James D. Savage (1823–1852) was a California pioneer. He was a 49er, businessman, American soldier in the Mexican–American War, and commander of the California Militia, Mariposa Battalion in the Mariposa War and the first alleged non-Native American visitor to the Yosemite Valley.

James D. Savage was born in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1823, soon after moving to Jacksonville of Morgan County, Illinois, to Peter Savage and Doritha Shaunce (née) and was named after his paternal grandfather. In the fall of 1833, Savage's mother died of unknown causes. In 1836, Savage's father relocated the family to Princeton, Illinois and remarried. Savage was thirteen at the time.

Receiving little in the way of formal education, Savage quickly took to the outdoors, where he honed his gift for languages with local Fox and Sac Native Americans—a skill which would prove critical in his later dealings. Little is known of his life during this period. In 1840s, Savage moved to Cayuga County, New York, where he married Eliza Hall in 1845. Following the marriage, Savage and his wife then relocated to Peru, Illinois. Their life together in Illinois, however, was short-lived. Drawn by the allure of gold, Savage, Eliza, and Savage's brother, Morgan, migrated west towards California in April 1846 with the intention of striking a fortune in the precious metal. Upon their arrival at Independence, Missouri, Savage and his family joined a wagon train party led by former Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs for the trip to California. As the Boggs party headed west, they would later be accompanied by other parties, including the famed Donner Party. During the six-month journey west, Eliza gave birth to a baby girl. Unfortunately, both mother and child died shortly after in 1846. In a 1908 letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, Lilburn Bogg's son, William M. Boggs, recounted Eliza's death. Weakened due to childbirth, Eliza succumbed to exposure to the cold and was interred in a shallow grave somewhere in the region of Lake Tahoe. With Eliza gone, the baby girl perished soon after. The child was never given a name.

Although most contemporary sources cite Savage's year of birth to be 1817, Tulare County Library Historian Annie R. Mitchell identified Savage as being born in 1823 in her 1949 article, “Major James D. Savage and the Tularenos,” published in the journal, California Historical Society Quarterly. In the article's notes, Mitchell stated that she derived Savage's genealogical information from the letters of H.M. Savage as well as from the 1881 book, Reminiscences of a Ranger by Horace Bell.

Boggs' party arrived at Sutter's Fort in California on October 28, 1846. While there, Savage volunteered to join John Fremont's California Battalion during the California Campaign of the Mexican–American War. Savage had arrived too late to take part in the Bear Flag Rebellion, but he did participate in the Battalion's march from Monterey to San Luis Obispo which took place between November 17 and December 14, 1846. Although he was described as one of “the worst malcontents in the battalion,” Savage remained under Fremont's command until the unit was disbanded in April 1847. It was during Savage's time in the battalion where he learned from his Indian compatriots of a region in California's central valley the Spanish called Tulares — later known as the San Joaquin Valley. Following the dissolution of Fremont's battalion, Savage eventually traveled to the San Joaquin Valley, where he established a number of trading posts along the Merced, Fresno, and Mariposa Rivers, living among the local Indian tribe, the Yokuts.

During his time with the Yokuts, Savage eventually learned their language and, for the purposes of building political alliances, married several daughters of the tribal leaders of the tribes in the Sierra foothill region. Using his status, Savage led the Yokuts in battle against other tribes as one of their chieftains. In addition to the Yokuts, Savage also established amicable relations with the nearby Chowchilla tribe, befriending their chief, Jose-Juarez. Due to his significant standing within the Native American community of California's Central Valley and the surrounding Sierras, the Indians trusted Savage to broker the trade of gold and goods on their behalf. In doing so, Savage's influence and ability to intermingle with both Native Americans and whites elevated him to serve as the leader for many California Indian tribes. Assuming the name given to him by the local Indians, "El Rey Güero," or, "The Blond King," Savage certainly lived up to his namesake. He preferred to be addressed by his honorific and commanded Natives under his control to mine for gold.

Savage's relationship with California Indians, however, was not enduring. On an 1850 trip to San Francisco, Savage, accompanied by Jose-Juarez and a number of female Indians, arrived in the city to trade and purchase goods and supplies for the local Indian tribes. In addition to purchasing supplies, Savage also sought a safe place to cache the 160 pounds of gold dust he brought with him - even rolling the barrel of gold through the lobby of the hotel in which they were staying. Delighted by the city's metropolitan atmosphere and the influx of business and new excitements brought about by California's 1848 Gold Rush, Savage and Jose-Juarez took to the streets, visiting gambling dens and drinking heavily throughout the course of their stay. In doing so, Savage ultimately ended up gambling away his gold, in addition to money designated for the purchase of supplies. Witnessing this, Jose-Juarez confronted Savage about his imprudent decision-making. As he later told Lafayette Bunnell, Savage was appalled that a Native would have the audacity to deride a white man in public and struck Jose-Juarez. Although nothing more was said about the incident during the trip, Juarez's faith in Savage as a friend to the Indians had been shaken.

Following the group's return to Fresno River from San Francisco, reports of Indian raiding parties throughout the Central Valley began to materialize. Hoping to drive whites out of the region, the Indians had begun a campaign of random attacks on white settlements and trading posts in the area. Upon learning this, Savage appealed to Indians who were gathered nearby to dissuade them from taking up arms against the whites, stating that they lacked the ability to counter the white man's technological and numerical superiority. Requesting Jose-Juarez for support on the matter, Juarez stood up before the Indians who were present. Instead of backing Savage, however, Juarez condemned Savage as a charlatan who was only exploiting his relationships with the Indian tribes and playing them against white settlers for his own personal gain. Jose-Juarez (via Jill Cossley-Batt's Last of the California Rangers):