WASHINGTON
For the first time in history, one of the 18 treaties negotiated
and signed during the Gold Rush between the United States and the
American Indian Nations of California, but secretly unratified by
the United States Senate in 1852, went on display to the public
today.
The Treaty of Temecula, also known as Treaty K, was unveiled
in the presence of the descendantsleaders of three of the
Native Nationswho were affected by the Senate's failure to
ratify the agreement: Jeff Grubbe, Chairman, of the Agua Caliente
Band of Cahuilla Indians; Mark Macarro, Chairman, of the Pechanga
Band of Luiseno Indians; and Sabrina Nakhjavanpour, Treasurer, and
Melonie Calderon, Business Committee Member, of the San Manuel Band
of Mission Indians.
Treaty K is just one of the 18 treaties that was submitted to
the U.S. Senate on June 1, 1852 by President Millard Fillmore. Unbeknownst
to the Native nations' signatories, the Senate rejected the treaties
and ordered them to be held in secrecy for over fifty years.
Meanwhile, left undefended by United States Armed Forces, Native
nations across California were overrun by white settlers and American
Indians were subjected to violence at the hands of state and local
militias. Considered illegal aliens on their own land without state
or federal legal recourse, it led to their ethnic cleansing. The
American Indian population in California plunged from perhaps 150,000
to 30,000 between 1846 and 1870. The 1880 census records 16,277
American Indians in Californiaa 90% decline in their population
since the onset of the Gold Rush.
Quoting from a November 22, 1852 letter by California Indian
Affairs superintendent Edward F. Beale to U.S. Commissioner of Indian
Affairs Luke Lea, Chairman Grubbe read to the group:
"The wretched remnant which escapes starvation on the one hand,
and the relentless whites on the other, only do so to rot and die
of a loathsome disease, the penalty of Indian association with frontier
civilization
.I have seen it, and seeing all this, I cannot
help them. I know they starve; I know they perish by hundreds; I
know that they are fading away with startling rapidity; but I cannot
help them
.They are not dangerous
.It is a crying sin
that our government, so wealthy and so powerful, should shut its
eyes to the miserable fate of these rightful owners of the soil."
Chairman Macarro noted that September 23rd is American Indian
Day in California. "It also happens to be the day on which the Pechanga
Nation people were evicted in 1852. Seeing this treaty on display
is both horrific as it shines daylight on the cheat and fraud that
accompanied the sale of our land. But California Indian nations
had treaties with the United States, and this is validation," he
said.
"There is so much our people have to do as a whole," said Treasurer
Nakhjavanpour. "Yes, we are still here. What happened during the
Gold Rush is different to what we see happening today at Standing
Rock with oil. But there are similarities in the quest for commodities
near American Indian nation land. We have to keep fighting."
On loan from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
through January 2017, including the anniversary date of the treaty
on Jan. 5, Treaty K will be on display in the museum's award-winning
exhibition "Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States
and American Indian Nations," which opened on Sept. 21, 2014 and
will stay open through Spring 2020. The full text of the treaty
is available on the Nation to Nation project website.
"Consent is at the heart of the treaty relationship," said Kevin
Gover, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American
Indian. "That is what this exhibition is all about. And it is not
just about the past, it is about the present and future, too. Just
imagine what the world would be were decisions are made bi-laterally.
When both parties agree, good things result, both can thrive. When
they are made unilaterally or when agreements are not kept, bad
things happen."
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