Main Street, Wyoming; 424; Chinese Massacre

Mainstreet Wyoming is made possible in part by grants from Kennicott energy. Proud to be a part of Wyoming's future in the uranium exploration mining and production industry and by a Wyoming Council for the Humanities enriching lives of Wyoming people through the study of Wyoming history values and ideas. The success or the dream was let's go to McGaw. My goal means beautiful country and Chinese Cantonese has a different word but Mandarin is my goal. Now that's what the United States is literally translated as make war. So they said let's go to MacGuire beautiful Country for Old Golden Mountain and in some ways that fulfilled a Buddhist concept of one of the seven or eight holy mountains of China. And here we'll be able to attain our dream. So by coming to Old Golden Mountain they came to lend to them. It was pure in the form of presenting opportunity and also a land without ghosts. They have a word for Ghost is called goes jail. SS Sure there's been 10000 years of people living in in the. United States. The

priest or I can have it installed with the prison. They died and they were ghost if you believe in ghosts here. But to the Chinese the only true goes that could haunt them were Chinese ghosts or Chinese go so they came to land without a ghost. They came to a land that provided opportunity and they came to a land that was a beautiful place. To. Get only a brief paragraph in U.S. history textbooks. Twenty eight people died on September 2nd 1885 when white miners went on a rampage through Rock Springs trying to target shooting looting and burning. Only a brief paragraph enough to

teach a brief lesson about racism and labor strife. But it doesn't tell you anything about who these people were. Or why they're gone now. Leaving only traces behind. But the primary source of immigration are the primary jumpoff point and is southern China. And a lot of historians have said Guangdong Province which most of us know is Canton Canton is now called Guang Showbiz On the pro River in China. And the reason that they would come from history is that there is a shipping industry that's developed the British have opened the ports in 1832 as a result of the Opium Wars. The ports are open in southern China so they're the people who have access to foreign ships earliest. They're the people that are eventually sold out as laborers earliest. But what is the push factor the push factor some people think is the Taiping remain of the 1850s 1860s. Some historians call this the worst civil war in the 19th century. We had in our country over 600000 people died as combatants. And you know and in the civil war I think

that's the right figure in China. The combat deaths or the deaths in association with the typing or vain or in excess of a million people. The disruption the social disruption the decadence of the Ching impers. the fact that there is some impoverishment. Some people say there's famine in southern China that push people that pushes people out. But I think more than anything is there is limited opportunity your chance of climbing up a social ladder does not exist in the 1850 China or the 1860 China that most of these Chinese people leave the United States is the point of opportunity. They can improve their plight in life by leaving not by staying. Oftentimes people that immigrate to another country are not the poorest because you need a certain amount of money you can sell your labor but you have to also have something to bring with you and you might be an indentured servant when you come to the United States. But usually those people are upwardly mobile in mind today and they're not from the poorest classes and definitely if you're starving to death you can't board a boat. You might fear starvation and you might think

that that could happen in your village. That might be a driving factor but it's a complicated historical question as to. How great the famine was and what impact has that had in the people coming to the United States. What was there in southwest Wyoming in the way of labor to keep these industries going. See that's the important thing is there was no labor. Labor had to be imported. So you have vast resources and some of the early explorers noted especially the U.S. Army topographic engineer you know the U.S. Army Corps of topographic engineers No said very specifically rich resources they said you need to have transportation and have people so immediately have a boom scenario. So you have to bring in. How are you going to get those laborers were those laborers going to come from a lot of people in the East are gainfully employed in the new factory systems that are earning Southerner's that are displaced by the Civil War they might be seeking employment. But many of those don't want to work in the coal mines. They might want to work on the railroad but they don't want to work in the coal mines if they work for the river they generally want to work on the rolling stock. They don't want to do repair work. So where are you going to find people to do the work that nobody else wants to do. Kind

of like what we have today in restaurants washing dishes. You find those from immigrants and these immigrants in this case happen to be Chinese and they begin to be the predominant source of raw labor within southwest Wyoming. So the economy in southwest Wyoming is based on actually five tiers in those tears are Transportation Union Pacific Railroad mining extraction. Of coal ranching which is a theme that goes all the way back to 1843. You have tourism and I know that seems odd that people passing through on the continental railroad to see what the Transcontinental Railroad is like Frenchmen leave records of this town. Everybody leaves records the past through on the transcontinental railroad even if it's nothing more than passing lights in the desert. And then finally you have people working in merchandising. The Chinese conserv those people in merchandising. They can become merchants themselves or work in laundries. They can open their own stores. Eventually they serve as merchandisers they serve in the warehousing business their service industry. They also serve tourists and they also serve the Chinese miners themselves. So you have a five year economy that's pretty much in tact today.

Well you realize that the there was a feeling all over the West about the Chinese that all are excluded the Chinese from coming from China. And there was this feeling pressured us all through the. There were riots all over. Various sections. But the one that that broke out in Rock Springs broke out over an assignment in the mine. They had changed the foreman for that day and they signed the mine first the Chinese and then they gave the thing back to the white man or Caucasians. And when they came in the Chinese came back. The fight ensued and that facilitated everyone's leaving the mine and the group of miners say that they were going to run the Chinese up. They were not going to put up with them. Now who the people were there were there are some discussions that some of the former union organization started the mind but.

There also was was was the prejudice in the community that look back at this the people who lived here. And realize that some of them. Came from the south. And. There was a sort of a prejudice about the black all those black miners were here. Then these other people were. Immigrants who came in. And of course other Americans who came out. Of course they wanted to protect the job and have their job. I mean it was it was. A difficult time working in the mine. And so when. The fights started and they proceeded to tell the Chinese to get out in Wyoming history there are some things that are often written about the Chinese massacre of September 2nd 1885 is one of those events that has been written about every since 1885. In 1886 the Pacific came out with an official

history of the Chinese massacre. It was company sponsored of the Chinese consulate came out with a draft of what occurred here in 1885. The U.S. government investigated the U.S. Army investigated the newspaper reporters for The Rock Springs newspaper here at the time Rock Springs independent I believe it was reported on in all the papers throughout the United States the New York Times Leslie's Illustrated Harper's Weekly. They reported on this event because it's been so often reported on. There is a lot of different opinions about what occurred on September 2nd 1885 deviants people pretty much concur and they translate in several different forms. But early in the morning two miners went to number six mine which is north of western Wyoming college north of Interstate 80. And they found Chinamen working in their room know what did happen is these miners had prepared this room to make money you were paid by the ton that you had extracted. They go down and find these Chinese miners ready to make extra money Foreman's were often bribed given money so that a person could get the best room. And when these two

white miners find these Chinese miners working with you know working their area in the mine they attacked him. Some people say that the Chinese man attacked him with a needle. The needle is not like a sewing needle but a needle is what used to push back dynamite chirps and it's about this long is about a yard long or maybe even a little longer. So the fight spilled over and they closed down number six mine which was a mistake in retrospect the miners and number six went to drinking and other miners from the other mines heard the same thing the Chinese miners retreated to Chinatown. That was on the north side of town in the afternoon. And I think that the anti French sentiment had been building up for years. In the afternoon they decided they were going to attack Chinatown and there was folklore as to what they were going to accomplish. People whose grandfathers and grandmothers literally grandmothers who were involved in this event say that they were going to go take the money that the Chinese had earned and hidden in the floors of their houses and take back the money that they had lost by the Chinese working in the mines here in the process.

Twenty eight Chinese men were killed in a town was burned to the ground. Let's talk about the events of the massacre itself. Chinese were separated from the rest of the town. They were part of the corporate limits of Rock Springs but it was called by the locals Chinatown. The miners line up on witer Creek crossed bitter creek and they cut off exits outside of town. They began to fire into the buildings and then begin to light the houses on fire and there was an estimated five hundred Chinese Chinese resinous and they burned the houses to the ground. The houses had these basements where people live. They had cut these underneath the floor. A lot of them are trapped inside those floors and suffocated. But many of them flee over what's called burning mountain. Now that's a problem in the record. Which way did they run. Did they run north. Did they run south. Because the miners were coming from the south across witer Creek. It's more than likely that they ran north up over the ridge towards their cemetery. The cemetery sits near where the fairgrounds is. At that point they crossed the ridge. Some of them run to the east.

Some of them run to the west. The reason that they do is that union Pacific was their employer and they had gotten the idea they could wave down a train that they could get a train and go to some safe haven that safe haven was. Evanston is the Chinese fled. There was a melee that developed and some of the accounts that the Chinese give state specifically that it wasn't just men that were shooting at the Chinese but it was women were shooting at the Chinese and they could name the woman they could point out the woman. And it's interesting they did put her name in the record but they could point out the woman who had been shooting at him that had killed some of the Chinese men inside of town. They slaughtered their pigs they slaughtered everything at the head. It was just mass destruction. It became mayhem. How many coins they ever got out of the house was not known. We do know that the Chinese fled. They've wrapped the coins in their bandanas and ran as fast as they could. Their wealth that they had stashed away they tried to take but of course if you are killed in the process. Or if your house was one of the on the frontline line there was no way to get anything out of there. The mosque was in a sense material for the tabloids a lot out of control hatred

atrocities. But there's another story that doesn't get told. What were the people like who were attacked. How did they lead. Where do they live. Violence against people is easier when they are dehumanized. We could find no descendants of Chinatown's 1885 residents. So we ask Dudley Gardner about that. Well since the Chinese didn't leave written records that are readily available and since a lot of those records were sent back to Guangdong Province we don't have access to what they thought the ark logical record provides insights into how they thought and how they acted. In fact it's the only record that we have in some cases of illiterate Chinese. So we know how well they live we know how wealthy they become. We know what they were eating. We know how much money they accrued in some cases. So we can take the material culture remains that they left literally the matter that they left on the ground and find out how well they were doing here. If you import a Tang Dynasty vase or Ming Dynasty vase you have some money. Even if this is it's a hair load that thing is worth some money here. The Ching Dynasty coins that we find here are worth quite a bit. Now of course what they were worth

even as much back then that was their super source of exchange. It's intriguing to me that they would continue bring Chinese coins or here and use them as a source of exchange between one another. That shows a defiance of the American currency. You know why not use legal tender. It's intriguing when the Chinese would bring out the famous Dragon New Year's to the whole community participate. The Chinese did. Celebrate and they invited the people the community of thought the pictures were there show the people telling them and celebrating with the Chinese on their various various holidays. Previous to that time. The time that they had a joss house in Oxford they would go to Evanson to celebrate Evanson was the big joss house. The Chinese were very. Cordial to the to the when they had the silver They also I understand sometime drag them out when they have other what you would call American slippers.

They drag them supposedly was shipped out. On the train and said to some to San Francisco a little boy standing there asked for a souvenir and one of them took off the eyes. And gave them to him and they haven't really. Well they were at the house until he died. And we got them in the house and all family walks by. The way that you can prevent culture shock from taking place is to bring vestiges of your old culture with you to to your new culture and try to maintain a semblance of order and norms. For example as a child you're given a certain taste for food that you carry with you through your whole life. So the Chinese would eat pretty much like a hit eating in China. Well that requires preparation in certain forms and fashion and everything requires cooking and walks. It requires using a little bit of grease under a low amount of heat because fuel is premium in China for preparing their food small amounts of meats are needed. But what they need more than anything is fish. Now you can get fish out of the

Green River but not necessarily all the fish that they want. So they begin to import. They begin to import rice bowls some that they had brought with them with an increased amount of rice bowls the beginning import fish they begin to raise hogs. Pork is very important in the Chinese diet. They can feed the hogs the scraps that they have. The Hogs do fairly well here and that's one thing that we do know that they are hard. They are raising hogs as we were counting in the 1880s archaeological excavations conducted by Western Wylma college which is decreasing and Kevin Thompson in charge of those have shown exactly the amount of meat that they were consuming. They really were living fairly well. Their diet appears to be fairly stable. Now the diet that we have is reflective of the late 19th century early 20th but you can extrapolate this back and some of the historical records it shows the same thing. They also bring with him certain types of trades and crafts shoemaking laundering and Kraft the substitute. You know you don't make much money being laundered laundered but you substitute that for working in a

mine. They maintain their culture to maintain their religion here and their religion is what really is intriguing. So we have Josh houses us they have a josh house here in Rock Springs. They have a josh house in Evanston the josh house in Evanston has been restored this Chush house here had a resident priest which according to the center records you went to county courthouse. You went to census records also appears to be the priest. What was his function. He was to leave sacrifices or offerings for the dead. So they bring their religion with them. But the Chinese have a different way of worshipping God than we do. They blended their religions. Missionaries would actually come and missionize the Rock Springs Chinatown. And there are photographs of missionaries coming to convert the Chinese to Christianity. Of course they would convert but they never gave up their older beliefs. So that was one way of me maintaining their cultural norms by following their older religious beliefs here and we were counting.

So you see it in several forms. You see it in their diet you see it in their religion. Mean you see it in their cultural traditions such as the Chinese New Year. When you talk about Asian cultures you always have to look at the concept that they do believe their culture is superior.

But that's not natural. We believe our culture superior every culture believes that their culture is superior it becomes part of who they are. The Sunni believe that they're superior they also believe the Zuni Indians they occupy the center of the universe in the Hopi do the same thing that they're the keepers of the underworld. The underworld has come up above in their Mesa's the Chinese the same thing. They must go back. They must go back if there is a sense of superiority in this concept that our culture is superior. We don't want to stay here with you diabetes. Diabetes in Chinese means long nose foreign devil. And I'm told that I see that fairly well in Mandarin but they see outsiders that way. When you go to China you are a wide Gorne. I've written in saying this port in Mandarin but Rinna's people why Goehring is an outside person who comes there. The interesting thing about the Chinese they are why Goren's and make war how do they react. How do they become outsiders in another country. They preserve their culture.

They are asserting power and they are asserting themselves very vocally maybe not by singing anything to the minors in Sweetwater County maybe not by articulating it to other people living within the community but they are asserting themselves. They say I'm Chinese I'm proud of my heritage I will contribute to this community I'll contribute to my community at home. Death is something that's universal So everybody's definition of death and what a massacre is it is a different definition. The Chinese were most appalled by who. Would do this who would kill the Americans who describe the events described the scream of Pigs and the burning bodies and the charred remains of individuals that were found there. The Chinese focus more on the person that was lost in the people involved in the group. And it shows a great difference between American culture or English culture in Chinese culture. The charred remains of individuals is what the

investigators focused on and the fact that people had been shot in the back. And the fact that people had suffocated in the houses and the descriptions of how that was and how that one man when he cried when his house was set on fire come running out. And upon leaving the house the shouting in cold blood as he exited the home when the Chinese talk about it they talk about it in the same form but in a more sterile sense death is something that they expected it. In their description of the event did complain more about the group to cause the problem the Americans discussed individuals and they described the conditions of those individuals as to what they found. The Chinese massacre of 1885 briefly put Rock Springs and witer creek in the world's eye. But the sensational news reports didn't really tell the whole story. There was no trial. Nobody was ever brought to justice. Now over a century later rocs brings historian Dudley Gardner has reopened the investigation.

My mission in history is to take people who don't have the ability to write about themselves and give their Labor's voice whether it be women in the 19th century who were never sent to school and couldn't write or whether it be Chinese who are illiterate and English maybe could write Chinese but people that didn't have a voice. My goal is to give voice and part that's because my dad never finished high school and he was a truck driver and everybody knows that everything you get is one time or another by truck. And I used to always hear people say well that what he does is not important you know it's not that big a deal. Of course as a kid that begins to infiltrate is a historian I want people to know about people that don't have a choice whether it be a minority or an illiterate person or a person working in the coal mine and ask what my purposes as a historian has to give them voice. If you were to try to draw lessons for today from the events of 1885 what would they be. I always like to look at the dynamics of a riot Ok how to riots build OK here we have this thing that we can see this is how this right Veals. OK what did this. What are the

volatile ingredients of this riot. Misunderstanding poor communication. The accelerant of alcohol of course in this case. And of course that's an obvious one that that explosion of alcohol. What are the tensions that you did your career differential and wealth or perceived differential in wealth that really troubles me about this time because technically the white miners were as rich as the Chinese miners but there was a perceived differential. Let's storm these buildings let's take the money that rightly rightly should belong to us. So they're doing exactly what they did in L.A. so you can take the lessons of what occurs here when they burn the buildings in L.A. What are they doing. Are they burning a symbol or the burning building or are they punishing the people for it. The Rodney King verdict the same thing here what are they doing. A burning a symbol of Union Pacific corporate power. Are they burning the building of a Chinese immigrant. What are they doing when they burn down those buildings so you can apply those lessons of the past to the present and find out what people will do what they're willing to do why they're willing to bend abandon normal social norms and

riot. Why do they suddenly peaceful law abiding citizens seem so prone to want to burn something to the ground. And in this case kill Chinese residents. Now the one thing about this about the Chinese that if there's only 28 killed in his 5000 residents. And there is the question that needs to be asked. Were they bent on killing the Chinese or driving him out. You've been in the education field here. How do they teach this story in the local schools. Well it was taught in the history books. It was taught on that. You know in that one paragraph really thought that there were so many other things in American history that you kind of skipped over the the interesting part of that was that after they gave the Chinese the payback for the for the for the massacre the pavement was used for scholarships for Chinese students. Are there any remnants of the Chinese from that era in the form of burial remains.

No the burial plots were all disinterred they believing in Chinese culture that you have to be buried in your homeland if you're not you become a spirit and it's essential. So this sounds macabre but what they would do was bring on the ridges behind us up here they would very much in the ridges in shallow graves line and stone and then the ants and the Beatles would remove the flesh and literally they exude those bodies scraped off the flesh put them in vases and sent them back to China to be interred in a proper form. They came to a land of no ghosts. And then when they took the bodies away that would be no ancestral ghost left in this land. So in essence it would be perpetual land without Ghost until a new generation came that had no desire to go back to mainland China. And I always like what they call the Chinese in Beijing. Diplomats call anybody that lives in Rock Springs overseas Chinese they're still doing. They just haven't seen the light and come back. So it's still a land without ghosts. In some ways. You.

Do. Main. Street. Wyoming is made possible in part by grants from Kennicott energy. Proud to be a part of Wyoming's future uranium exploration and mining and production industry. And by the Wyoming Council for the Humanities in ridging lives of Wyoming people through the study of Wyoming history values and ideas