Please help me with 1857 California Persona.

[Wahkahchim]

Hi all! I am trying to volunteer monthly at our local San Juan Bautista Historic State Park, which incorporates a Spanish Mission. I'm creating a persona based around my own real ancestors in order to keep the genuine traditions and skills I learned on the ranch alive.

My ancestor was 1/4 Chickasaw, and participated in the Trail of Tears in 1838 to Oklahoma just to keep up with his mother's family. After that he got a job scouting and foraging into Texas for the Mexican War in 1846-1847. Nothing really heroic, a few brushes with Comanches and Mexican scouts, in which nobody seems to have died. He accidentally shot himself through the calf dropping a "Colt's Revolver" on its hammer, so we can guess he loaded six, not five. After the war he kept going, all over the continent with his younger brother until they became miners/lumbermen in 1849 in California. He married a part Spanish, part Mutsun local woman and had kids in his 50's. He also married a ranch!

Just for CAS I'm going to try to buy a Henry this year and move him up to 1869 for the competitions. But the mission persona is in the 1850's. So he's 57 years old in 1857. He is tri-lingual: Spanish, English, and Chickasaw. He later becomes quadralingual because he learns Mutsun.

We know he had a flintlock musket, apparently an 1816. During the Civil War the pro-Unionists apparently issued percussion conversion 1816 muskets to local loyalist militias. he had one of them too, which is now in the hands of a relative. He had a percussion fullstock rifle in .54. We also know that he later had a Spencer, a Henry, several percussion "Colt's Revolvers, and later in life an 1873 Colt in .44-40 which we still have.

Apparently like some of us modern folks he never saw a gun he didn't like. He seems to have kept flintlocks much later than history would suggest their use, and family oral history says that everybody around here on California ranches had them as well. So while he bought a Spencer he apparently took the percussion gun out for a walk every once in awhile.

He was quite literate and followed the latest books: we still have some poetry volumns. Emerson, etc. We also have his glasses, etc. He insisted on proper diction and had periods when he was smooth shaven and times when he had a giant beard. But in 1857 he apparently was clean shaven.

So...please tell me about him. What did he wear? Did he prefer to ride a horse or a wagon, and did he use oxen getting here? I am thinking that since all his other guns were large caliber he probably used Dragoons. I plan on loading 5 only.

When he used a Dutch Oven, did he use the new round flat-topped version or the old tripod round kettle?

Any comments welcome. Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving.

[Professor Marvel]

Greetings My Good Wahkahchim

I suggest you search these forums for posts by our own WaddWatsonEllis who is portraying a pre 1860 Californio and is a
self-supplied docent at a Sacremento historical site.

Welcome and enjoy
yhs
prof marvel

[Tsalagidave]

Wahkachim, welcome to the site. I do an 1850s Los Angeles impression and I am also a card carrying tribal member whose family suffered under that double-crossing SOB Andrew Jackson. I'd be glad to help you out as well. (there aren't many of out there and we need to stick together). There are tons of period references For your impression. Let me know and I'll send you the shopping list.

-Dave

[Wahkahchim]

Hi Dave...Your help is most appreciated. There is a vacuum about what history says about the Native Americans who were forced to Oklahoma, changed into pioneer clothes and kept on heading west! My ancestors seem to have been utterly literate, very eclectic about technology, and very covert about their Native American affiliations. I've also noticed that the Army brought a bunch of scouts into the west, Delawares, Seminoles, and Apsaroaka among others, and these scattered into the larger migration as well. Any comments and advice welcome.

[Oregon Bill]

Wahk: Wow, you have some rich family history to work from. Can't help you much, but boy it will be fun to watch you build your persona.
My great grandmother was born in Santa Clara in 1859, and while she was a young girl, her father moved the whole family to north central Texas -- the opposite direction most folks went. His descendants still can't figure out this move!
My GGM died when I was 6, just 8 days before she would have turned 100. I was always told I could ask her about horse and buggy days, but never to ask her about Indians.

[Caleb Hobbs]

I like the way you're heading, Wahkahchim. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. Keep us posted as you move forward.

[Tsalagidave]

Wahkahchim, sorry it took so long. The tragedy of the Indian Removal Act was that by that time, the Eastern tribes didn't resemble the "savage" stereotype at all. They were cultural in their style but were well-educated, wore modern clothing, adopted European building patterns and trades and were mostly Christian. The Indian Removal Act was hotly challenged by John Q Adams, Henry Clay, John Clayton, Daniel Webster and unanimously by the new National Republicans. They were able to get the Act successfully ruled unconstitutional but the Jackson administration ignored the ruling and did it anyway.

There were many of the "Five Civilized Tribes" along with other Eastern bands that came over along with fellow Anglo emigrants. The Sutters Fort Gift shop has a costume guide that is fantastic and I highly recommend it. I do some traditional Cherokee things in my persona but they are very subtle such as occasionally speaking the language, wearing a red turban around camp, occasional use of mocassins and my hunting frock when I am in the brush.

Here in a nutshell is what I recommend for your following questions.
Try to learn a functional amount about hitching and driving a wagon. The average frontier person would know how to do it. Being a footman on the trail is period and economical for your impression (especially when tracking over steep, broken terrain that you shouldn't have a horse on.) but when covering long distances, its best to be mounted...when/if you are able to maintain the logistics of keeping a horse. I live in the city so I rely on the ranch livestock of my friends. Again, frontiersmen were known for their riding ability so I recommend racking up some saddle time wherever you can get it.

Trail campaigning is best but I love homestead camping too. I recommend separating the two into separate categories.  Save the dutch ovens and heavy cook gear to large camp events and immerse yourself in period camping. When on the trail, be as light as you can and live off simple trail recipes such as sagamite, pemmican, basic soups/stews, slab bacon, crackers, corn pones, dessicated vegetables, Cherokee bean bread, raw coffee and sassafrass tea. There is a great sense of pride one can take doing either a trail or homestead impression.

In regards to the pistols, the dragoon is heavy to hunt with and best suited for things that tend to be larger and meaner than the average person. Many frontiersmen preferred them. I carry a navy six which is the period equivalent to a 9mm but I would definitely like to add a Dragoon to my kit. I used to have one and I loved shooting it.

-Dave

[boilerplatejackson]

Good information Dave. I still need to locate the label you used for your petrolium jelly tin. Those of us of mixed blood, we are very
much at home with history in the west. There is plenty of history to portray west of (now )US Highway 69. The Cherokee people
were on the move westward not long after the end of the War of 1812. Not in large numbers, but significantly enough for the
US Government to establish Fort Smith Arkansas to protect the Cherokee settlers in that region from a quarlsom splinter group
of Osage. Just here in Kansas one can gather a wealth of information from the online archives at www.kshs.org of relocated
nations as well as mixed bloods of the 1840-1870 period.

There were many full and mixed blood Cherokee living in southern Missouri and southern Kansas during that era. From one
issue of the KSHS quarterly I learned that Stand Waite (Treaty Signer) lived only 12 miles south of the Kansas border in
Oklahoma. It was in this region that he had his allies. John Ross lived in Taliquah.

As to Andrew Jackson I believe we are over villifying that man and his Indian removal policies. In other words he is a favorite
scapegoat for the real trouble makers whom were threatning disunion over the US supreme court decision for the Cherokee people.
Jacksons statement about the US Supreme court was complex in meaning. So Jackson did nothing and allowed his term as
president to expire in 1837. The round up of Cherokee people took place in 1838 and the Winter overland expulsion of
Cherokee took place under New York Democrat Martin Van Burin. Was President Van Burin not obligated to enforce the same
US Supreme Court decision?  He was but did not. He could have stopped the process, but took sides with southern Democrats
in Georgia and the Carolinas. The US Supreme court case was between the state of Georgia and the Cherokee nation.
A good film to watch is the Rich heap film production of the Trail of Tears. In this film actor Wes Studi blames Andrew Jackson
for everything? No mention of President Van Buren or old Vice President John Cahoun.

[Tsalagidave]

Thanks Boilerplate,

That was a good film.  They really simplified down the case but understandably took our viewer attention spans into consideration. I know that there was a large southern faction also pushing the issue but part of my first person is that I am a Ross man and have little love for the Ridge Party or for Jackson. I just couldn't resist adding the first person opinion since the discussion was out on the table.

By the way, here is a link for that Petrolatum Tin. http://www.ushist.com/19th-century_soaps_powders_f.shtml

I made a lot of my stuff but the tin was purchased. I mix the petrolatum with the pennyroyal and it makes a fantastic bug repellent. Since deet is basically insecticide, the verdict is still out on the long term effects. A little mixture of the pennyroyal on the hands face and neck seems to keep the bugs away.

-Dave

[BlackHillsScout]

This is a great thread and really helpful in creating my own persona based on some of my own family history, on my paternal grandmother's side they were Cherokee and were on the trail and settled in Searcy county Arkansas on the Buffalo river. The story goes that they traded being on tribal roles for land, I haven't researched this for accuracy.