The State - News from July 16, 1989

Curators at historic Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento are preparing new tour tapes to more accurately reflect how Indians were treated in the 1840s, when the fort was built by Swiss national Johann August Suter, usually known as John Sutter. Local historians have complained for years that information provided thousands of visitors to the white adobe landmark has been inadequate. According to researchers, the old tapes, which have been removed, failed to state that the fort’s cannons were used to keep Indians under control, that Sutter would not have been able to build the fort without Indian labor and that Indians were often kept in the fort’s prison.