«General Sutter» – die obskure Seite einer Schweizer Heldenerzählung

Abstract

The myth of Swiss emigrant Johann August Sutter (1803–1880) who built the «empire» of New Helvetia in the interior of Alta California on his own and, thus, founded the city of Sacramento has been uncritically passed on in Swiss literature, film and theater for over hundred years now. With the establishment of the partnership between Sacramento and Liestal in the late 1980 s, the administration of the canton Basel-Landschaft initiated an official commemoration of their common compatriot. What has been left out in this particular metanarrative until today are the achievements and deprivations of the hundreds of indigenous who were forced into labor and kept like animals by Sutter. The self-proclaimed empresario de colonizacion also dealt in indigenous children, who he violently robbed from their homes, within the illegal slave trade of indigenous peoples. The present article retraces the process that led to the initiation of the «General Sutter» commemoration in the 1980 s, and also sheds light on the hitherto hidden (indigenous) side of this popular Swiss tale and, therefore, reveals yet another part of entangled Swiss history.