Little White Father
Redick McKee on the California Frontier

by Ray Raphael

If U.S. Indian Agent Redick McKee had succeeded in his 1850s efforts, the bloodshed against Native Americans would have stopped and natives and immigrants might have lived in peace, leading to a more equitable multicultural society.

This fascinating book tells how McKee won the respect of native leaders and negotiated the treaties, then explores what went wrong.

224 pages, 6"x 9", 5 historical maps and 8 illustrations. Published by Humboldt County Historical Society.
ISBN 0-883254-00-0. trade paper

Price: 15.95

order

From the back cover:

IN AUGUST OF 1851, a United States Indian Agent named Redick McKee embarked from Sonoma on a five hundred mile journey through Northwest California. As a messenger from the "Great Father" in Washington, McKee gathered the native inhabitants in council and negotiated a series of treaties which he hoped would allow them to live in peace. McKee's treaties would have "forever guaranteed" to the Indians many of the best sites in the region: Clear Lake, the lower Eel River Valley, Scott Valley, and the Klamath-Trinity region.

What happened to McKee and his treaties? And what happened to the Native Americans whom he hoped to save?

Little White Father is the true story of one man's attempt to stop the bloodshed on the California frontier. Basing his study on journals and other documentary evidence, Ray Raphael paints a vivid picture of this early contact between two distinct cultures.

About the Author: Ray Raphael has written seven other books, including Tree Talk, Cash Crop, Edges, and, most recently, Comic Cops, co-authored with his son Neil. His Everyday History of Somewhere won the Commonwealth Club award for the best book of the year about California. Raphael teaches American history, California history, Native American studies, and other subjects at College of the Redwoods and the Whale Gulch High School.

Books and Maps on Related Topics:

Trails and Tales of Yosemite and the Central Sierra--A Guide for Hikers and History Buffs by Sharon Giacomazzi

Searching for Joaquin--Myth, Murieta and History in California by Bruce Thornton

1500 California Place Names by William Bright

Sallie Fox: The Story of a Pioneer Girl by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, Illustrations by Diane Wilde

The Balloon Boy of San Francisco by Dorothy Kupcha Leland

My Checkered Life: Luzena Stanley Wilson in Early California by Fern Henry

Patty Reed’s Doll: The Story of the Donner Party by Rachel Laurgaard, Illustrations by Elizabeth Sykes Michaels

Bury My Bones in America—The Saga of a Chinese Family by Lani Ah Tye Farkas

California: Its Gold and Its Inhabitants by Sir Henry Huntley


California Trip by by Richard P. Blair & Kathleen P. Goodwin

Bluewater Gold Rush; The Odyssey of a California Sea Urchin Diver by Tom Kendrick

The Mendocino Coast Glove Box Guide, 3rd Edition--Lodgings, Eateries, Sights, History, Activities and More by Bob Lorentzen

Shakespeare Playing Cards by Prospero Art

Past Tents; The Way We Camped by Susan Snyder

Pomegranate Roads; A Soviet Botanist's Exile from Eden by Gregory M. Levin, translated by Margaret Hopstein

Hometown Pasadena by by Colleen Dunn Bates, Jill Alison Ganon, Sandy Gillis, Mary Jane Horton & Melody Malmberg

The Painter Lady; Searles R. Boynton by Searles R. Boynton


The Hiker's hip pocket Guide to Sonoma County, 3rd edition by Bob Lorentzen

2009 Northern California Tide Charts by Hawaiian Resources Company

Del Norte Coast, Coastal California Series by Bluewater Maps

Humboldt Coast, Coastal California Series by Bluewater Maps

The Hiker's hip pocket Guide to the Mendocino Coast—Third Edition by Bob Lorentzen


Aurelius O. Carpenter; Photographer of the Mendocino Frontier by Marvin A. Schenck, Karen Holmes, and Sherrie Smith-Ferri