California has more small, scattered reservations than any state because, in the early 1900s, the government bought landless survivors tiny tracts of ten to a few hundred acres on the cheapest, most marginal ground. The episode covers Kelsey's 1906 census, the appropriations that created the rancherias, and how tiny land bases gutted tribal water rights.
Who's who
- Charles E. KelseySan Jose lawyer, census-taker and Special Agent for the California Indians
- Cornelia TaberLeading figure and publicist of the landless-Indian cause
- Theodore Roosevelt+14 more episodesPresident petitioned in 1903 about homeless Indians
Where it happens
- California+30 more episodesState dotted with small purchased rancherias
- Southern CaliforniaMission Indian bands handled on a separate legal track
Timeline
- 1887Dawes Act produces scattered allotments on marginal California land.
- 1891Act for the Relief of Mission Indians authorizes land purchases in Southern California.
- 1903-1906Kelsey counts at least 20,000 non-reservation Indians across 36 counties.
- 1906Kelsey named Special Agent; Congress appropriates $100,000 for land.
Still debated
How many rancherias were purchased varies from 50-plus to about 82 depending on definition, and no canonical acreage exists, with about 368,000 acres in trust by 1937.
Connected episodes in other series
The 1922 Deal That Split a River That Didn't Have Enough WaterCalifornia and Water · Episode 3Also features Theodore Roosevelt
The Suppression BargainFire Returns to My Backyard · Episode 4Also features Theodore Roosevelt
How the U.S. Manufactured Panama in 1903 — a Treaty No Panamanian SignedPanama: Crossroads of Empires · Episode 8Also features Theodore Roosevelt
The Doctrine of Domination: Why America Dammed the WestRivers Reborn · Episode 2Also features Theodore Roosevelt