11. News Article, The Treaty for Sale of Lands

The Table Rock Treaty was negotiated between the United States and several groups of Rogue River Indians in September 1853. Gold had been discovered just three years earlier, attracting thousands of miners and settlers to the region. This massive influx of newcomers resulted in some of the most violent conflicts in Oregon history, which were stemmed only temporarily by the 1853 treaty.

Some of the whites, dubbed “exterminators,” advocated the complete eradication of the Indians. In August 1853 the Yreka Herald suggested that whites wage “a war of extermination until the last red skin of these tribes has been killed.” Such sentiments were widespread in Oregon and northern California.