panel 10 “administration”

I chose the word administration over justice because justice is the goal, and is often imperfectly achieved. It certainly was not achieved during the era when the gorgeous courthouse was built in 1872.

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Mexican land grant

On the left is the land grant bestowing the Ukiah Valley upon Cayetano Juarez, who had been a soldier at the Presidio in San Francisco, by the government of Mexico, in payment for services in 1845. The name “Ukiah” comes from Spanish interpretation of a Native term for “deep valley” or “southern valley” hence Rancho Yokaya, which extends from southern Ukiah up into Redwood Valley. 

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Statehood

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo marked the end of the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848) and brought California into the United States. I painted the state constitution from the original document which was produced in English and Spanish, because that was what everyone in the region was already speaking.

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Almost immediately, European-American settlers come to California in great numbers following the 1849 Gold Rush.

The beautiful courthouse was built when Ukiah’s population numbered only in the hundreds. It was a demonstration of pride in one’s community, pride in self-governance, and a statement of the grandeur of the institutions it housed.

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But there’s a dark side to much of America’s early history including ours. The widely held concept of “Manifest Destiny” was that Western Civilization – that of Europe going back to Classical Antiquity – was superior to Native American (or any indigenous) culture and was “destined” to take over all of the United States. Notice in the painting above:

• The woman is bringing boats, bridges, trains and is stringing telegraph wire, all indicating progress.
• She and the settlers are bringing light and pushing Native people, animals, and herds of bison into darkness and oblivion.

Slavery

California entered the Union as a free (anti-slavery) state in 1850. The state constitution provides that every white male citizen of the US and of Mexico who desired to become citizens shall be granted the right to vote. It also set up a common system of schools that shall be open a minimum of three months per year.

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Despite being a free state fighting against slavery in the Civil War, some of the first actions of the California state legislature were to legalize virtual enslavement of Native people and to codify their comprehensive lack of human rights.

For example, as written in the blood-stained documents:

• “No testimony shall be admitted in a court of law from Indians or Negroes against any white person.”
• The Chinese were added four years later.
• In addition “Any white person may arrest an Indian for loitering.”
• Citizenship was denied.
• Unemployed Indians were to be jailed. Any white person could pay their fine and take them into indentured unpaid labor. Employers determined the length of servitude.

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However, these treaties were all rejected by the US congress, led by the California Senators in a closed door session.

This was another betrayal after the Indians had relinquished their land, now having neither home nor security.

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The bright part of this dismal story is that of survival, of the people and their culture not being lost. This is the meaning of the hawk rising from a funeral fire in the truth panel.

Also, governments – through legislation AND administration – can right wrongs, or at least acknowledge them:

After wetting the men’s gunpowder, they murdered both and fled. But not to Clear Lake.

Kelsey got a town named after himself.

It’s a small achievement, but hard fought, and advances the cause of greater truth in governance and administration.

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