In the late 19th and early 20th century, the few Wintun who had survived epidemics, massacres, and forced labor were placed by the government on scattered reservations.  In 1907, the Wintun were forced off ancestral lands and placed on a federally-created rancheria, a small residential site, in Rumsey.  In 1942, the federal government moved the remaining Rumsey Tribe members to a different small parcel.   Rancheria and reservation lands were extremely poor and could not support a population, and they were located far from towns or cities where work was available.  With no economic base, a people who had been proud and independent for thousands of years became wards of the government. Those who chose to remain with the tribe, to retain their language, their roots, and their culture became more and more dependent on government aid for survival, and gradually adapted to the culture of the white man.  In 1953, the federal government decided to assimilate Indians into American life: they declared that government funding and services to Indians would be withdrawn immediately, and that the special status as “tribes” would be “terminated.”  The goal was to relocate Indians from tribal lands to the cities.  The result was the disappearance of many tribes, and lives of grinding poverty for those who remained.  By 1972, only three Patwin rancherias remained.  The Rumsey Rancheria was one of the survivors.