An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873

709 Pages·2016·11.01 MB·English

by  Benjamin Madley

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WILLIAM J. CRONON, University of Wisconsin– Madison
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JOHN MACK FARAGHER, Yale University
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GEORGE A. MILES, Beinecke Library, Yale University
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A A
n merican
G
enocide
The United States and the California
Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873
Benjamin Madley
New Haven & London
This book was made possible in part through the generosity of the UCLA History
Department and the Division of Social Sciences and was published with assistance
from the income of the Frederick John Kingsbury Memorial Fund.
Copyright © 2016 by Benjamin Logan Madley.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For California Indians, past, present, and future
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White p eople want our land, want destroy us. . . . I hear p eople tell ’bout what Inyan
do early days to white man. Nobody ever tell it what white man do to Inyan. That’s
reason I tell it. That’s history. That’s truth.
— Lucy Young (Lassik/Wailaki), 1939, eyewitness to genocide
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CONTENTS
Acknowl edgments xi
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
1 California Indians before 1846 16
2 Prelude to Genocide: March 1846– March 1848 42
3 Gold, Immigrants, and Killers from Oregon: March 1848– May 1850 67
4 Turning Point: The Killing Campaigns of December 1849– May 1850 103
5 Legislating Exclusion and Vulnerability: 1846–1853 145
6 Rise of the Killing Machine: Militias and Vigilantes,
April 1850– December 1854 173
7 Perfecting the Killing Machine: December 1854– March 1861 231
8 The Civil War in California and Its Aftermath: March 1861–1871 289
9 Conclusion 336