Did Native Americans speak English in 1840-1850?

Question

This is a map question. I just need to know whether the English speaking area would be the Gold mining area or the Other Native American language groups?

Answer 1

Gold mining area - If you are talking about California then "NO"



California had the most diverse number of Native American languages in the United States.



THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE AMERICAN

http://bss.sfsu.edu/calstudies/NativeWebPages/ca%20web%201.html

Native American Tribes of California

http://www.native-languages.org/california.htm

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California would have previously been Spanish. During the gold rush many languages would have been spoken.



And not all the 49ers were Americans. In late 1849, the flags on ships in San Francisco Bay included those of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Hawaii, Hamburg, Bremen, Belgium, Sweden, Chile, Peru, Russia, Mexico, Norway and Tahiti. There were Chinese and Irish, Italians and Australians.



In the 1850 census, a quarter of those counted in California were from foreign lands.

http://www.calgoldrush.com/

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Answer 2

Native americans have spoke english or french since the 1500's when europeans first started exploring the "new world".

So yes they did speak english by 1840-1850. Not to say all natives would have known english but at least some did.

The gold mining area would have a higher precentage of english speaking people, reason being the need to communicate for trade and being a predominently white population.

Answer 3

When they came here to california looking for gold, the spaniards had already been, Several knew spanish. At that time, MANY MANY helped them find that 'yellow metal' hoping they would take it from the creeks and LEAVE. We had no use for it, it's pretty but doesn't hold an edge, not good for anything.



Sign was the language of the day, the bridge that allowed for trading across all languages.



We were wrong, they're still here.

Answer 4

That would depend on the tribe. The east coast tribes, most likely. Tribes east of the Mississippi, probably not. Don't know how that applies to your map but hope it helps.