California Gold Rush (1848-1855) — Multi-Community Story with Indigenous Catastrophe Named

Sovereignty Promise + Truth-and-Resilience Promise. Briefly recap: 1848 February treaty + 1848 January gold discovery at Sutter's Mill. The Gold Rush is simultaneous with the Mexican Cession.

• Recite Promises
• Set chronology context: Gold discovered January 1848; treaty signed February 1848

Direct teach 7-community Gold Rush: (a) US settler 49ers — 250,000+ migrated to California 1848-1855; (b) Chinese workers — 25,000+ by 1852, many from Guangdong Province; (c) Mexican Californio rancheros — displaced by Anglo settler pressure and California Land Act 1851 forcing expensive land-grant litigation; (d) African American free people — including Mary Ellen Pleasant who arrived 1852 and became an abolitionist and entrepreneur; (e) Indigenous nations of California — SIMULTANEOUS CATASTROPHE — California Indigenous population estimated ~150,000 in 1848, declined to ~30,000 by 1870 through state-sanctioned violence (1850 'Act for the Government and Protection of Indians' enabled Indigenous indentured labor of children), displacement, disease; THIS MUST BE NAMED. The same year as the Gold Rush peak (1850) California state law enabled Indigenous indenture. (f) Women in mining camps — including Lotta Crabtree, but mostly unnamed working women; (g) Australian/Latin American/Pacific Islander miners. Foreign Miners' Tax 1850 specifically targeted Mexican and Chinese miners $20/month (a fortune at the time). Resilience: Allensworth CA founded 1908 by Colonel Allen Allensworth — first African American township in California — still a state historic park.

• Multi-community history holds multiple truths at once — celebration and catastrophe in the same place at the same time.

  model NO. The Gold Rush was SIMULTANEOUSLY a settler-migration opportunity AND a catastrophe for California Indigenous nations whose population declined approximately 80% in 22 years through state-sanctioned violence, displacement, and disease. The 'Act for the Government and Protection of Indians' (1850) enabled Indigenous indentured labor. Naming this honestly is part of the historical record.

  prompt Was the Gold Rush good for everyone?

• Name 4 of the 7 community perspectives on the Gold Rush.
• What happened to California Indigenous nations during the Gold Rush?
• What was the Foreign Miners' Tax?

Apply MG-7 to Foreign Miners' Tax 1850 excerpt: WHO? California state legislature; WHEN? 1850; WHY? to extract revenue from non-US miners; WHOSE voice silent? Mexican and Chinese miners targeted by the tax.

M-4-S-HIS-13-B Chart

Chart showing California Indigenous population estimates: 1848 ~150,000 → 1870 ~30,000 → 2020 ~720,000 (per Census). Present-day number HIGHER than 1848 reflects recovery AND inclusion of multi-nation continental Indigenous communities in California today. Critical resilience frame for closing.

• 7-community card sort with sentence frames per community.

  scaffold Sentence frame: 'For [community], the Gold Rush was ___'
• Add Indigenous-catastrophe and resilience cards: California Indigenous nations TODAY — Cahuilla, Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Pomo, Miwok, Ohlone, Yokuts, Chumash, Kumeyaay, Mojave, Quechan — sovereign nations TODAY (continuity with G4-Fall California-state work).

  scaffold Resilience-FIRST sentence frame.

• Name 3 of the 7 communities involved in the Gold Rush.
• What happened to California Indigenous nations during the Gold Rush?

• Compassion Circle briefly
• Preview tomorrow's transcontinental-railroad lesson

• No homework after trauma-informed framing. Optional: family discussion on California Indigenous-nation continuity.