Editing John Sutter (section)

===Relationship with Native Americans===
Sutter's Fort had a central building made of adobe bricks, surrounded by a high wall with protection on opposite corners to guard against attack. It also had workshops and stores that produced necessary goods for the New Helvetia settlement.

Sutter employed or enslaved Native Americans of the [[Miwok]], [[Maidu]], [[Nisenan]], and [[Ohlone]] tribes, the [[Native Hawaiians|Hawaiians]] ([[Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)|Kanakas]]) he had brought, and also employed some Europeans at his compound.<ref name="Palo Alto">{{cite book | last = Harris | first = Malcolm | author-link = Malcolm Harris | date = February 14, 2023 | title = Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | pages = 14–15 | isbn = 978-0316592031}}</ref> He envisioned creating an agricultural [[utopia]], and for a time the settlement was in fact quite large and prosperous. Prior to the [[California Gold Rush|Gold Rush]], it was the destination for most immigrants entering California via the high passes of the [[Sierra Nevada]], including the ill-fated [[Donner Party]] of 1846, for whose rescue Sutter contributed supplies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=California Star 13 February 1847 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=CS18470213.2.13&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------- |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref>

In order to build his fort and develop a large ranching/farming network in the area, Sutter relied on Indian labor. Some Native Americans worked voluntarily for Sutter (e.g. [[Nisenan]]s, Miwoks, [[Ohatchecama|Ochecames]]), but others were subjected to varying degrees of coercion that resembled [[slavery]] or [[serfdom]].<ref name="jstor.org">{{cite journal|last=Hurtado|first=Albert|title=California Indians and the Workaday West: Labor, Assimilation, and Survival|journal=California History|date=Spring 1990|volume=69|issue=1|page=5|doi=10.2307/25177303|jstor=25177303}}</ref> Sutter believed that Native Americans had to be kept "strictly under fear" in order to serve white landowners.<ref name="jstor.org"/> Housing and working conditions at the fort were very poor, and have been described as "enslavement", with uncooperative Indians being "whipped, jailed, and executed." Sutter's Native American "employees" slept on bare floors in locked rooms without sanitation, and ate from troughs made from hollowed tree trunks.<ref>{{cite web|title=John Sutter and California's Indians|url=http://www.historynet.com/john-sutter-and-californias-indians.htm|website=Historynet.com|date=June 12, 2006|publisher=Wild West Magazine|access-date=December 25, 2014}}</ref> Housing conditions for workers living in nearby villages and [[ranchería]]s was described as being more favorable.<ref>Hurtado (1988), p. 57-59</ref><ref name = "nps">{{cite web| title = Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California (American Indians)
| access-date = 2013-10-17| url = http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views1h90.htm}}</ref> Pierson Reading, Sutter's fort manager, wrote in a letter to a relative that “the Indians of California make as obedient and humble slaves as the Negro in the South".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://goldcountrymedia.com/news/101146/dark-history-spurs-name-debate/|title=Dark history spurs name debate}}</ref> If Indians refused to work for him, Sutter responded with violence. Observers accused him of using "kidnapping, food privation, and slavery" in order to force Indians to work for him, and generally stated that Sutter held the Indians under inhumane conditions.{{sfn|Wild West Magazine|2006}}{{sfn|Hurtado|1990|p=5}} Theodor Cordua, a German immigrant who leased land from Sutter, wrote:

<blockquote>"When Sutter established himself in 1839 in the Sacramento Valley, new misfortune came upon these peaceful natives of the country. Their services were demanded immediately. Those who did not want to work were considered as enemies. With other tribes the field was taken against the hostile Indian. Declaration of war was not made. The villages were attacked usually before daybreak when everybody was still asleep. Neither old nor young was spared by the enemy, and often the Sacramento River was colored red by the blood of the innocent Indians, for these villages usually were situated at the banks of the rivers. During a campaign one section of the attackers fell upon the village by way of land. All the Indians of the attacked village naturally fled to find protection on the other bank of the river. But there they were awaited by the other half of the enemy and thus the unhappy people were shot and killed with rifles from both sides of the river. Seldom an Indian escaped such an attack, and those who were not murdered were captured. All children from six to fifteen years of age were usually taken by the greedy white people. The village was burned down and the few Indians who had escaped with their lives were left to their fate."{{sfn|Cordua|1933|p=24}}</blockquote>

[[Heinrich Lienhard]], a Swiss immigrant that served as Sutter's [[majordomo]], wrote of the treatment of the enslaved once captured:

<blockquote>"As the room had neither beds nor straw, the inmates were forced to sleep on the bare floor. When I opened the door for them in the morning, the odor that greeted me was overwhelming, for no sanitary arrangements had been provided. What these rooms were like after ten days or two weeks can be imagined, and the fact that nocturnal confinement was not agreeable to the Indians was obvious. Large numbers deserted during the daytime, or remained outside the fort when the gates were locked."<ref name="historynet.com"/></blockquote>

Lienhard also claimed that Sutter was known to rape his Indian captives, even girls as young as 12 years old. Despite the procurement of fertile agriculture, Sutter fed his Native American work force in pig troughs, where they would eat gruel with their hands in the sun on their knees. Numerous visitors to Sutter's Fort noted the shock of this sight in their diaries, alongside their discontent for his kidnapping of Indian children who were sold into bondage to repay Sutter's debts or given as gifts. American explorer and [[mountain man]] [[James Clyman]] reported in 1846 that:

<blockquote>"The Capt. [Sutter] keeps 600 to 800 Indians in a complete state of Slavery and as I had the mortification of seeing them dine I may give a short description. 10 or 15 Troughs 3 or 4 feet long were brought out of the cook room and seated in the Broiling sun. All the Labourers grate [sic] and small ran to the troughs like so many pigs and fed themselves with their hands as long as the troughs contained even a moisture."{{sfn|Clyman|1871|p=116}}</blockquote>

Dr. Waseurtz af Sandels, a Swedish explorer who visited California in 1842–1843, also wrote about Sutter's brutal treatment of Indian slaves in 1842:

<blockquote>"I could not reconcile my feelings to see these fellows being driven, as it were, around some narrow troughs of hollow tree trunks, out of which, crouched on their haunches, they fed more like beasts than human beings, using their hands in hurried manner to convey to their mouths the thin porage [sic] which was served to them. Soon they filed off to the fields after having, I fancy, half satisfied their physical wants."<ref name="historynet.com"/></blockquote>

These concerns were even shared by [[Juan Bautista Alvarado]], then Governor of Alta California, who deplored Sutter's ill-treatment of indigenous Californians in 1845:

<blockquote>"The public can see how inhuman were the operations of Sutter who had no scruples about depriving Indian mothers of their children. Sutter has sent these little Indian children as gifts to people who live far from the place of their birth, without demanding of them any promises that in their homes the Indians should be treated with kindness."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.davisvanguard.org/2017/01/the-lesser-known-history-of-john-a-sutter/|title=The Lesser Known History of John A. Sutter|date=January 25, 2017}}</ref></blockquote>

Despite his promises to the Mexican government, Sutter was hospitable to American settlers entering the region, and provided an impetus for many of them to settle there. The hundreds of thousands of acres which these men took from the Native Americans had been an important source of food and resources. As the White settlers were ranching two million head of livestock, shooting wild game in enormous numbers, and replacing wilderness with wheat fields, available food for Indians in the region diminished. In response, some Indians took to raiding the cattle of White ranchers. In August 1846, an article in ''[[The Californian (1840s newspaper)|The Californian]]'' declared that in respect to California Indians, "The only effectual means of stopping inroads upon the property of the country, will be to attack them in their villages."{{sfn|The Californian|1846|p=}} On February 28, 1847 Sutter ordered the [[Kern and Sutter massacres]] in retaliation.

Much of Sutter's labor practices were illegal under Mexican law. However, in April 22, 1850, following the annexation of California by the United States, the California state legislature passed the "Act for the Government and Protection of Indians," legalizing the kidnapping and forced servitude of Indians by White settlers.{{sfn|Statutes of California|1850|p=408-410}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Carranco|Beard|1981|p=40,109}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hurtado|1988|pp=129–131}}</ref> In 1851, the civilian governor of California declared, "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged ... until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected."{{sfn |Journals of the Legislature of the State of California|1851|p=15}} This expectation soon found its way into law. An 1851 legislative measure not only gave settlers the right to organize lynch mobs to kill Indians, but allowed them to submit their expenses to the government. By 1852, the state had authorized over a million dollars in such claims.{{sfn|Comptroller of the State of California|1851–1859|pp=16, 19}}

In 1856, a ''San Francisco Bulletin'' editorial stated, "Extermination is the quickest and cheapest remedy, and effectually prevents all other difficulties when an outbreak [of Indian violence] occurs."{{sfn|San Francisco Bulletin|1856}} In 1860, the legislature passed a law expanding the age and condition of Indians available for forced slavery. A ''Sacramento Daily Union'' article of the time accused high-pressure lobbyists interested in profiting off enslaved Indians of pushing the law through, gave examples of how wealthy individuals had abused the law to acquire Indian slaves from the reservations, and stated, "The Act authorizes as complete a system of slavery, without any of the checks and wholesome restraints of slavery, as ever was devised."{{sfn |Sacramento Union|1861}}

===='Red Star' and 'Bear Flag' revolts====

=====Lone star rebellion=====
{{Main|Juan Bautista Alvarado#Independence movement|Lone Star of California}}
[[File:Californian Lone Star Flag (1836).svg|thumb|Red-and-white version of the [[Lone Star of California]], as hoisted during the 1842 Alvarado rebellion.<p>Note: In early 1846, Sutter hoisted perhaps the above version if not another in red, white, and green. In published, period recollections, [[Bear Flag Rebellion|Bear Flag rebel]] J. William Russell wrote, "When I got to the fort the 'lone star' flag was flying. The colors was made up of the old Mexican flag."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Reminiscences of Old Times by 'Bear Flag' J. William Russell (''Napa County Reporter'', June 2, 1861)|journal=Historical Society Southern California Quarterly|volume=33|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KgoVAAAAYAAJ&q=%22joseph+owen+william+russell%22 5]|issue=March 1951}}</ref><ref>Russell, Joseph Owen William. Statement of Joseph Owen William Russell Concerning the Bear Flag Movement & Operations in Southern California, 1846-1847 Taken at Napa. United States, n.p, 1886.</ref><ref name="pashnit.com">{{cite web|last1=Mayhew|first1=Tim|title=Historic Northern California Sutters Fort|url=https://www.pashnit.com/ca-sutters-fort|website=Pashnit Motorcycle|access-date=2 September 2022}}</ref></p>]]

In 1844–1845, there was a revolt of the Mexican colony of California against the army of the mother country.<ref name="Salomon, Carlos Manuel pp. 73-5">Salomon, Carlos Manuel. ''Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California'', pp. 73–75, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-8061-4090-2}}.</ref><ref name="Engstrand pp. 59-61">Engstrand, Iris and Owens, Ken. ''John Sutter: Sutter's Fort and the California Gold Rush'', pp. 59–61, Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., New York, 2004. {{ISBN|0-8239-6630-5}}.</ref>

Two years earlier, in 1842, Mexico had removed California Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, and sent Brigadier General [[Manuel Micheltorena]] to replace him. It also sent an army.<ref>Salomon, Carlos Manuel. ''Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California'', pp. 70–71, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-8061-4090-2}}.</ref>

The army had been recruited from Mexico's worst jails, and the soldiers soon began stealing Californians' chickens and other property. Micheltorena's army was described as descending on California "like a plague of locusts, stripping the countryside bare." Californians complained that the army was committing robberies, beatings, and rapes.<ref name="Salomon, Carlos Manuel pp. 73-5"/><ref name="Engstrand pp. 59-61"/>

In late 1844, the Californios revolted against Micheltorena. He had appointed Sutter as ''commandante militar.'' Sutter, in turn, recruited men, one of whom was [[John Marsh (pioneer)|John Marsh]], a medical doctor and owner of the large [[Marsh Creek State Park (California)|Rancho los Meganos]]. Marsh, who sided with the Californios, wanted no part of this effort. However, Sutter gave Marsh a choice: either join the army or be arrested and put in jail.<ref>Lyman, George D. ''John Marsh, Pioneer: The Life Story of a Trail-blazer on Six Frontiers'', pp. 252–254, Chautauqua Press, Chautauqua, New York, 1931.</ref>

In 1845, Sutter's forces met the Californio forces at the [[Battle of Providencia]] (also known as the Second Battle of Cahuenga Pass). The battle consisted primarily of an artillery exchange, and during the battle Marsh secretly went over to parley with the other side. There was a large number of Americans fighting on both sides.  Marsh met with them and convinced the Americans on both sides that there was no reason for Americans to be fighting each other.<ref name="Lyman, George D. pp. 254-61">Lyman, George D. ''John Marsh, Pioneer: The Life Story of a Trail-blazer on Six Frontiers'', pp. 254–261, Chautauqua Press, Chautauqua, New York, 1931.</ref>

The Americans agreed and quit the fight, and as a result, Sutter’s forces lost the battle. The defeated Micheltorena took his army back to Mexico, and Californian [[Pio Pico]] became governor.<ref name="Lyman, George D. pp. 254-61"/><ref>Salomon, Carlos Manuel. ''Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California'', pp. 75–76, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-8061-4090-2}}.</ref><ref>Engstrand, Iris and Owens, Ken. ''John Sutter: Sutter's Fort and the California Gold Rush'', pp. 60–61, Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., New York, 2004. {{ISBN|0-8239-6630-5}}.</ref>

=====Mexico's loss in the Mexican{{endash}}American War=====
{{Main|Bear Flag Republic}}

During the [[Mexican-American War]], Mexico's control over [[Alta California]] weakened significantly. Sutter, who identified himself as a French citizen,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/sutdiary1.html | title=Diary of John A. Sutter 1838-1848 - Part I }}</ref> reportedly considered organizing muster British, Canadian, and American immigrants, along with Indigenous peoples, to declare New Helvetia an independent republic under French protection.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Claudine | last=Chalmers | title=The French in Early California | url=http://www.ancestry.myfamily.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=808 | journal=Ancestry Magazine | volume=16 | issue=2 | date=March–April 1998 | access-date=October 8, 2007 | archive-date=July 19, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719023120/http://www.ancestry.myfamily.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=808 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url = https://online.ucpress.edu/boom/article/1/4/45/106446/Their-Flag-Too|title = Their Flag, Too|author = Albert Hurtado|journal = Boom: A Journal of California| date=2011 | volume=1 |issue = Winter 2011|page = 48|publisher = [[University of California Press]]| doi=10.1525/boom.2011.1.4.45 |url-access = subscription}}</ref> Sutter wrote to US Counsel [[Jacob Leese]] in [[Yerba Buena, California|Yerba Buena]]: "Very curious reports come to me from  below but the poor wretches do not know what they do. The first French frigate that comes here will do me justice. The first step they do against me I will make a declaration of Independence and proclaim California a Republic independent of Mexico."<ref>{{cite book|title = Upper California|year = 1904|publisher = Whitaker & Ray Company|author = Bryan James Clinch|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=9UI1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA386 386]}}</ref>

On July 7, 1846, following the Bear Flag Revolt and the [[Battle of Monterey]], Commodore [[John B. Montgomery]] raised the American flag in Monterey. Four days later, on July 11, 1846, Sutter raised an American flag at his fort after receiving it from a messenger sent by Montgomery.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1910&context=uop_etds|pages = 44–46|publisher = University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations|year = 1931|title =The history of Sutter & of Sutter's Fort, 1839-1931|author = Herbert D. Gwinn}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title = Fremont: Explorer For A Restless Nation|author = Ferol Egan|publisher =University of Nevada Press|year = 2012|page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=nGyVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT749 749}}</ref> In August 1846, Sutter formally transferred control of the fort to the United States after receiving a commission as a lieutenant under US Army Captain [[John C. Frémont]].<ref>{{cite web|url = https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1910&context=uop_etds|pages = 44–46|publisher = University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations|year = 1931|title =The history of Sutter & of Sutter's Fort, 1839-1931|author = Herbert D. Gwinn}}</ref> In March 1847, command returned to Sutter.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}