Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

As Mission Indian Agent from 1878 to 1883, S.S. Lawson presided over a "critical era" in the experience of Southern California Indians. The independent rancherias on private Mexican land grants and public domain lands were imperiled by the mid-1870s because of a surge in population associated with the coming of the railroad. Indian resources were under siege and many Indian communities faced imminent ejection. The federal government hesitated in formulating a reservation policy to secure Indians with trust lands for continued self-support Lawson was a conscientious, if ethnocentric, administrator who left his mark on history as a passionate advocate of a plan to consolidate the scattered communities on a single reservation. His informative correspondence with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and others during his tenure as agent provides a window into the legalized theft of Indian resources in Southern California, the efforts of Indians to defend their homelands, and the vacillations of federal policy-makers.