California has several unratified treaties that were made in an attempt by the Interior Department to quell native uprisings by offering an olive branch to California Indians. The Indian Agents in California were sent out to make agreements with tribal leaders under the philosophy that to “feed the Indians for a year would be cheaper than to fight them for a week” (Hoopes, 1970). With little knowledge of the “character” of the California Indians, three men were appointed to travel through California, develop treaties or compacts to maintain peace between Indians and settlers, with the intended effect of creating a system that would make California Indians “wards of the federal government” (Hoopes, 1970). The three split the state into sections; Redick McKee’s geographic area was Northern California. He found, very quickly, that Congress was hesitant to provide the necessary funds to make and maintain these agreements and mortgaged his homestead while waiting for funds from Congress. McKee saw his mission as humanitarian, believing his actions to be in the best interests of both Indians, by securing them food and land, as well as whites, by protecting them from violence.

There don’t appear to be treaties for our specific area. Instead, we have Mexican land grants. The first land grant made for the area of Cotati and Rohnert Park was in 1844: General Vallejo granted considerable acreage to one of his soldiers, Juan Castaneda. Castaneda did not honor the conditions of the grant and the land was sold to Thomas Larkin, whose business was dealing in goods between settlers and the East Coast, including the sale of hides from California to New England shoemakers.