Estanislao's War

The county around Modesto is named Stanislaus, and the river that runs through the county to the north is named the Stanislaus River. Both carry a Spanish rendering of the same name: Estanislao, which was the baptismal name given to a Yokuts leader born on the banks of this watershed around seventeen ninety-eight.

His original name was Cucunuchi. He grew up in the river country to the north and was brought into Mission San Jose, where he was educated and eventually appointed as an alcalde, a kind of indigenous liaison between the mission administration and the converted Native population. He learned Spanish. He studied the military formations and tactics used by the mission soldiers. And then, in eighteen twenty-seven, he walked away from the mission, organized a resistance movement on the Laquisimas River, and began one of the most sustained indigenous military campaigns in California history.

His force at its height numbered in the thousands, drawn from Yokuts groups and joined by other peoples displaced by the mission system. Estanislao had learned enough about European warfare to use it. He had his people dig trenches and build palisades in the river-bottom thickets, constructing defensive positions that turned the flat valley terrain into an advantage. Three successive expeditions from the Spanish and then Mexican presidios failed to dislodge him.

The fourth did not fail because of superior tactics. The Mexican commander set the surrounding forest on fire.

Estanislao withdrew. He returned to Mission San Jose and asked Father Narciso Duran to petition for a pardon. The pardon was granted in October of eighteen twenty-nine. The Stanislaus River was renamed for the man who had held out against the army along its banks. He died around eighteen thirty-eight. California later named a county for him. The county seat is Modesto.