The Greenville Incident

Running away from a Mission School was a common occurrence for the children that were forced to attend these institutions. Often kidnapped, being separated as a child from ones culture and kin would have been traumatic enough without the corporal punishment. Strapping over minor infractions would drive some children to desperation.

One such incident took place in December 1910 when five girls aged eight to fifteen ran away from the Greenville Mission School. Poorly dressed the girls tried to walk the fifty miles to Susanville where a couple of them had family.

During the second night of frigid temperature the two youngest, Molly and Elweeza fell asleep never to awaken. Edith lost both of her feet below the knees due to frostbite only to succumb to blood poisoning two days later.

Kathrine Dick lost several toes.

Though Rosa James came away without physical trauma there is no measure to how she was emotionally scarred.

These particular paintings are Paeans, songs of tribute, to the five girls that ran away from the Greenville Mission School in December 1910. By honoring the Maidu and giving voice to the ancestors and the children who were victims of the Residential Schools, I hope to make others, like myself, who have been poorly educated about the full extent of the repercussions of the California genocide, better informed.