Editing Porterville, California (section)

==The Tule River Indian War of 1856==
{{Main|Tule River War}}

The Native Americans living in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains were relatively undisturbed by early Spanish colonization. During the late 1840s and into the 1850s, once gold was discovered in California, miners began encroaching on traditional lands. Although a treaty was signed with the local tribes in 1851, defining a proposed reservation and 200 head of cattle per year, the US Senate failed to ratify it, with every member either abstaining or voting no.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tuleriver.teknet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/unratified-treaties-1851.pdf |title=The Un-ratified treaties of 1851 |last=Frank |first=Gelya |publisher=Tule River Tribe |access-date=October 7, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012030924/http://tuleriver.teknet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/unratified-treaties-1851.pdf |archive-date=October 12, 2014  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/32-1/s128 |title=ON ADOPTION OF THE RESOLUTION TO ADVISE AND CONSENT TO THE RATIFICATION OF EACH OF THE 18 TREATIES WITH THE INDIAN TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA. (P409 417) |website=govtrack.us |access-date=October 7, 2014}}</ref>

In the spring of 1856, a rumor that 500 cattle had been stolen by Native Americans began to circulate. Upon further investigation, it turned out that a single yearling calf had been taken as a bridal gift.<ref name="HistTulare">{{cite book |last1=Menefee |first1=Eugene L |last2=Dodge |first2=Fred A |date=1913 |title=History of Tulare and Kings Counties California |url=https://archive.org/details/historyoftularek00mene |access-date=October 7, 2014 }}</ref> Mobs of armed settlers were organized to counter the perceived menace, despite the peaceful intentions of the Native Americans. These mobs began raiding Native camps and killing their inhabitants.

One mob, under the leadership of Capt. Foster DeMasters, failed to dislodge a numerically superior Native encampment while wearing ineffective makeshift body armor consisting of cotton-padded jackets.<ref name="HistTulare" /><ref name="TRWar">{{cite journal |last=Gorenfeld |first=William |date=June 1999 |title=The Tule River War |url=http://www.historynet.com/the-tule-river-war.htm |journal=Wild West |access-date=October 7, 2014 }}</ref> Reinforcements were sent in from Keyesville and the resulting force, now under the leadership of Sheriff W.G. Poindexter, were similarly repulsed. After falling back, the mob then proceeded to wage a scorched-earth campaign by destroying Native American supply caches.<ref name="HistTulare" />

News of these engagements spread throughout California, exaggerating the degree of menace and misrepresenting its causes.<ref name="TRWar" /> Finally, in May 1856 army troops under the command of LaRhett Livingston assaulted the encampment and succeeded in driving off its defenders. The war's duration was approximately six weeks.

In retrospect, George Stewart wrote, "Thus ended the Tule River war of 1856; a war that might have been prevented had there been an honest desire on the part of the white settlers to do so, and one that brought little glory to those who participated therein. The responsibility cannot now be fixed where it properly belongs. Possibly the Indians were to blame. Certainly, the whites were not blameless, and it is too seldom, indeed, that they have been in the many struggles with the aboriginal inhabitants of this continent."<ref name="HistTulare" />

Historian Annie Mitchell later wrote in the Tulare County Historical Society bulletin (Los Tulares No. 68, March 1966): "Over the years it has been assumed that the Tule River War was a spontaneous, comic opera affair. It was not and if the Indians had been armed with guns instead of bows and a few pistols they would have run the white men out of the valley."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tuleriver.teknet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/tule-river-indian-war-1856.pdf |title=The Tule River Indian War of 1856 |last=Frank |first=Gelya |publisher=Tule River Tribe |access-date=October 7, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011234557/http://tuleriver.teknet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/tule-river-indian-war-1856.pdf |archive-date=October 11, 2014  }}</ref>