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The original inhabitants of what is now called Roseville were the Maidu Indians, a tribe whose 74 home villages stretched across eastern California from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Sacramento River. The Maidu believed that the earth was a round ball floating in an ocean and held by four or five ropes fashioned by the Creator. Earthquakes, which were common near the volcanic Mount Lassen and other parts of northeastern California, were thought to occur when the ropes were shaken.
The Maidu traded with the Wintun Indians, usually for beads, which were used as money. Other items traded included wild tobacco, pine nuts, salmon and salt. For valley Maidu, marriage was also trade-oriented: a would-be groom sent a representative with a bride price to the bride’s family, and if the price was acceptable, the two were married. For hill dwelling Maidu, the suitor simply arrived to visit, and if the young woman liked him, he could stay. If the prospective bride did not like her suitor, she simply refrained from going o bed, sitting up all night if that’s what it took for him to get the hint.
Divorce was equally simple: if a bride price was paid but the bride was found unacceptable, the family returned the bride price and the union was dissolved. In the case of the hill Maidu, a marriage was ended when the couple decided to live apart.
Because the Maidu culture was an oral one, no writings on the Maidu exist before Euro-American contact. It’s estimated that the population of the northern Maidu tribes was about 4,000 before contact, but in 1880-1883, an epidemic of malaria made vast inroads on that population. The gold rush brought miners in 1850, increasing the exposure of the native population to diseases, and in the 1880s, smallpox further reduced their numbers. By 1962, there were only 300-400 native Maidus. Those who remained found work on farms and in the gold mines.
Mining was so destructive to the environment, that the Maidu were impacted in nearly everything they did. Fishing streams were silted up and poisoned; plant life was seriously affected; and there was more competition in hunting due to the influx of miners. Treaties signed by U.S. government representatives and local tribes proved worthless as the U.S. Senate, influenced by California lawmakers, refused to ratify them. Instead, five native reservations were established in the state: one of these was the Nome Lackee Reservation, in Tehama County. Without adequate resources, however, miners and settlers soon moved onto the reservation, which was abandoned by the Maidu and Wintu by 1861.
The Maidu population was practically decimated by the late 19th century, and many native people moved back into the mountains to avoid the settlers who had overrun their land. As with most native U.S. tribes, the Maidu were harassed, forcibly relocated, turned to slave labor and outright killed, either by disease or ongoing interracial hostility. Those who survived did not lose their religion or culture, and today, Roseville is home to the Maidu Interpretive Center and Historic Site.
The beginning of the town called Roseville was literally a railroad junction when, in 1864, the Central Pacific Railroad’s east line crossed that of a smaller line: the crew named the place Junction. And for forty years, practically nothing happened…
But in 1906, the Southern Railroad moved to Junction, and the city of Roseville was incorporated just three years later. In 1913, fruit shipping needs demanded ice, and lots of it. The biggest ice plant in the world was built in Roseville, and a year later, a telephone company. The town survived the Depression and participated in high level transportation needs during WWII, growing with each decade, but once transportation moved on to trucking and air travel, there was a lull. Today, the electronic industry has made its way to Roseville, with companies like Hewlett-Packard and NEC leading the way in employment.
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