2 A Haunting In Oregon (18 page)

Author’s Note

Although this is a work of fiction,
the massacre at Bloody Island in 1850 is true. Over a hundred Native American women,
children, and old men were slaughtered by the U.S. Calvary in retaliation for
the uprising at the Kelsey ranch. At the ranch, partners Andrew Kelsey and
Charles Stone kidnapped and enslaved Native Americans to work on their land and
in their mines. They brutalized and killed many of their captives, and raped
the Natives’ children. Parents who resisted providing their children to Stone
and Kelsey were hung from a tree at the ranch.

The town of Kelseyville, in
Northern California, about 20 miles west of Clearlake, is named in his honor.

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“A war of extermination will continue to be waged between the
two races until the Indian race becomes extinct.”

- California Governor Peter H. Burnett
January 1851

Michael Richan lives
in Seattle, Washington.

-

The next book in
The
River
series is

Ghosts of Our
Fathers.

Visit

www.michaelrichan.com

for more information
about the books in
The River
series.

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