An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book. |
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AN AMERICAN GENOCIDE: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873
User Review - KirkusIt was no accident that California's Indians were slaughtered by the droves in the mid-19th century, writes UCLA historian Madley, but instead the product of design.We know the heyday of genocide ... Read full review
Contents
March 1848May 1850 | |
The Killing Campaigns of December 1849May | |
18461853 | |
Militias and Vigilantes April 1850 | |
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An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian ... Benjamin Madley Limited preview - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
Achumawi Alta California Appendix April April 19 Army attacked August August 27 August 31 Bancroft Library Bigler calculate the total California Indians killed California Volunteers campaign Captain Clear Lake Correspondent County Creek Daily Alta California December Eel River extermination February federal Frémont genocide gold Governor Heizer Humboldt Indian Affairs January January 18 January 21 John journal entry July June Kibbe Klamath labor Lyon March massacre Mendocino miles militiamen Modoc Modoc War Mojave mountains murder Nisenan nonIndians North American Indians November number of California October Oregon Oregonians Owens Valley Pit River Pomo Ranch ranger militia Red Bluff Beacon Redwood reported Reservation Round Valley Sacramento Transcript San Francisco Senate September Shasta Courier Shasta Republican soldiers Sonoma squaws Stone and Kelsey summary Sutter Tolowa total high-end number treaties tribes Trinity Unreported Unreported Unreported USOIA vigilantes village violence Wappo whites Wintu wounded Wright Yana Yreka Yreka Union
Bibliographic information
| Title | An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 The Lamar Series in Western History |
| Author | Benjamin Madley |
| Publisher | Yale University Press, 2016 |
| ISBN | 0300182171, 9780300182170 |
| Length | 480 pages |
| Subjects | › › › History / Native American History / United States / 19th Century History / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY) |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |