I asked my sister, the expert, a question about Yurok history and she led me to a story about the history of legalized slavery in the state of California, one that accompanied one of the largest genocides in American history.

Institutionalized right from the start. A THREAD:

2 things some folks don't know about the rapid colonization of Northern California:

1. the deadliest massacres happened over a 15 year period after 1st contact

2. The slave trade was in effect legalized in 1850 with the Act For The Government & Protection of Indians

Gold was discovered in 1848 and California quickly became a state by 1850 as 300,000 prospectors arrived, just a few decades after the deadly Spanish Missions throughout the south had finally closed down.

The 1850 Act For The Government and Protection of Indians allowed for the random arrest and fining of Native people. Any white man could pay off the fine in exchange for a lifetime of indentured servitude.

For such crimes as loitering, drinking,, and leading an immoral life.

The California Act also created legal provisions for Native children if the white people were "wishing to keep it."

"Care, custody, and control" for up to age 18 for boys and 15 for girls, at first. A later 1860 amendment raised the ages and included "prisoners of war"

Any white person was allowed to bring any Native person before the court for any reason.

In return Native people were forbidden from testifying against any white person at all for any reason, including murder, rape, and kidnapping.

This in effect created a lucrative market throughout California in the legalized trafficking of Native children.

Gangs of settlers would raid villages to steal children for sale. If you killed their parents, you could legally keep them.

Over the next 13 years an estimated 20,000 Native children in the state California were sold into bondage.

There were also what the local papers called "Squawmen" white men who would kidnap Native women, often by killing any accompanying family, and then legally keep them for the rest of their lives.

Traditional hunting and fishing rights were also made illegal and punishable by death or slavery. As were traditional agricultural practices such as controlled prarie burns.

The treaties that did exist were rushed, ignorant of cultural practices, and later actually hidden away and lost in the archives by town and local officials.

Because of the legalized slave trade of the Native peoples of California an estimated 80% of the population was wiped out over the next 50 years.

This would continue well into the beginnings of the 20th century, when my own grandparents and their siblings were legally abducted.

SOURCE for Slavery in Humboldt County
(highly recommended)