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According to California Indian traditional beliefs, their ancestors were created here and have lived here forever. Most anthropologists believe California Indians descended from people who crossed from Asia into North America over a land bridge that joined the two continents late in the Pleistocene Epoch. It is thought that Native Americans lived here for 15 millenia before the first European explorer sailed California's coast in the 1500s.

European explorers came to California initially in a search for what British explorers called the Northwest Passage and what the Spaniards called the Strait of Anián. In any event, it was an attempt to find a shortcut between Asia's riches -- silk, spices, jewels -- and Europe that drove the discovery voyages. The now famous voyage of Columbus in 1492 was an attempt to find this mythical shortcut.

Forty-seven years after Columbus's voyage, Francisco de Ulloa led an expedition from Acapulco that sought a non-existent passage from the Gulf of California through to the Pacific Ocean. California was thought to be an island, in large part probably due to a Spanish novel called Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Exploits of Esplandián) written by Garcí Rodríguez Ordóñez de Montalvo.

Montalvo's mythical island of California was populated by a tribe of black women who lived like Amazons. Early explorers apparently named the Baja California peninsula after the mythical island, and in 1524 Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of the Aztec empire, reported that he expected to find an island along the northwest coast of Mexico populated by Amazons.

Three years after Ulloa's expedition, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo led an expedition to once again locate the Strait of Anián. Cabrillo's instructions were to sail north of where Ulloa had turned back. Cabrillo's expedition sailed into San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, making the small party of sailors that went ashore the first Europeans to visit what is today the state of California.

Cabrillo's expedition eventually travelled north to the mouth of the Russian River, north of San Francisco Bay, before turning south in the middle of November of that year.

It would be 37 more years before a buccaneer by the name of Sir Francis Drake sailed into California history. Although much discussion continues about where Drake anchored, it appears he did spend more than a month among Coastal Miwok Indians. Drake claimed his "discovery" for the English Crown, meaning that within 40 years of European discovery of California that two countries had claimed the land, neither bothering to acknowledge the rights of the natives who were already living there.

Ninety years after Drake's voyages Spain began construction of a series of missions in California with the San Diego Mission. Until 1800, the California coast was under Spanish control as far north as San Francisco. Although the missions were built with Indian labor, the natives didn't take to the newcomers without resistance.

The San Diego Mission was attacked by Indians within a month, and the first baptism wouldn't be recorded there for two years.

Disease played a significant role in reducing the native Indian population during the era of the Spanish missions. In 1777 came a respiratory epidemic, in 1802 pneumonia and diphtheria, and measles in 1806. These epidemics, together with changes in diet and inadequate nutrition contributed to a rapid decline in the Indian population.

Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, and a shift came about in the government's attitude toward the Indians. First was the secularization of the missions, with half the mission property being devoted to supporting the Indians while the remainder supported the priests and other officials.

Large land grants in California further emphasized the change from the mission approach to private enterprise. Large land grants were given to Mexican citizens, including naturalized citizens like John Sutter.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in February 1848 ceded sovereignty of Mexican lands including California to the United States. Indian populations by this time had been reduced from over 300,000 in California to less than 100,000 by a combination of disease, homicide and loss of native environment. The California Gold Rush, of course, brought even more change.

Next -- John Marshall finds gold; John Sutter isn't entirely happy about the discovery.

J. Speed. "The Island of California: California as an Island Map," from America (Map of America made in London in 1626 or 1676). California Historical Society, North Baker Research Library collection, FN-31949.

Apparently Drake mistook the Costal Miwok's actions in placing a feathered crown on his head for them turning over sovereignty to their country.

More likely was that the Indians thought the English were relatives who had returned from the dead.