California Gold Rush | Battlelines | 3

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For white settlers, the Gold Rush offered a chance for fortune, but for California’s Native inhabitants, the sudden hunger for gold spelled disaster. As the numbers of miners grew, they forced Native people off their ancestral lands, often starving or slaughtering them in the process. As California became a state, informal policies that discriminated against indigenous Californians became law. Soon, the state would deploy militias to violently put down Indian resistance.

Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. https://wondery.app.link/historytellers

Support us by supporting our sponsors!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:07.6	A listener note, this episode contains descriptions of racial and sexual violence and may not be
0:12.9	suitable for everyone.
0:15.4	Imagine us a cold stormy night in December 1849.
0:28.9	You're riding a horse across the ranch where you work in Napa Valley, California.
0:33.6	Normally, you'd be fast asleep by now.
0:36.1	Your boss expects you to be up for work by 5 a.m., and he's been known to beat workers
0:40.8	who show up late.
0:42.6	Most of his laborers like you are from the local plomo and Wapo Indian tribes.
0:47.8	But tonight, you're praying your boss doesn't find out where you are.
0:51.1	Because you and another ranch hand have borrowed two of the boss's horses so you can steal
0:55.9	a cow from his herd.
0:57.9	Many miners have pushed tribes like yours off your ancestral lands and as a result, your
1:03.0	people are starving.
1:04.2	In an act of desperation, leaders from a nearby pomo village hired you to take one of the
1:10.1	cows.
1:12.2	As you approach the field of cattle, you turn to your partner, a fellow pomo named Shook.
1:17.2	I think we should back off tonight.
1:19.6	The lightning and thunder have the cattle spooks, and it's fine to me.
1:22.8	Come on!
1:23.8	Even your horse looks jumpy.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -792 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.