Taking Stock of Indian Ranching
California History: Indians and Ranching

The Spanish Period: 1770-1822

Missions had to register their brands.
The Mission of San Juan Capistrano brand.

     Cattle first entered California in the spring of 1770, grazing in the foothills and valleys of the mountains. The cattle were for the San Diego de Alcalá Mission in Alta, California, and were brought into California by Captain Don Fernando de Rivera y Moncada with twenty soldiers, two muleteers, and two California Indians leading a herd of approximately 165 cattle. The Spanish were immediately enamored with the landscape for cattle raising; it had rich pastures of native grasses and minimal expenses due to its mild winters. In the first century of the cattle industry in California, the center of the activity was in Southern California in the San Diego, Orange, south Los Angeles, west Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. The initial herd was divided and taken to four other missions in the first two years, and by 1773, there were 204 cattle in five missions used primarily for milk and beef. There were also herds at government stations. Pueblos established for settlers had common pastures and laws about how many stock each individual could own. At the first census of the Pueblo San José, fifteen families had 37 cows and 18 calves amongst them. In the founding of the Pueblo of Los Angeles, each colonist received two cows, one calf, and the use of communally owned breeding animals. California Indians owned a few head of their own by 1786.
     Cattle were not present on the missions, but rather were kept at ranchos a distance from the central part of the mission. The missions trained Indians as herders for the cattle. At this time, there was little care given to the cattle, but laws made it mandatory to register brands. There was an annual rodeo in May and June to round up cattle for slaughter, but it was illegal to slaughter cows and there was a tax on every slaughtered animal. These laws and taxes were instrumental in ensuring the growth of the herds. Prices for cattle and cattle products were regulated. In the 1790s, herds were growing very large and no further increase was desired by the government. Prices were reduced and laws were enacted that limited each individual’s herd to fifty head or less, but since outside trade was illegal, herds continued to increase. By 1800, there were 75,000 head of cattle in California and two-thirds of them were on missions. Many cattle had strayed and gone wild by 1807, and these were killed without compensation to the owner. Cattlemen were smuggling cattle to foreign ships, and the 1822 independence from the Spanish was welcomed for its increase in economic opportunities.

Indian Cowboys and the Ranchos: 1822-1848

Indian Ranchers and Early America: 1848-1870

     Shortly after California became a territory of the United States, the Gold Rush began. This shifted the cattle industry from a hide and tallow market back to a beef market. Prices for cattle rose ten to twenty times their previous amounts and the herds decreased rapidly as ranchers capitalized on the heavy demand for beef from gold miners. In 1851 a drought brought very high losses. Additional losses came from theft, particularly by Indians. Having been widely excluded from owning large, prosperous ranchos, native Californians attempted to alleviate their poverty and increase their herds and profits in this way. At this time the government had a fence-out policy, so cattle ran wild on an open range. “Judges of the Plains” were assigned for each county to register brands, monitor sales, and so forth- the precursor to brand inspectors.
     Drawn by the high beef prices and the open range, immigrants from the East arrived with their herds. At this time most Indians did not have range landholdings. In 1860 one Indian in the state of California had a ranch of under 160 acres and eight Indians did not have landholdings but did raise cattle on the open range. Since the range was open to all and not connected to landholdings, anyone with the capital to invest in a herd could be a rancher, with or without private range land. With the influx of immigrants, the cattle began to be improved. The traditional “California” cattle were Spanish in origin; they were lean and relatively small, tough, hardy, and long-bodied with large horns. Immigrants brought in “American” cattle, which had 37.5% more body weight, were easier to handle, and needed less feed. Overall, they were larger and heavier, with shorter horns. Their temperament was not so wild, but they were also not quite as hardy. Most ranchers began to crossbreed the two types, as crossbreds fetched higher prices at market, being heavier and producing better quality of beef. Purebred American bulls were expensive, necessitating for the first time fencing and a breeding program. While ranchers began to be concerned about the quality of their cattle, few thought about the quality of the range. Small herds were managed by only one or two vaqueros, and while large herds were managed by more, herds were widely left on their own for most of the year on open range, with little monitoring. By 1860 there was a greater supply of cattle than demand, causing prices to decrease once more. In an effort to increase prices, ranchers participated in a herd reduction in 1861-1862.
     In 1862-1865 ranchers suddenly faced the first serious drought. Seasonal rains failed to arrive, and swarms of grasshoppers ate all the grass that was available. Cattle started dying in droves. Some counties faced a loss of one-third of their herds. Despite ranchers’ attempts to improve breeds, create shelter and water sources, and so forth, losses were high. In San Bernardino county, cattle herds decreased by 52%; San Diego county was affected less severely and only faced a 24% decrease. Overall, California lost almost 44% of her cattle. Many ranchos were sold or taken for taxes, but the price of beef began to rise as supply dwindled. The desperate attempt to adapt to the drought led to the use of mountain pastures in the summer. In the years after the drought ranchers rebuilt their industry, but cattle had ceased to be the cornerstone industry in California. The road had been paved for agriculture to become a serious competitor with ranching.

The End of the Open Range: 1870 and Beyond

     As California became more “civilized,” as people spoke of its change at the time, there was a shift from cattle-raising to agriculture. Cattle, especially those that were wild and tough on open range, were no longer desirable. As the amount of improved acreage dramatically began to increase, ranchers moved to inaccessible mountainous areas. Herds began to decrease from 1870-1882. There was talk of repealing the fence-out policy, which would mean hiring more cowboys and putting in miles of costly fence. As fence-out policies were repealed in certain counties, farmers flocked to those counties, seeking respite from the barrage of cattle on their crops. Gradually, county by county, the state began to have a fence-in policy. Barbed wire, introduced in 1873, made fencing large areas for cattle affordable for the first time. With these policy changes, ranching changed forever, becoming tied to private property rights and involving fencing, supplemental feeding, and an increasing emphasis on improving cattle breeds.
     Even with the changes in policy, ranchers continued to graze their cattle on a fairly open range for quite some time. Policy was relatively easy to change in comparison to the actual task of fencing the miles of range land in California. The range was deteriorating from overgrazing, and ranchers could do little to limit other ranchers’ grazing practices. It was for this reason that the California Cattlemen’s Association did not support the National Cattlemen’s Association decision in 1884 to argue for public land leases. California ranchers knew that if the range was privately owned, ranchers would have more control over their land and so would have more incentive to conserve the range. The public lands began to have grazing permits despite ranchers’ desires to privatize the range. The National Park and Forest Reserves, founded in 1892, allowed cattle on their land beginning in 1897 and had a permit system by 1901 that specified the number of stock allowed on the land and the length of time they could remain there. Grazing preferences were given to ranchers who lived within the reserve prior to its creation or ranchers that had traditionally used the land. As ranchers began to improve their breeds, use supplemental feeding, and utilize other new innovations (such as pasture rotation), cattle herds once again rose in California. By 1910 there were 119,790 head of cattle, an increase of 65% since 1870.

Indian Cowboys and Ranchers: Recent History

Previous Page - Next Page - Menu