On July 1, 1851, the Mariposa Battalion was mustered out. Major Savage resumed his trading operations in a store on the Fresno River near Coarse Gold. In compliance with the treaty, a reservation for the Indians was set aside on the Fresno, and another on the Kings River. In the fall of 1851 the Fresno store was the polling place for a large number of voters for county officers. That winter Savage built Fort Bishop, near the Fresno reservation, and prepared to carry on a prosperous trade. He spoke as follows on this subject to L. H. Bunnell:
If I can make good my losses by the Indians out of the Indians, I am going to do it. I was the best friend the Indians had, and they would have destroyed me. Now that they once more call me “Chief,” they shall build me up. I will be just to them, as I have been merciful, for, after all, they are but poor ignorant beings, but my losses must be made good.
During the first months of 1852, Major Savage conducted a substantial, if not a phenomenal, business with the miners of the Fresno and surrounding territory, and with the Indians at the agency. No Indian hostilities were in evidence, but a policy of excluding them from the store proper was adhered to. The goods which they bought with their gold dust were handed out to them through small openings left in the walls. These openings were securely fastened at night.
Not infrequently the Indians were subjected to abusive treatment at the hands of certain whites. The mistreatment was enough to provoke an uprising, but with a few exceptions they remained on the reservations. An important light on subsequent events in Savage’s life is brought out in this statement by L. H. Bunnell:
As far as I was able to learn at the time, a few persons envied them the possession of their Kings River reservation and determined to “squat” upon it, after they should have been driven off. This “border element” was made use of by an unprincipled schemer, who it was understood was willing to accept office, when a division of Mariposa County should have been made, or when a vacancy of any kind should occur. But population was required, and the best lands had been reserved for the savages. A few hangers-on, at the agencies, that had been discharged for want of employment and other reasons, made claims upon the Kings River reservation; the Indians came to warn them off, when they were at once fired upon, and it was reported that several were killed.
Further details of the deplorable act committed by the would-be “squatters” are provided by the following news item which appeared in the Alta California of July 7, 1852:
Anticipated Indian Difficulties on King’s River
By Mr. Stelle, who came express to Stockton on the 5th inst., we have received the annexed correspondence from
San Joaquin, (Evening,) July 2, 1852.
Editors Alta California:—A few days ago, the Indians on King’s River warned Campbell, Poole & Co., ferrymen, twenty miles from here, to leave, showing at the same time their papers from the Indian Commissioners. The Indians then left, and threatened to kill the ferrymen if on their reservation when they returned. Mr. Campbell has been collecting volunteers, many have joined him. Major Harvey left this evening with some eighteen or twenty men. A fine chance for the boys to have a frolic, locate some land, and be well paid by Uncle Sam.
These agitations and murders were denounced by Major Savage in unsparing terms. Although the citizens of Mariposa were at the time unable to learn the details of the affair at Kings River, which was a distant settlement, the great mass of the people were satisfied that wrong had been done to the Indians; however, there had been a decided opposition by citizens generally to the establishment of two agencies in the county, and the selection of the best agricultural lands for reservations. Mariposa then included nearly the whole San Joaquin Valley south of the Tuolumne.
The opponents to the recommendations of the commissioners claimed that “The government of the United States has no right to select the territory of a sovereign State to establish reservations for the Indians, nor for any other purpose, without the consent of the State!” The state legislature of 1851-1852 instructed the senators and representatives in congress to use their influence to have the Indians removed beyond the limits of the state.
W. W. Elliott, in his History of Fresno County (1881), reveals further details: “Sometime previous to August 16, 1852, one Major Harvey, the first county Judge of Tulare County, and Wm. J. Campbell, either hired or incited a lot of men, who rushed into one of the rancherias on Kings River and succeeded in killing a number of old squaws.”