12/16/2022
Some History of the area we cruise:
“Everything was water except a very small piece of ground…”
(Beginning of a Yokut’s creation story)
Rough and Ready Island is in the traditional territory of the Yokuts people and may also have been used or settled by Plains Miwok and Wintun peoples. Yokuts communities were organized into more than 40 Tribes who were united by a common language. They lived throughout the San Joaquin Valley from the river’s mouth to Tehachapi Pass and in the surrounding foothills, and relied on the region’s rich fishing and hunting resources. Tribes met the challenge of a constantly shifting Delta environment by developing deep expertise in navigation and canoe-making, basketry, fishing, storytelling, and healing. Tribes also faced tragedy after Euroamerican contact, including bounties on killing Native Americans. Nonetheless, Yokuts communities have endured and continue to practice their traditional culture.
Sources:
Indian Myths of South Central California, by A.L. Kroeber, 1907 (University of California Berkeley Press.).
California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity, edited by T.L. Jones and K.A. Klar, 2007. (Alta Mira Press).
Handbook of the Indians of California, by A.L. Kroeber, 1925 (Dover Publications).
Short History of California Indians by Raymond Jeff, 2021
“The river San Joaquin being narrow and crooked…”
(1870s visitor to Stockton)
Drawn by the Delta’s plenty, the Spanish established missions and pueblos in the late 1500s. French-speaking trappers from the Hudson’s Bay Company also settled in the area that would become Stockton in the early 1800s, founding what is still known as French Camp. The new Mexican government took control of California in 1822 and began to distribute lands to private owners. The Delta at the time was wild and lawless, and “border ruffians escaping from San Francisco to the mining camps made murder, robbery, and banditry a common occurrence.”
Sources:
“The Rise of Stockton” by R.C. Wood, in the San Joaquin Historian, March 1973
“History: A Look into Stockton’s Past” by the City of Stockton, 2016