Editing Jedediah Smith (section)

===Views of Native Americans===
While traveling throughout the American West, Smith's policy with the Native Americans was to maintain friendly relations<ref name=Molter /> with gifts and exchanges, learning from their cultures.<ref name="utley"/>  As he traveled through northern California for the first time, then part of Mexican territory Alta California, he tried to maintain that policy, but the situation quickly deteriorated.  The Maidu were fearful and defensive, and Smith's men killed at least seven of them upon his orders when they refused peaceful advances and demonstrated aggressive behaviors.{{sfn|Barbour|2011|pages=141, 144–45}}  He later wrote that they were "the lowest intermediate link between man and the Brute creation".{{sfn|Barbour|2011|p=261}}
Later, during his trek across the Great Basin, he said of the desert indigenes he came upon "children of nature...unintelligent type of beings...They form a connecting link between the animal and intellectual creation..."{{efn|The Maidus and the Great Basin Indians came to be known by the somewhat derogatory term "Diggers".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Digger_Indians |title=Digger Indians &#124; Learn |publisher=FamilySearch.org |date=August 7, 2015 |access-date=December 24, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/three/diggers.htm |title=The West – Diggers |publisher=PBS |access-date=December 24, 2015}}</ref>  Having never developed horse cultures and living in harsh environments, they compared poorly to the [[Plains Indians]] when observed by early explorers and settlers. Smith's assessment of the Great Basin indigenes is harsh, considering they probably saved his life more than once as he crossed the desert.}} Upon returning to Mexican California, even after suffering the Mojave massacre, he continued to try to maintain good relations, punishing two of his men, albeit lightly, who had unnecessarily killed one native and wounded another.{{sfn|Barbour|2011|p=196}} But as the party continued north, the natives continued the aggressive actions, and Smith's men wounded at least two more and three were killed.{{sfn|Barbour|2011|page=205–06}} By the time the party reached the Umpqua River in the British-American shared Oregon Country, their tolerance was at an ebb, leading to the ax incident and resulting in disastrous consequences.{{sfn|Barbour|2011|p=264}}