Smith River Reservation was an Indian reservation on the Smith River, set aside April 9, 1862 by the Department of Indian Affairs to replace the Klamath River Reservation that had been destroyed by the Great Flood of 1862 and as a reservation for the

Tolowa people The Tolowa people or Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’ are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethno-linguistic group. Two rancherias (Smith River and Elk Valley) still reside in their traditional territory in northwestern California. Tho ...

. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Office of Indian Affairs
Camp Lincoln was built nearby to replace

Fort Ter-Waw Fort Ter-Waw is a former US Army fort that was located six miles from the mouth of the Klamath River in the former Klamath River Reservation and in the present town of Klamath Glen, California. It was a United States military post that was creat ...

, which also had been severely damaged in the flood. Camp Lincoln was built to protect the American citizens in the vicinity of Crescent City from the native people. However, it was moved on September 11, 1862, by Major

James F. Curtis James Freeman Curtis II (December 19, 1825 – March 1, 1914), participant in the 1849 California Gold Rush, Chief of Police of San Francisco, officer in the California state militia and volunteer in the American Civil War. Biography James Fr ...

to a location six miles north of the city in a clearing in a forest of redwoods near the reservation. This was done to protect the reservation Indians from the citizens. In September, 1862, over 800 of the native people captured in the Bald Hills War were sent to the Reservation. The garrison was given the additional task of preventing them from escaping and returning to the Bald Hills and Eel River country. However, they were not very successful in that task; hundreds of these native people escaped that Fall. Historic California Posts: Camp Lincoln (Long's Camp, Fort Long, Lincoln's Fort, Fort Lincoln)
/ref> The Smith River Reservation was discontinued by act of Congress on July 28, 1868.

References

1862 establishments in California Former Native American populated places in California Former settlements in Del Norte County, California American Indian reservations in California Smith River Reservation Former American Indian reservations {{NorthAm-native-stub

See also

References