The United States went through many things to be shaped into the country it now is, and the gold rush was one of the most prominent. The effects of the gold rush were devastating on the Californian ecosystem and landscape. The negatives of the gold rush greatly outweigh the positives, the land was destroyed irreparably, Native Americans were selfishly forced out of their homes, and the US economy would be forever changed.
The most negative effect of the gold rush was the devastating affects on the ecosystem. People would be blinded by their want for gold and do anything to get it. According to the author “People described the California landscape as looking like it had been dug up by giant moles.” (Thornton), miners really were like giant moles with how they dug through the dirt without a care as of what the affects were. Miners used mercury to “to recover minute pieces of gold
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Since it was rushed many things were not decided on, such as setting up reservations for the natives who first inhabited the land. ‘’Tribes included the Karok, Maidu, Cahuilleno, Mojave, Yokuts, Pomo, Paiute, and Modoc.’’ (Library of Congress) these tribes were recklessly pushed out of their homes to make room for the fourty niners who were flooding in. The natives were forced to leave not only their homes, but their traditions and everything that had been familiar to them. The Fourty niners used all force necessary to get the natives out of there as they were seen as less advanced and barbaric, as shown in the american depictions of them in a popular booklet “This bestselling fiction portrayed Indians as savages preying on defenseless Euro-Americans.” (Ferris State University). The natives were seen as nothing more than animals and treated far worse than even that. Many natives were kidnapped and or killed by the Miners since they were not seen as