1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910798208103321

Autore

Madley Benjamin

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, CT : , : Yale University Press, , [2016]

©2016

ISBN

0-300-18217-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (709 p.)

Collana

The Lamar Series in Western History

Classificazione

15.85

Disciplina

979.404

Soggetti

Indians of North America - California

Indians of North America - Crimes against - California

Indians of North America - Government relations - California

State-sponsored terrorism - California

Indians, Treatment of - California

California History 19th century

California

USA

Kalifornien

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. California Indians before 1846 -- 2. Prelude to Genocide: March 1846- March 1848 -- 3. Gold, Immigrants, and Killers from Oregon: March 1848- May 1850 -- 4. Turning Point: The Killing Campaigns of December 1849- May 1850 -- 5. Legislating Exclusion and Vulnerability: 1846-1853 -- 6. Rise of the Killing Machine: Militias and Vigilantes, April 1850- December 1854 -- 7. Perfecting the Killing Machine: December 1854- March 1861 -- 8. The Civil War in California and Its Aftermath: March 1861-1871 -- 9. Conclusion -- Appendixes -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The first full account of the government-sanctioned genocide of California Indians under United States rule Between 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.