Their four years' residence on the reservations, however, had
been more of a school in the vices of the whites than one of a
higher education. They became demoralized socially, addicted to
many bad habits, and left the reservations in worse condition
than when they were taken there. Their old tribal relations and
customs were nearly broken up, though they still had their head
men to whom they looked for counsel in all important matters.
As the country became more settled, much of their main food
supply, the acorns, was consumed by the domestic animals of the
ranchers, and their mode of living became more precarious and
transitory, and many of them were, at times, in a condition near
to starvation. In these straitened and desperate circumstances,
many of their young women were used as commercial property, and
peddled out to the mining camps and gambling saloons for money to
buy food, clothing or whisky, this latter article being obtained
through the aid of some white person, in violation of law.
Their miserable, squalid condition of living opened the way for
diseases of a malignant character, which their medicine men could
not cure, and their numbers were rapidly reduced by death.
At the present time there are not in existence a half-dozen of
the old Yosemites who were living, even as children, when the
Valley was first discovered in 1851; and many of the other tribes
have been correspondingly reduced.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Boysen._
YOSEMITE MOTHER AND PAPOOSE.
The baby basket is carried on the back, like all burdens, and
supported by a band across the forehead.]
Chapter Three.