Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's Relations with the Indians of California's Northern Frontier: 1825-1842
Graduation Date
Summer 1976
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
As Commander General of California's northern frontier, General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo exercised both military and political authority over the inhabitants of an extensive region stretching from San Francisco Bay north to the Oregon border and from the Sacramento River west to the Pacific Ocean.
Vallejo was virtual lord and master of the region, exercising control over all military forces, Mexican and American colonists, and the California Indians (both neophytes and gentiles). Commenting upon the power and influence of Vallejo, one of his contemporaries, Captain Charles Brown, said of him:
“[there was] ... too much military sway around there [Sonoma] for my taste, and to avoid trouble I concluded to sell [my land]. Vallejo at that time had full control in Sonoma; his will was law; and no one dared gainsay it.”
This dissertation centers upon the power exercised by Vallejo in his relations with the California Indians. It endeavors to present to the reader a comprehensive survey of the multiple dimensions of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's relations with the Indians. Apparently none of Vallejo’s biographers has attempted a complete development of this topic.
This study, which covers the seventeen year span of Vallejo’s most active military service (1825-1842), will include:
- A brief review of Vallejo's life to familiarize the reader with the chain of events and circumstances of the times which both influenced Vallejo's attitudes toward the Indians and helped shape his Indian policies.
- Accounts of Vallejo's principal military campaigns against rebel neophytes and wild gentile Indians.
- Vallejo's special relationship with Solano, Chief of the Suisun tribe.
- Vallejo's Indian policies during the time he served as Commander General of the northern frontier.