Despite the amount of land set aside for white settlement, the government had trouble stopping newcomers from settling all over the valley, including on the Nome Cult Farm and Mendocino Reservation.

[6] Natives were not protected but were subject to brutal treatment that included assaults, rape, murder, theft of their property, disease, and starvation.

[10] They removed fences from the Nome Cult Farm and allowed their herds to graze on and through native land, some of which was already filled with crops.

[11] The California Reservation System, which was subject to corruption, fraud and misuse of federal funds, provided little recourse.

Since ranching methods at the time were not very advanced (barbed wire had not been invented), the settlers had trouble keeping their livestock on their land.

The territory was new, unfamiliar, and full of hazardous cliffs and predators, and many cattle and horses wandered off and died of natural causes.

[7] Locals like Dryden Lacock even stated that settlers, including himself, were engaging in small raiding parties that killed "50-60 Indians a trip".

Henley was in league with Judge Serranus C. Hastings (a former Iowa Supreme Court Justice), who helped him design plans for the removal of natives from the local territory.

As part of their plan, they launched raiding parties and held town-hall style public gatherings where settlers aired their grievances, leading to increased racial prejudice and hatred towards the natives.

[19] The natives faced a choice of either starving to death on the reservations that provided them with no food, or venturing off into the mountainous regions of Mendocino County and risk slaughter by local settlers.

[15] In the meantime, Hastings had grown tired of waiting, and created a new company anyway, without federal funding, with Jarboe as captain.

Working against them were hunger, unequal weapons, repeated and surprise attacks, their vulnerable position on reservations, and their lack of ability to speak on their own behalf.

Jarboe's forces also alienated some white settlers, slaughtering their livestock if they refused to give them food or the necessary supplies.

Now, with raids, the men who farmed and hunted and the women who gathered and made the food were killed, and native stores of winter supplies were plundered and lost.

[30] Jarboe and his men meanwhile continued their raiding and killing through the winter with the goal of removing the natives completely from Round Valley.

[32] The public swiftly opposed this decision, petitioning Governor Weller to reinstate the Eel River Rangers, but the protest was unsuccessful.

[33] On February 18, 1860, Jarboe summarized his record, claiming that in 23 engagements, he and his men killed 283 warriors, captured 292 prisoners, while only sustaining five casualties themselves.

Jarboe claimed that his actions were provoked by citing numbers of whites killed, but Dillon's reports contradicted those statements.

Dillon wrote to his superiors that white settlers were at fault for the entire conflict, and that the locals had funded the slaughter.