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Article from "THE HUMBOLDT TIMES," EUREKA, CALIFORNIA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1940
LAST SURVIVOR OF PIONEER DAYS MASSACRE SUCCUMBS
Fortuna, Jan. 19th, 1940 Mrs. Catherine Prince, last survivor of the Bear River Indian tribe, passed away Friday morning at her home on the Rohnerville Indian Reservation. Mrs. Prince's real age is not known but friends state that she was more than 100 years old. For the past thirty years she had lived on the Rohnerville reservation.
County history holds the thrilling tale of an Indian massacre on the Van Duzen just above where Alton is now...
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Article from "THE HUMBOLDT TIMES," EUREKA, CALIFORNIA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1940
LAST SURVIVOR OF PIONEER DAYS MASSACRE SUCCUMBS
Fortuna, Jan. 19th, 1940 Mrs. Catherine Prince, last survivor of the Bear River Indian tribe, passed away Friday morning at her home on the Rohnerville Indian Reservation. Mrs. Prince's real age is not known but friends state that she was more than 100 years old. For the past thirty years she had lived on the Rohnerville reservation.
County history holds the thrilling tale of an Indian massacre on the Van Duzen just above where Alton is now located. About 1850 a white child was kidnapped and the whites were so angered they retaliated you attacking the Indians. Many, both Indians and whites, were killed in the bloody battle. Other Indians fled, leaving only Catherine Prince who was taken to Ferndale later and raised by the Francis family.
The Indians of the Bear tribe were noted for their friendliness to the white man but other Indians in this section were the cause of constant friction between the whites and the redman for several years. Mrs. Prince was beloved by her people and those who knew her for her kindly life.
Surviving are two sons, Dan Prince of Loleta and Theodore Prince of Rohnerville: one daughter, Mrs. Edith Anderson of Eureka and several grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral service will be at 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon at the Fortuna Mortuary. Rev. William S. Linn, Methodist pastor, will conduct the service. Burial will be in the Table Bluff cemetery. (end of article)
Kitty was Bear River Indian, born in a village north of the mouth of the Bear River, just over the ridge from Ferndale. She married James "Jim" Napoleon Prince, and had four children, Theodore, Dan, May, and Edith.
The "thrilling story" of a battle, as told above, I doubt has little to do with reality. In fact, many of the new settlers only saw the Native people of the region as something to be exterminated, and there were many massacres that took place during those days, with the rather famous one that took place in Feb. 1860 being only one of many. I think it was extremely unlikely that there had been any "kidnapping of a white child by Indians." In those days, there did not need to be any provocation by the Native people, to bring about the attacks of the local militias.
Kitty was known to be a medicine woman. She was loved by her many descendants, and contributed to many researchers' knowledge of the Bear River culture and language. I've given a date of birth that I obtained from her Bureau of Indian Affairs records, but I doubt that anyone knew exactly what it was. However, the massacre that took the majority of her family was supposed to have happened about the age of 12, so it appears to be close to her correct age.
She lived many years at the old Rohnerville Rancheria, with her son Theodore "Bull" Prince. My mother spent many of her childhood summers living with her, and sang at her funeral. |
