Solano

One day, in the remote Suisun Marsh, a new "Chief" was born. His name was Sina, and he was born to the tribe of the Susuni. He was also known as SemYeto! The young Indian boy grew, but the good life was ending. When Sina was 9 years old, the Spanish Empire sent General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo to settle the Suisun Marsh. Vallejo captured many Indians in Sina's tribe! The Spanish took him to Mission Delores, in San Francisco.

Vallejo was the one who gave Sina the name "Chief Solano", he was not named that by his tribe. This is important because it means he was not really the leader of the Suisun Indians.

After many years, Sina, now known as "Chief Solano", had befriended Vallejo and got put in charge of his old tribe. However, his tribe led a rebellion against him! Solano and Vallejo fought fiercely, and the tribe did too. After a long battle, the tribe had lost. They did not have as many warriors as before, all because of smallpox, which was brought by Russians at Fort Ross. The disease was wiped out many of the Indian tribes in the United States. Eventually, Solano had it, too.

After a long, important life, chief Solano died.

Works Cited:

Information about Chief Solano was obtained from: "The Historic ABC's Of Solano County", written by Jackie Albright and Jackie Lillis Illustrated by Tina Akuda. Published by the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District, 1997

The City of Fairfield web site, "A Brief History" (author is unknown) http://www.ci.fairfield.com.us/about_fairfield/history.htm I used this web page on April 16, 2002.