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Alta California
January 24, 1863

Martial Law in Round Valley.
We are in receipt of a pamphlet issued
from the Herald office, Ukiah City, which
gives a succinct history as to the causes
which led Gen. Wright to proclaim martial
law in Round Valley, Mendocino county,
together with the evidence adduced before
the Court of Inquiry, ordered by the same
officer. It appears that Mr. Hanson, the
present Superintendent of Indian Affairs in
the Northern District of California, in his
first report to the Department of the Interior,
informed the authorities at Washington that
the settlers in Round Valley were all
unwarrantable trespassers, and as they seriously
annoyed the Indians on the Reservation,
they should be summarily driven off. In a
subsequent report he tried to correct this
misstatement; but it seems his efforts at
repudiation of his own information were
unsuccessful. He also represented to General
Wright, military commander of the
Department of the Pacific, that the settlers of
Round Valley were so annoying that it would
be necessary to use the military force to
remove them, in order that the designs of the
Government with respect to the Indians
might be carried out. Among other
representations thus made to Gen. Wright, were
that the settlers were in the habit of
wantonly murdering the Indians and carrying off
the young ones, and also that they had,
during the past season, destroyed or thrown
down the fences on the Reservation farm,
and let in their stock, by means of which the
crop on the Government farm was destroyed,
leaving the Reservation destitute of the
means of feeding the Indians. Owing to
these representations, Gen. Wright issued an
order declaring martial law over that valley,
and, as it is understood, partially promised
Mr. Hanson that he would assist in
removing the settlers therefrom. In
the latter part of October, 1862, Mr.
Hanson visited the valley, and informed
the settlers of this order. E. R. Budd,
editor of the Mendocino Herald, happened
to be there at the same time, to whom
Mr. Hanson imparted a knowledge of his
plans. On his return to Ukiah, he published
an editorial article which so clearly exposed
the conduct of Mr. Hanson, and put such a
different view on the state of affairs in that
section, that it caused General Wright to
instruct the commander who had been sent to
Round Valley, to act with extreme caution,
and do nothing but what was absolutely
required by the circumstances. Soon
afterwards the citizens of the valley held a mass
meeting, in which they endorsed the facts therein set forth, and asked of Gen. Wright
a copy of the charges preferred against them,
which made these extraordinary measures
necessary, and requested that he institute an
investigation of the truth of those charges.
The Court of Inquiry, composed of Capt. C.
E. Douglas, President, and Lieut. P. B.
Johnson, Second Infantry, California
Volunteers, Recorder, met at Fort Wright
December 18th. The first witness examined
was James Short, who testified to the
following facts: He is an acting Supervisor on
the Nome Cult or Round Valley Indian
Reservation, has been on the Reservation since
the 1st October, 1861; has never had any
difficulty with any of the settlers in fact in
the valley; that on the 1st of August, 1862,
twenty-two Wylackie Indians were killed,