Historic California Posts, Camps,
Stations and Airfields
Fort Vose
(Fort Nome Lackee,
Camp Nome Lackee)
Fort Vose
by Robert B. Roberts
This post was established on January 4,
1855, on the Nome Lackee Indian Reservation formed in September
1854 on Thomes Creek about 20 miles west of Tehama. Originally
situated in Colusa County, the reservation was relocated in Tehama
County in 1856 when the county lines were redrawn.
Elements of the 3rd Artillery Regiment
were stationed at Nome Lackee until April 21, 1858, to provide
local protection. In 1948 remains of the adobe built fortification
were still in evidence. The structure, approximately 100 feet
square with walls about 10 feet high, was built primarily for
the protection of reservation agency personnel. The reservation
was the forerunner of the Round Valley Reservation; it was gradually
displaced by the latter and was completely abandoned in 1861.
The post was apparently renamed Fort Vose, possibly for Lieutenant
William Vose, an artilleryman, who years later was attached to
the 2nd Artillery Regiment
Extracted
from Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer,
and Trading Posts of the United States
Nome Lackee
Military Post
National Park Service
What remains of the Nome Lackee Indian
Military Post is in the rolling foothills of the Coast Range,
in the southeast section of Tehama County near Flournoy, California.
A survey completed in 1858 indicated that the Nome Lackee Post
once encompassed approximately 23,000 acres. A commemorative
bronze plaque set in stone reads:
Indian Military Post
1854-1866
Nomi Lakee Indian Reservation
The foundations of the old military headquarters
building and several other buildings also stand on the site.
At one time, the Nome Lackee Post was said to have been surrounded
by a 10-foot-high, 2-1/2-foot-thick adobe wall used for protection.
Within the wall, there were two buildings for government employees,
a dining hall and kitchen, a granary, and a warehouse. Outside
the wall there were an adobe building for the Indian Agent, a
building for an officer and his family, and other buildings including
a blacksmith shop, general workshop, doctor's office, grist mill,
large barn, and stable. The post had 600 fruit trees and 1,000
acres of grain under cultivation, including 300 acres of rye
and barley, with the total acreage estimated to yield 25,000
bushels. There were also five wells on the land, and domestic
animals such as cows, fowl, hogs, horses, mules, and oxen.
The U.S. Government established the Nome
Lackee Military Post in 1854, two years after it set up the Tejon
Military Post in Southern California. Nome Lackee existed for
seven years, and was the direct result of the Indian Appropriation
Act of March 3, 1852, which authorized the President
. . . to make five military reservations
from the public domain in the state of California, or the territories
of Utah and New Mexico, bordering on said state, for Indian purposes.
Provided that such reservations shall not contain more than twenty-five
thousand acres in each . . . that said reservations shall not
be made upon any lands inhabited by citizens of California, and
the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated
. . . to defray the expense of subsidizing the Indians in California
and removing them to said reservations for protection. . . .
(U.S. Congress, Indian Appropriation Act, 31st Congress, 1st
Sess., 1852, Vol. 8, Doc. 59:8)
In 1854, Superintendent of Indian Affairs
Thomas J. Henley directed the reserve to be located in Northern
California, in what is now Tehama County. Henley, with the assistance
of H. L. Ford and others, looked for land that would be appropriate
for a military post. They eventually found several valleys suited
for the purpose, and made contact with the Indians residing in
the area, the "Nome Lacka." The Indians agreed to gather
together their remaining 300 people and settle on the reservation.
From then on, the post was called the Nome Lackee Indian Reservation.
The California public reacted favorably
to Indian removal in the 1800s because miners and settlers wanted
access to Indian lands. However, the Indians' reaction to removal
to the reservations was quite different. One person described
how one group of Indians felt upon seeing the reservation land
for the first time:
. . . the poor Indians began to show
some signs that they had a regret in leaving the place of their
birth. The women in the wagons set up that peculiar plaintive
cry used by them at their funerals, while the men walked behind
the wagons in mournful silence. (San Francisco Evening Bulletin,
Sept. 22, 1857, p. 1, col. 2)
Observations of Nome Lackee life in October
1854 indicate that approximately 200 Indians lived on the post
with little food or clothing, even though these were to have
been provided by the U.S. Government. Conditions changed, however,
and by August 1855, it was said that about 1,000 well-fed and
clothed Indians were living at Nome Lackee. Records show between
1,500 and 2,000 Indians present by April 1856, with about 1,000
acres of wheat under cultivation. In addition, there were numerous
houses and a flour mill.
In 1856, the Nome Cult Farm, an extension
to the Nome Lackee Reservation, was established in Mendocino
County. It was at this time that a special agent recommended
that the Nome Lackee reservation be abandoned, and that the Nome
Cult Farm be made into a reservation. However, no one acted on
this recommendation. In 1857, General John E. Wool withdrew all
of the soldiers stationed at Nome Lackee on the excuse that the
land had not been surveyed. In the absence of the military, the
Marysville Herald reported that the Indians were regarded
as a threat to employees and agents. (Marysville Herald,
Jan. 8, 1857, p. 2, col. 1) In spite of the threat, the state
continued to send Indians to Nome Lackee, although a group of
Yuba Indians were sent to the Nome Cult Farm during this time.
In September 1857, reports indicated that the reservation was
prosperous and growing. There were between 2,500 and 3,000 Indians
living at Nome Lackee, and they harvested between 10,000 and
12,000 bushels of wheat. (San Francisco Evening Bulletin,
Sept. 11, 1857. p. 1, col. 2)
In 1858, Henley asked the State Senate
and Assembly to send a joint committee to one reservation to
report on its management, the condition of the Indians, and the
likelihood of the reservation being able to fulfill its humane
purposes. He suggested Nome Lackee as a representative reservation.
Correspondents of the Alta California accused Henley of fraud
in 1858, and he left his position as Superintendent of Indian
Affairs in 1859, the year that the U.S. Government began investigations
of the entire reservation system.
Washington sent J. Ross Browne and G.
Bailey to California to investigate charges of fraud, corruption,
and dishonesty. (Goodman, 1966:148) Focusing on Henley and some
of the agents he employed, Browne found evidence of fraud, maltreatment,
and dishonesty on all reservations. He charged Vincent E. Geiger,
then the Indian Agent at Nome Lackee, "with selling equipment
that belonged to the Reservation and of being involved with illegal
transfers of the Reservation land to private parties." (Goodman,
1966:158) The land transfers occurred after the reservation was
improperly surveyed. A large portion of the reservation was omitted
from the survey and subsequently acquired by Geiger. Geiger was
also charged with indenturing Indians. Although the California
Indenture Act of 1855 made this procedure legal, Browne found
the practice deplorable, as did much of the public. The Sacramento
Union published a list of Indians indentured to Geiger and his
associate, F. Titus, under the title, "Indian Indenture:
A Nice System of Slavery." Geiger also felt that the lands
of Nome Lackee "should be thrown open to the occupancy of
our citizens." (Hislop, 1978:49-50)
The Secretary of the Interior called for
the abandonment of Nome Lackee in 1859, based on seven facts,
including statements that the Indians were peaceful, that Geiger's
personal conduct was objectionable, and that mismanagement of
the reservation was evident. Although Geiger told people that
Nome Lackee was prospering, outside reports indicate that it
and the Indians were faring poorly.
On February 27, 1861, the Knights of the
Golden Circle, a secret secessionist society from the south that
had frequented the reservation with the knowledge of Geiger,
attacked Nome Lackee. (Hislop, 1978:57) The reservation was soon
in ruins, and most of the Indians were moved to the Nome Cult
Farm, which had been made into a reservation called Round Valley.
Geiger himself was removed from office. In 1863, he fatally stabbed
Captain A. S. Wells, and was reported to have escaped to Victoria,
British Columbia.
Under the authority of the Appropriation
Act of 1863, the U.S. Government began to sell Nome Lackee land
in 1870, but Indians continued to live on the land. There is
no evidence, however, to indicate that they benefitted from what
remained of the reservation.
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