Mariposa Battalion

{{Short description|California Militia unit formed in 1851}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

File:"Protecting The Settlers" Illustration by JR Browne for his work "The Indians Of California" 1864 (cropped).jpg]]

Mariposa Battalion was a California Militia unit formed in 1851 to defeat the Ahwahnechee and Chowchillas in the Mariposa War, a part of the California genocide.{{Cite web|url=https://www.myyosemitepark.com/park/miners-and-mariposa-battalion|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017125538/https://www.myyosemitepark.com/park/miners-and-mariposa-battalion|archive-date=October 17, 2017|title=Miners and the Mariposa Battalion|url-status=dead|website=My Yosemite Park|access-date=October 17, 2017|language=en-us}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/destruction-and-disruption.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010115801/https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/destruction-and-disruption.htm|archive-date=October 10, 2017|url-status=dead|title=Destruction and Disruption - Yosemite National Park|website=U.S. National Park Service|language=en|access-date=October 17, 2017}}

After a force under Mariposa County Sheriff James Burney was found unequal to the task of defeating the Native Californians, Burney made an appeal to Governor John McDougal for help. This led to authorizing an organization of two hundred men into the Mariposa Battalion.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JsM4A0GSO34C&pg=PA472|title=The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer|last2=Arnold|first2=James R.|last3=Wiener|first3=Roberta|date=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-697-8|page=472}}

The Mariposa Battalion was mustered 12 February 1851. Sheriff Burney was the first choice for the major to command the unit, but Burney declined due to his other responsibilities in Mariposa. Instead, James D. Savage was chosen as major, primarily due to his scouting abilities. The battalion was divided into three companies: Company A commanded by John J. Kuykendall, with seventy men; Company B under John Boling, with seventy-two men; and Company C, under William Dill, with fifty-five men. Other officers elected included M. B. Lewis as Adjutant, A. Brunson as surgeon and Vincent Hailor as guide.{{Cite news|last1=Kamiya|first1=Gary|date=May 22, 2015|url=http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Yosemite-Indians-white-ally-fell-victim-to-white-6281552.php#photo-8023384|title=Yosemite Indians, white ally fell victim to white vigilantes|work=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=October 17, 2017}}

A camp was established {{convert|2+1/2|mi|km|0|abbr=off|spell=on|sp=us}} from the town of Mariposa near Savage's Agua Fria trading post. As part of the Mariposa War, the battalion entered the Yosemite Valley and burned Native American villages and food supplies and forcibly relocated people from their homes in the valley.{{cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01000626/ | title=Discovery of the Yosemite, and the Indian war of 1851, which led to that event | website=Library of Congress }}{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25613590 | jstor=25613590 | last1=Hall | first1=Ansel F. | title=The Early Days in Yosemite: Reprinted from the Mariposa Democrat of Aug 5, 1856 | journal=California Historical Society Quarterly | year=1923 | volume=1 | issue=3 | pages=271–285 | doi=10.2307/25613590 | url-access=subscription }}{{Cite magazine |last=Treuer |first=David |date=2021-04-12 |title=Return the National Parks to the Tribes |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/05/return-the-national-parks-to-the-tribes/618395/ |access-date=2023-10-10 |magazine=The Atlantic |language=en}} To Tu Ya "Maria" Lebrado Ydrte was one of the survivors and later retold the story of the massacre.