"Bringing Them under Subjection": California's Tejón Indian Reservation and Beyond, 1852-1864

Abstract

The final book in a three-volume history of California's Native people, Bringing Them under Subjection chronicles the development and demise of the state's first permanent reservation, the Sebastian Military Reserve, better known as the Tejon Reservation. George Harwood Phillips explains how local Native people were instrumental in the initial success of the reservation and how the institution was undermined by squatters and a Native policy emphasizing caution over innovation. Because the scope of the study encompasses most of the San Joaquin Valley in central California, events related to but unfolding beyond the reservation are also given considerable attention, in particular the founding and functioning of quasi reservations called 'Indian farms', the resistance offered by Native peoples in the southern valley, the degradation they underwent in the gold fields, and the survival of their progeny to the present. Drawing upon Native oral testimony and the accounts of state and federal officials, military officers, newspaper reporters, settlers, miners, and ranchers, Phillips provides a detailed and balanced account of a volatile period in California history. George Harwood Phillips is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Colorado. He is the author of several books about California Native peoples, including the first two volumes in this series: Indians and Intruders in Central California, 1769-1849 and Indians and Indian Agents: The Origins of the Reservation System in California, 1849-1852.