Bledsoe, A[nthony]. J[ennings].
Indian Wars of
the Northwest: A California Sketch.
San Francisco: Bacon and Company, (1885).
First edition.
The classic account of the Indian wars in far northwest California. The
encounters between the native tribes of Humboldt, Del Norte, and Trinity
counties were swift and brutal.
SOLD
Within fifteen years of the settlement of
Humboldt Bay (in 1851), most of the Native Americans who had not succumbed to
disease were dead at the hands of the settlers. In Two Peoples, One
Place, a history of early Humboldt County, Ray Rafael and Freeman House
itemize 56 massacres between 1850 and 1864. By the time anthropologists arrived
at the turn of the 20th century, many tribes had been completely wiped out and
others relocated to reservations.
Bledsoe's history of these Indian wars is the
most comprehensive contemporary account. He also includes an account of the
discovery of Humboldt Bay and of the early pioneers. Bledsoe was a lawyer and
legislator and the author of the exceedingly rare first history of Del Norte
County. [Zamorano 80; Cowan, p. 57. Howes B529 ("Best record of the
California Indian troubles to 1865.")]
This copy belonged to Lynwood Carranco,
a well-known Humboldt historian and the author of "Genocide and Vendetta:
The Round Valley Wars in California." Carranco used this book extensively
in his research and has marked it heavily in pen and pencil, underlining key
passages, and jotting notes in the margins. He also stamped and wrote his name
in the book a dozen or more times, in addition to adding his bookplate to the
front free endpaper. The cloth spine is splitting and Carranco repaired it with
strapping tape. This copy came from the Eureka Free Library, whose perforated
stamp has been excised from the title-page, the dedication page is cut out; and
a leaf of the table of contents. Three gatherings are strengthened with tape,
and a newspaper clipping about Humboldt County's centennial is affixed to the
rear free endpaper. The errata slip is tipped in, as usual. Not a pretty copy,
to be sure, but an interesting working copy of a noted historian.
To order, contact
Eureka Books
tel: (707) 444-9593
fax: (707) 443-9572
email: Please use the contact link to the right.
SOLD
Comments