The Hidden History of Fort Bragg - Part 1: The Establishment of the Fort
Visitors to the City of Fort Bragg, CA often ask: "Where's the fort?" The answers they get can vary depending upon the respondent. Some will say that there never was a fort here. Others, more knowledgeable, will direct the visitor to the only remaining building from the fort up on North Franklin St. in town. There are no real signs to this location, and no real information at the site other than there was a fort, and this is the last building still standing. A better question, seldom asked is: Why was there a fort established here? Here, too, there can be confusion, as it is a sensitive subject. Some will say that the fort was established to "protect the indigenous people of the Mendocino reservation." Unfortunately, that answer is false, but it in turn raises the question: To protect them from whom? What was the Reservation? Why was it established?
The Pomo and other tribes had lived along the Mendocino Coast for over ten thousand years. [https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=29403] Other lesser durations have been claimed, ranging from three to five thousand years, but it seems more reliable that they were here for much longer. They were a hunter-gatherer culture, their numbers in keeping with the available supply of food, and stable through the centuries until the arrival of the European "settlers."
In 1850, a sailing ship, the Frolic, was wrecked on the shores of Point Cabrillo, near where the Point Cabrillo light station stands today between Fort Bragg and Mendocino. The captain and his officers survived the wreck and made their way down to San Francisco to file an insurance claim for the loss. What happened to the rest of the crew, who elected to remain with the grounded vessel, is unknown. The insurance company paid off on the claim, and sent a team up to the wreck site to see what might be salvaged. There was nothing left of the cargo to retrieve, but the team discovered extensive harvestable forests right along the coastline. The lumber industry of Mendocino was soon started in 1852, and large numbers of whites arrived to erect mills and logging operations, beginning also to displace the Pomo and other tribes.
The Mendocino Declaration
In 1855, a group of residents in the logging town of Mendocino (formerly Meiggsville) wrote a letter to the Indian Agent Robert White to the effect that there was going to be serious trouble if "something was not done" about the local indigenous tribes. It included this passage: "...We, for our part, have come to the conclusion, to stand their depredations, no longer, and only await your answer, to commence operations. You will have time to communicate with those in authority, to this state, and tell them, that we require an answer forthwith, and also, that silence, or inaction, in the premises, will be construed as a refusal, and a war of extermination be entered into, by a set of men, maddened by the loss of several years labor, and a prospect of the same, for the future." May 1, 1855 (Source: The Mendocino Indian Reservation; Robert Winn, Mendocino Historical Review, Vol XII Fall/Winter 1986. Also "Residents of Mendocino to Robert White, May 1, 1855 National Archives Mf., RG 75 Roll 34.)
The threat of a "war of extermination" was not an idle one, for systematic and government-sanctioned attacks on indigenous people were going on all over California for some years by then. (An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe 1846-1873 by Benjamin Madley) And the threat was not ignored, for the Mendocino Indian Reservation was established in 1856 between the Noyo and Ten Mile Rivers. The purpose was the separation and incarceration of indigenous people of the coast and inland, to get them away from the incoming white "settlers. A year later, a small detachment of US Army Company M, 3rd Artillery division, arrived to establish a base of operations under 1st Lt. Horace G. Gibson. Their base, which Lt. Gibson named Fort Bragg in honor of a former commanding officer in the Mexican-Americas War, was located 1.5 miles north of the Noyo River.
While it is claimed that the purpose of the fort was to "protect the Indians," this claim is false. First, Lt. Gibson's orders make no mention of this aspect. Second, assuming that the protection was against the local population of whites, the Army could not legally function as a police force in this manner by law. Pacific Department Commander Wool's 1857 interpretation of California reservations legal status denied the reservations full Army protection. "Until these reservations are ... perfected the United States troops ... have no right to ... exclude the Whites from entering and occupying the reserves, or even preventing their taking from them Indians, squaws, and children. In all such cases, until the jurisdiction of the State is ceded to the United States the civil authority should be invoked to correct the evil." By design, federal troops thus provided limited protection to Indians on California reservations. (An American Genocide) Further: "Although in neither of the written orders received, is anything said about my affording any protection to the citizens, or taking any means to punish Indians who commit thefts; yet I consider myself obliged by the verbal orders given me at first, to do anything in my power to put a stop to their depredations." Military report, Lieutenant Edward Dillon to Major Edward Johnson, March 23, 1859, Indian War Files.
The purpose of the Mendocino Indian reservation was to function as a de-facto concentration camp wherein indigenous people were confined on an involuntary basis, where the inmates were systematically starved and used for forced labor. (Definition: Concentration camp. a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution.) Indian tribes from the surrounding areas were captured and brought to the Mendocino Indian Reservation by Army troops and civilian vigilantes; the role of the army was to keep them confined.
A Note About The Hidden History.
There are several ways in which history can be hidden. Just as dysfunctional families do, communities are not slow to quietly agree that certain things are tabu, Not To Be Discussed. How is this done? By not permitting the subjects to be included in the educational process for children. By decisively changing the subject whenever uncomfortable facts are raised, and by attacking anyone personally who violates the unwritten rule. All of these behaviors have been practiced here and elsewhere whenever the truth is told about the role of the fort or the nature of the Mendocino Indian Reservation.
Recommended Reading:
An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe 1846-1873 by Benjamin Madley
The Mendocino Indian Reservation; Robert Winn, Mendocino Historical Review, Vol XII Fall/Winter 1986.
The Mendocino War: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendocino_War
