1888 Broadside Claims - Indian Joe Murdered John Magallon

Attractive framed broadside, 9” x12”, bold 2” one word headline, REWARD!, issued by the State of California, R.W. Waterman, Governor, September 20, 1888 and prints in part, “"WHEREAS... one JOHN MAGALLON... was foully murdered; And whereas, one BIG JOE, alias INDIAN JOE, alias WHISKY JOE ... has been charged by the Governor’s Jury ... and whereas Big Joe is still at large ... reward of Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars for the arrest and conviction INDIAN JOE, alias WHISKY JOE .... " Jow was likely a laborer or transient moving through Northern California's Gold Country, specifically around Yuba, Placer, and Nevada. In 19th-century California press and court documents, the term "Indian Joe" or "Digger Indian" was a generic, often derogatory label applied by white settlers to local Native American men (particularly from the Maidu, Miwok, or Washoe tribes) whose actual legal or tribal names went unrecorded by frontier authorities.