Throughout the centuries gold has altered history.  Gold has made and crippled nations.  American Indians will testify to the latter. In 1607 the settlers of Jamestown set about digging for gold.  Captain Smith shipped a load of "rich ore" to England.  Fortunately for local Indians, the ore proved worthless and the Jamestown pioneers disappeared, however, not before leaving behind a ravaged area of virgin land and a variety of killer diseases.In 1829 a gold strike was made on the land of the Cherokee Nation in Georgia.  Shoddy boom towns quickly emerged.  "Drunkenness, gambling, fighting, lewdness and every other vice exists here." The Niles Register reported.  To establish order, the man Cherokees called "Sharp Knife", Andrew Jackson ordered the Indian Nation transplanted to Oklahoma via "The Trail of Tears".The gold rush of 1849 affected the homelands of numerous Indian tribes along the California Trail.  Boxes, barrels, trunks, furniture, cooking utensils, stoves, tools, burned wagons, rotting food and hundreds of dead animals were left in the gold seeker's wake.  It was said, by stench alone, a blind man could have followed the trail.The Dakota, who regarded the Black Hills as sacred, for centuries had kept the presence of gold secret.  In 1868 the government had guaranteed that whites never would settle the region.  However, when a trapper paid for a drink with a gold nugget, thousands raced to its source, the Deadwood Gulch in the Black Hills.In 1860 gold was discovered in a stream called Kooskooskie.  Here, too, its presence had been kept secret for generations.  When an indiscreet tribesman bragged of its presence to an outsider, the race for riches was on.  Reservation boundaries, posted warnings and lawmen could not stop the horde.  This is the story of that little known gold rush, and its impact upon the Nimapu (the people) and their beautiful homeland in the shadows of the Bitterroot Mountains.

The Curse of Gold: The Discovery of Gold Creates Havoc in the Nimapu Homeland

Bonnie Hunt

Lawrence Hunt

Mad Bear Press

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Books by Bonnie Hunt

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bonnie Hunt. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Curse of Gold: The Discovery of Gold Creates Havoc in the Nimapu Homeland