How an arrow wound kept Dr. Leach in the Valley

For The Madera Tribune

Dr. Louis Leach.

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For thousands of years Native Americans held a monopoly on the land that is now the San Joaquin Valley and the foothills that border it on the east.

They were free to hunt, fish, and grind acorns pretty much wherever they pleased. Then came the Europeans, and almost overnight life radically changed for the Indians. They were thrown into competition for the land, and their lifestyle was up for grabs.

Everyone knows how it all turned out. The Europeans won, and that drastically changed how the Indians lived.