 | |
| Author | Benjamin Madley |
|---|---|
| Subject | California Genocide |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | Yale University Press |
Publication date | 27 June 2017 |
| ISBN | 9780300230697 |
An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 is a 2017 non-fiction book about the California genocide by history professor Benjamin Madley.
An American Genocide was the first book to fully document the U.S. government-sanctioned California Genocide. [1] The book was published by Yale University Press [2] and is used by Yale University. [1]
The 692 page book [2] was published on 27 June 2017. [1] It was written by Benjamin Madley, a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. [2]
The chronologically arranged [3] book documents the United States-government's role in the 19th-century California genocide. The book details killing of Native Americans by the Americans who violently colonised California. It gives the pre-1846 history in which Spanish colonisers used Native Americans as a source of low-cost labour, and how Native Americans suffered from both disease and land theft. When the Americans arrived, they started a program of genocidal extermination, killing 80% of the Native American population, who lacked access to firearms. [2] The book reports on the slavery that Americans subjected Native American women and the abuse of children:
“some white men came. They killed my grandfather and my mother and my father. . . . Then they killed my baby sister and cut her heart out and threw it in the brush where I ran and hid.” [2]
The book's author names the actions as genocidal [4] [2] and devotes 200 pages of the book [2] to documenting almost every killing that took place during the time period that the book covers. [5]
The book won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for History in 2016 and was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. [1]
In 2018, Pacific Historical Review described the book as "monumental." [5] The Journal of the Early Republic described it as "impressive" and praised the author for the quality of his research. [3]
The Yuki are an indigenous people of California who were traditionally divided into three groups: Ukomno'om, Huchnom, and Ukohtontilka or Ukosontilka. The territory of these three groups included Round Valley and much of northern Mendocino County and Lake County. Today they are enrolled members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation. The exonym "Yuki" may derive from the Wintu word meaning "foreigner" or "enemy."
Serranus Clinton Hastings was an American politician, rancher and lawyer in California. He studied law as a young man and moved to the Iowa District in 1837 to open a law office. Iowa became a territory a year later, and he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the Iowa Territorial General Assembly. When the territory became the state of Iowa in 1846, he won an election to represent the state in the United States House of Representatives. After his term ended, he became Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.
The Tolowa people or Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni’ are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethno-linguistic group. Two rancherías still reside in their traditional territory in northwestern California. Those removed to the Siletz Reservation in Oregon are located there.
The Tataviam are a Native American group in Southern California. The ancestral land of the Tataviam people includes northwest present-day Los Angeles County and southern Ventura County, primarily in the upper basin of the Santa Clara River, the Santa Susana Mountains, and the Sierra Pelona Mountains. They are distinct from the Kitanemuk and the Gabrielino-Tongva peoples.
The population of Native California refers to the population of Indigenous peoples of California. Estimates prior to and after European contact have varied substantially. Pre-contact estimates range from 133,000 to 705,000 with some recent scholars concluding that these estimates are low.
Klamath and Salmon River War, or Klamath War, or Red Cap War, or Klamath River Massacres, was an American Indian War which occurred in Klamath County California from January to March 1855. The war began from incidents between local settlers and local Indians and a rumor of an Indian uprising against the miners along the Klamath River by the Yurok and Karok Native American tribes. Local miners wanted the Indians armed with guns and ammunition disarmed, anyone trading them to the Indians whipped and expelled from the County and any Indian found with firearms after that time was to be killed. Some of the Indians, mainly a group called the "Red Caps", refused to disarm, and hostilities began between them and the miners. Troops from the California State Militia and U. S. Army were necessary to stop the war.
The Conquest of California, also known as the Conquest of Alta California or the California Campaign, was an important military campaign of the Mexican–American War carried out by the United States in Alta California, then a part of Mexico. The conquest lasted from 1846 into 1847, until military leaders from both the Californios and Americans signed the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ended the conflict in California.
Indigenous peoples of California, commonly known as Indigenous Californians or Native Californians, are a diverse group of nations and peoples that are indigenous to the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the colonization of Europeans. There are currently 109 federally recognized tribes in the state and over forty tribes or tribal bands that have applied for federal recognition. California has the second-largest Native American population in the United States.
The Yontocket massacre or Burnt Ranch massacre was an 1853 massacre of Tolowa people at the village of Yontocket, northwestern California.
Forced labor in California existed as a system technically different but similar to chattel slavery. While California's state constitution outlawed slavery, the 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians allowed the indenture of Native Californians. The act allowed for a system of custodianship for indigenous children and a system of convict leasing. These systems were backed by the legalized corporal punishment of any Native Californian, and the stripping of many legal rights of Native Californians.
The California genocide was the killing of thousands of Indigenous peoples of California by United States government agents and private citizens in the 19th century. It began following the American Conquest of California from Mexico, and the influx of settlers due to the California Gold Rush, which accelerated the decline of the Indigenous population of California. Between 1846 and 1873, it is estimated that non-Natives killed between 9,492 and 16,094 California Natives. Hundreds to thousands were additionally starved or worked to death. Acts of enslavement, kidnapping, rape, child separation and displacement were widespread. These acts were encouraged, tolerated, and carried out by state authorities and militias.
The Asbill massacre refers to the murder of 40 Yuki people in Round Valley in 1854 by a band of six White explorers from Missouri.
The Sacramento River massacre refers to the killing of many Wintu people on the banks of the Sacramento River on 5 April 1846 by an expedition band led by Captain John C. Frémont of Virginia. Estimates range from 125 to 900.
The Sutter Buttes massacre refers to the murder of a large group of Californian Indians on the Sacramento River near Sutter Buttes in June 1846 by a militarized expeditionary band led by Captain John C. Frémont of Virginia. Estimates of the number of California Indians killed in the massacre range from several hundred to several thousand.
The Rancheria Tulea massacre was an incident in March 1847 when American slave traders killed five Indians in retaliation for the escape of several enslaved Indians.
The Konkow Maidu slaver massacre refers to an incident in 1847 when several settlers killed 12 to 20 Konkow Maidu in a slave raid near present-day Chico, California.
Redick McKee was an American government official.
Denial of atrocities against Indigenous Peoples are present or historical claims made by public figures, organizations or states that deny any of the multiple atrocities committed against Indigenous Peoples when academic consensus or present state policy that acknowledges that such crimes occurred. This includes denial of various genocides against Indigenous Peoples and other crimes against humanity, war crimes, or ethnic cleansing. Denial may be the result of the minority status, cultural distance, small scale or visibility, marginalization, the lack of political, lower economic and social status of Indigenous nations or groups existing within a state.
This is a bibliography of California history. It contains English language books and mainstream academic journal articles published after World War II.
