Arts & Events

Berkeley’s Modoc Past: ‘A Homesick Indian Girl’

By Richard Schwartz Special to the Planet
Wednesday February 25, 2009 - 08:05:00 PM
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This 1908 image of an undeveloped area in Berkley’s Thousand Oaks neighborhood reveals a rock with Indian mortars. There were many scores of Indian sites all over Berkeley, more than anyone, including archeologists, anticipated, most having been recorded only in the past decade or so. There is evidence of Indian occupation from at least 5900 years ago in Berkeley. When the Spanish arrived with the mission system in 1769, the Indians of the East Bay were essentially driven from their homes by the forces of the church and Spanish military. When the Americans arrived, he treatment of Indians in California reached a new low. There were many incidents of slavery, including child slavery in the area around Berkeley. Raids were made to the North and Indians, many women and children, were brought to the area against their will to work on local ranches. By the late 1800s the practice had been modified to the use of Indian children as domestics in houses in the area, including Berkeley.
This 1908 image of an undeveloped area in Berkley’s Thousand Oaks neighborhood reveals a rock with Indian mortars. There were many scores of Indian sites all over Berkeley, more than anyone, including archeologists, anticipated, most having been recorded only in the past decade or so. There is evidence of Indian occupation from at least 5900 years ago in Berkeley. When the Spanish arrived with the mission system in 1769, the Indians of the East Bay were essentially driven from their homes by the forces of the church and Spanish military. When the Americans arrived, he treatment of Indians in California reached a new low. There were many incidents of slavery, including child slavery in the area around Berkeley. Raids were made to the North and Indians, many women and children, were brought to the area against their will to work on local ranches. By the late 1800s the practice had been modified to the use of Indian children as domestics in houses in the area, including Berkeley.
A pen and ink drawing representing the unknown artist’s impression of a Huchiun Ohlone woman witnessing the arrival through the Golden Gate of the Spanish in 1769 or adventurers during the gold rush of 1849.
A pen and ink drawing representing the unknown artist’s impression of a Huchiun Ohlone woman witnessing the arrival through the Golden Gate of the Spanish in 1769 or adventurers during the gold rush of 1849.

This article from the Berkeley Daily Gazette of Feb. 17, 1905, gives but a momentary glimpse into the life of a Modoc Indian girl on the threshold of womanhood: 

 

The old-fashioned complaint of home-sickness, emphasized by a common case of quarrel, inspired little Lizzie McCarey, a full-blooded Indian maiden, to leave the home of her guardians in this town Wednesday night and begin a long tramp back to the reservation. 

Mr. and Mrs. M. Johnson, living at Dana and Derby streets, asked the police today to assist in recovering the little Indian maiden. Marshal Kerns received a description of the girl and wired the details to the police of Oakland and San Francisco, where search will be made for Miss McCarey. She is about 12 years old, slender, black-haired, wearing short skirts and revealing in her features her racial origin. 

Those acquainted with the “child of the forest,” however, say that the police of the big cities may as well spare their efforts in searching for her along the brick or stone pavements for they believe that Lizzy McCarey has been moved by a strong feeling of home-sickness to pick up her belongings and start on a trip back to the spot from which she was taken a little more than a year ago by the Berkeley family in whose home she recently lived. 

Lizzie McCarey, of course, is not the Indian maiden’s original name. She was called “Artmah” when with her people in Modoc County, and received the name savoring of Hiberian origin when she was brought to the university town and domiciled at Dana and Derby streets. Her home life there was happy enough apparently, until recently, when she evinced a distaste for its confining character. This led to friction in the family, resulting in her disappearance.  

Sadly, there were many Artmahs in California at the turn of the last century. Indian children were taken from reservation schools or their families for “training” as domestics in California households. At the time, it was considered to be a good future for them, a proper use of their abilities. Very few townsfolk, even into the 20th century, questioned keeping them away from their families and their culture.  

How many of these children-domestics were there in Berkeley? No one knows, but it was clear that domestics were in big demand in that era. There were large numbers of young Indian children in such situations all over the state. It is not known if Artmah was paid for her services, and it does not appear that this 12-year-old was in school. One can only hope the brave young child, named Artmah by her own people and Lizzy McCarey by her Berkeley “guardians,” safely survived her long trek home. 

 

Artmah’s Modoc People 

Berkeley’s Artmah was a Modoc. Her people had lived in Northeastern California and Southern Oregon. In the 1850s, settlers began to take root on the Lost River in Modoc country, and soon petitioned the U.S. government to remove the Modocs from their land to help the settlers feel safe. The Modocs were removed to the Klamath Reservation between 1867 and 1869. One problem was that the Klamath people and the Modocs were traditional adversaries. All the while, the Modocs were demanding their own reservation within their Lost River homeland. The settlers made sure this did not happen. But the conflict at the Klamath proved too much for the Modoc, and they returned home. The settlers again convinced authorities that Modoc presence was unacceptable and, in spite of Modoc protests, once again authorities removed them back to the Klamath Reservation. In April of 1869, nearly 400 Modoc people left the reservation and refused to negotiate any more with American authorities. By the end of 1872, settlers’ pressure succeeded in having U.S. troops forcibly remove the Modoc yet again. The troops burned a Modoc village, which the Modoc considered an instigation of war. After a group of Modoc killed 14 male settlers to avenge the burning of their village, the Modoc were forced to flee with their families into the Lava Beds area. This is where in early 1873, Captain Jack, a Modoc leader and 50 Modoc men caused more than 300 troops and volunteers to retreat with heavy casualties. Captain Jack’s band was reinforced by other Modocs. 

President Grant hoped to halt theviolence and formed a peace commission to negotiate an end to the fighting. After many meetings, the government representatives told the Modoc again that they could not have their own reservation. The Modoc felt bitter and betrayed. They retailiated and killed two of the four U.S. representatives sent to meet with them. U.S. reinforcements arrived and cut the Modocs off from their water and soon stormed the lava bed fortress. They found it empty.  

But this small band, now 160 strong, was no match for the U.S. Army. The Modoc suffered a devastating loss after a later attack on the U.S. encampment. One of their most loved men, “Ellen’s Man George,” was killed and the Modoc were thoroughly demoralized. They also took these setbacks as a sign that their shaman’s Ghost Dance spell, protecting them from harm, had failed. Captain Jack surrendered on June 1, 1873, ending the conflict. Captain Jack and other Modoc leaders were hanged.  

Eccentrics, Heroes and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley is sold at local book stores, lumber yards, hardware stores, gift shops, movie theaters, and other local and online merchants. For a list of the locations where the book is available and information about Schwartz and his other books, see www.RichardSchwartz.info.