Henry David Thoreau/ Wotoki, Miwok Indian

Henry David Thoreau

             I live in Concord, Massachusetts, where I work as a writer. In order to support this war with Mexico, Massachusetts passes a poll tax. I won't pay it. Simple as that. The government wants to force proper into this unjust war to go kill Mexicans or be killed. I wont support that. For my "crime," they put me in jail for a night. My friend, the famous writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, came to visit me in jail. He said, "What are you doing in there?" I replied, "What are you doing out there?" Against my wishes, friends of mine paid tax and i was released. But i have come to believe that the way to stop injustice is not merely to speak out against it, but also to refuse to obey unjust laws.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/WALDEN/Essays/civil.html

             The Primary Source is one of Thoreau's famous essays called "Civil Disobedience" which he published in 1849. It is about how he wanted to resist the government due to the fact that he did not agree with slavery and also the Mexican- American War. He argues that the government is only on the lookout to seek help for themselves and not help the nation in whole. He also thinks that an individual should not follow the laws that are implemented by the government and should first do what they believe is correct in their eyes. Thoreau wrote the essay based on his experience in jail when he had refused to pay taxes to stand up to the government. He believed that if one were to petition or to have a march that it would do little to nothing to achieve a change in the government.

Wotoki, Miwok Indian, California

               I live in north California, in Sonoma. No matter who wins this war between Mexico and the United States, nothing changes the fact that this is Miwok land-our land- that they are fighting over. First, the Spaniards took over, then the Mexicans. Now the Americans are taking over. But they all mistreated the Miwok people. Our land is now owned by one of the richest men in California, the Mexican General Mariano Vallejo. They say he and his wife, Dona Francesca, are kind to visitors. but he is not kind to is Indian workers. I work on his land. Vallejo treats us almost like slaves. And the Americans here are no better. An American named Captain Sutter orders "his" Indians to eat out of four-feet- long troughs, as if Indians are pigs. Sutter whips them when they disobey. I have no idea what this war between Mexico and the United States is about. To me, it looks like Americans and Mexicans killing each other so that they can steal our land.

http://ionemiwok.org/?page_id=43

              The Primary Source is a time line about the Indians that also carries on to the modern living of the 20th and a few years of the 21st century. It discusses the hard ships that these Natives had to face during the time of the gold rush and also when smallpox started to spread among their tribe. It talks about how John Sutter has enslaved them in the missions during 1839 and started to raid the city of Ione. However, there was treaties that tricked the Native Americans to give up their land to the American men to due what every they please with it. The white men would start to push the Indians farther and father away from their home land that there ancestors had attain but it was hidden to the public in 1905.  The document is just the events that happened to this tribe through out the progression of the United States.