The California genocide was a series of genocidal massacres of the Indigenous peoples of California by United States governments, soldiers and settlers during the 19th century.
Start~End 1846 ~ 1871Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 4:29 PM
Estimates for violent deaths: No more than 2,000 (per Anderson), 4,300 (per Cook), 4,500 (per California Secretary of State), 9,492–16,094 (per Madley)
Injured
10,000–27,000 taken as forced laborers by white settlers; 4,000–7,000 of them children
Victims
80% (1846–1870)The genocide accelerated the decline of the Indigenous population, which decreased from 150,000 to 30,000.
Prior to the Spanish arrival, California's Indigenous population was estimated as high as 300,000.6 It decreased further from roughly 150,000 in 1848 to 30,000 in 1870 and 16,000 by 1900 as a result of disease, low birth rates, starvation, and genocide.7 Between 10,000 and 27,000 were also subject to forced labor by U.S. settlers, with California officials repeatedly passing .
Since the 2000s, historians have characterized the period immediately following the conquest of California as one in which U.S. miners, farmers, and ranchers on the American frontier engaged in the systematic genocide of Californian Indians. In 2019, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, described the events as "genocide", adding, "...that's the way it needs to be described in the history books." He also apologized for the "violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history".14 In a 2019 executive order, Newsom announced the formation of a "Truth and Healing Council" to better understand the genocide and inform future generations of what occurred.15
Background
Indigenous Californians
Prior to Spanish arrival, California was home to an American Indian population thought to have been as high as 300,000.16 The largest group were the Chumash people, with a population around 10,000.6 The region was highly diverse, with numerous distinct languages spoken. While there was great diversity in the area, archeological findings show little evidence of intertribal conflicts.9
The various tribal groups appear to have adapted to particular areas and territories. According to journalist Nathan Gilles, because of traditions practiced by the Native people of Northern California, they were able to "manage the threat of wildfires and cultivate traditional plants".17 For example, traditional use of fire by Californian and Pacific Northwest tribes, allowed them to "cultivate plants and fungi" that "adapted to regular burning. The list runs from fiber sources, such as bear-grass and willow, to foodstuffs, such as berries, mushrooms, and acorns from oak trees that once made up sprawling orchards".17 Many practices were used to manage the land without tremendous destruction in other ways including "tillage, pruning, seed broadcasting, transplanting, weeding, irrigation, and fertilizing".18 These groups worked to stimulate the growth and diversity of botanical resources across landscapes. Traditional practices allowed for the "extraordinarily successful management of natural resources available to Native Californian tribes".19 Because of traditional practices of Native Californian tribes, they were able to support habitats and climates that would then support an abundance of wildlife, including rabbits, deer, varieties of fish, fruit, roots, and acorns. The Native people largely followed a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, moving around their area through the seasons as different types of food were available.20
The American Indian people of California, according to sociologist Kari Norgaard, were "hunting and fishing for their food, weaving baskets using traditional techniques" and "carrying out important ceremonies to keep the world intact".21 It was also recorded that the American Indian people in California and across the continent had used "fire to enhance specific plant species, optimize hunting conditions, maintain open travel routes, and generally support the flourishing of the species upon which they depend, according to scholars22 like the United States Forest Service ecologist and Karuk descendent Frank Lake".21
European contact
California was one of the last regions in the Americas to be colonized by European colonists. Spanish Catholic missionaries, led by Franciscan administrator Junípero Serra and military forces under the command of officer Gaspar de Portolá, did not reach this area until 1769. The mission was intended to spread the Catholic faith among the region's American Indian population and establish and expand the reach of the Spanish Empire.20 The Spanish built San Diego de Alcalá, the first of 21 missions standing in modern-day California, at what developed as present-day San Diego in the southern part of the state along the Pacific. (The Spanish also built 30 missions and 11 visitas in Baja California.) Military outposts were constructed to house the soldiers sent to protect the missions.
Before American rule, Spanish and Mexican rule were devastating for the American Indian populations, and "as the missions grew, California's Native population of Indians began a catastrophic decline."2324Gregory Orfalea estimates that pre-contact population was reduced by 33% during the Spanish and Mexican regimes. Most of the decline stemmed from imported diseases, low birth rates, and the disruption of traditional ways of life, but violence was common, and some historians have charged that life in the missions was close to slavery.825 According to George Tinker, an American Indian scholar, "the Native American population of coastal population was reduced by some 90 percent during seventy years under the sole proprietorship of Serra's mission system".26
According to journalist Ed Castillo, member of the Native American Caucus of the California Democratic Party, Serra spread the Christian faith among the Native population in a destructive way that caused their population to decline rapidly while he was in power. Castillo writes that "The Franciscans took it upon themselves to brutalize the Indians, and to rejoice in their death...They simply wanted the souls of these Indians, so they baptized them, and when they died, from disease or beatings... they were going to heaven, which was a cause of celebration".20 According to Castillo, the Native American population were forced to abandon their "sustainable and complex civilization" as well as "their beliefs, their faith, and their way of life".20 However, artifacts found at an archaeological site on San Clemente Island suggested that a group of Indigenous people were practicing traditional ways after the arrival of Europeans and Americans in other parts of California, and until potentially the 1850s.27 The artifacts included subsistence remains, middens, and flaked stone tools.27
Timeline
The following is a rough timeline of some of the key events and policies that contributed to the genocide. It is by no means comprehensive.
1542: California is discovered by Spain. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer sailing under the Spanish flag, explores the California coast and lands in San Diego Harbor, naming it San Miguel. His crew peacefully interacts with Kumeyaay people for six days trading goods and discussing cultural differences. The larger California area is named from a fictional paradise described in the early 16th-century novel "Las Sergas de Esplandián" by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.28
1769: Spanish colonizers extended the Mexican Catholic mission system into the mission system in California, which led to the forced conversion and enslavement of California area Native Americans.293031
1821–1823: Mexico gained independence from Spain and took control of California, continuing the Spanish government's policies of forced labor and conversion of Indigenous peoples.323133
1846–1848: The Mexican–American War led to the annexation of California by the United States. The settlers and U.S. military formed an alliance and were joined by some Indigenous people, although the military had "murdered many Natives".3731 After the war Commodore Robert F. Stockton appointed John C. Frémont military governor of the Territory of California.38
1848: The discovery of gold in California led to the influx of a massive horde of settlers, who formed militias to kill and displace Indigenous peoples.394031
1851–1852: The Mariposa War broke out between white settlers and the Ahwahnechee, resulting in the displacement and killing of Native Americans by the Mariposa Battalion in the Sierra Nevada region.42
1860s: The federal government began a policy of forced removal of Native Americans peoples to reservations, which led to violence and displacement.44
Late 1800s–early 1900s: Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families by the California government and placed in boarding schools, where they were subjected to abuse and forced assimilation.454647
1909: The California state government established the California Eugenics Record Office, which promoted the forced sterilization of people declared by the government to be "unfit", including "Black, Latino and Indigenous women who were incarcerated or in state institutions for disabilities".484950
History
1846–1850
Starting with the conquest of California in 1846, early US incursions into Alta California, then a part of Mexico, saw several massacres take place. Military expeditions led by John C. Fremont saw the earliest massacres of California Indigenous peoples orchestrated by US forces.51 In April 1846, the first of these massacres occurred on the Sacramento River against the Wintu, which killed anywhere from 150 to 1000 people.52 Later that month, Fremont's contingent was attacked by the Klamath leading to two or three deaths. As a result, massacres took place against the Klamath. A total of 14 people were killed. More massacres would be perpetrated by Fremont throughout his campaign in California. At that time, non-Indigenous settlers were outnumbered 15 to 1 in California.53
In 1847, John Sutter was appointed the first federal Indian Subagent in California. As Subagent, Sutter was known to participate extensively in the human trafficking of Indigenous Californians.54 Sutter had kidnapped over two thousand people to work at his ranch in near slave like conditions. The workers were often from the Pomo and Nisenan tribes. Sutter had ordered those around him to keep the Natives under fear. The conditions at the Sutter Ranch were very poor.55
Over the course of 1848, gold miners poured into California from other parts of the US, bringing further violence. The Whitman massacre in Oregon spurred revenge killings against Indigenous communities in California.56 As violence escalated, more settlers arrived 1849. This wave of immigration popularized the term "forty niners" for gold miners in California.57 That year, Pomo, and Wappo laborers killed rancher Andrew Kelsey, a man known for selling indentured Native people.58
Quechan war
In late 1849, the Quechan people came into conflict with white outlaws known as the Glanton gang in Southern California, who ran competing ferrying businesses. The gang committed numerous crimes on local Natives and Mexicans living in the area.59 In part due to the brutality of these outlaws, some settlers reached a deal with the Quechan to run a ferrying business for a quarter of the price that the gang charged. The outlaws killed an Irish ferryman named Callaghan who was ferrying people on behalf of the Quechan and had threatened the tribe. The Quechan attempted to negotiate a compromise, but were beaten by the outlaws in response.60
In 1850, the gang's leader, John Glanton, and 10 others were killed by the Quechan.60 Soon afterwards the government of California would respond, organizing the first state supported militia campaign against California Natives. The Gila Expedition would lead to a massacre of Quechan people and would be used as a model for later operations.61 Other massacres would take place that year in places such as Clear Lake,62 Mendocino, and other areas in the northern regions of California.61
1851–1855
In 1851, numerous treaties were negotiated with California tribes, though none were ratified. Tribes were required to sign and acknowledge such agreements. Resistance to the treaty process was often met with violence, as happened to the Yokuts, who refused to attend treaty negotiations.63
The 1850 "Act for the Government and Protection of the Indian" legalized the indentured servitude of Indigenous children in California, as well as Indigenous people who had committed "Indian crimes." The act intensified the kidnapping and forced labor of Indigenous Californians.64 As conditions worsened, calls were made for a "war of extermination" by governor Peter Burnett in 1851; Burnett had argued the extinction of Natives was inevitable and nearing.65
Mariposa war
As conflicts worsened, Cupeño leader Antonio Garra launched a rebellion against the US. Initially having hoped to negotiate with the settlers, Garra lost patience after taxes were forcibly imposed on the Cupeño and called for an uprising of local Indigenous nations, inviting Hispanic Californians to join him.66 The short lived rebellion lasted only a few months before the Cahuilla leader Juan Antonio captured Garra and handed him over to American forces.67 The rebellion served to heighten settler panic.68
The Mariposa War which targeted the Yokuts, Miwok, and Paiute peoples in the Yosemite region, was one of the major early conflicts of the genocide. Over the course of the war, the Mariposa Battalion carried out massacres against those Indigenous communities living within what is now the modern day Yosemite National Park.69
The head of the Mariposa Battalion, trader James Savage, having learned that some of the tribes wished to fight the settlers, warned that:
It is better for the Indians and white men to be friends, if the Indians make war on the white men every tribe will be exterminated; not one will be left. I have just been where the white men are more numerous than wasps and ants; and if war is made and the Americans are aroused to anger, every Indian engaged in the war will be killed before the whites will be satisfied.70
Savage dismissed attempts to resolve the war through treaties, arguing that tribes in the mountains would continue to resist. He blamed the Treaty Commission for temporarily preventing further attacks by the Mariposa Battalion, claiming that this led to the deaths of eight settlers. Savage also prevented treaty negotiations with the Ahwahneechee, who had sought negotiations, by telling the Treaty Commissioner that their interest was simply a ploy to ambush Savage.71
The war continued, with the Mariposa Battalion's primary strategy being to starve out resisting tribes by burning their food supplies.72 The Mariposa War largely ended when Ahwahneechee leader Tenaya was captured. Soon after the tribe was marched to Fresno.73 Expeditions and massacres would take place targeting the Nissenan,74Wintu, Yana, Nomlaki,75 and Modoc76 as well, in 1851. These actions were somewhat subdued by the Treaty Commission who were hoping to secure agreements that year.74
Northern California conflicts
In 1852, due to the previous year's massacres by settlers, Modoc began attacking emigrant caravans which passed through their territory. Several massacres of these caravans took place as a result of this, such as at Bloody Point.77 Ben Wright, a settler who had participated in previous massacres against the Modoc, called for a truce. When individuals from the tribe came down to negotiate, Wright massacred all those who had arrived. Those killed included the father of future Modoc leader Captain Jack, the death toll was said to be between 30 and 90.78
Wright was later killed by a Rogue River Indian man named Enos, after Wright had sexually assaulted an indigenous woman who worked as an interpreter. Enos was soon hanged for the murder.79 The treaties signed in 1851 were rejected in 1852, when the California Senate voted against ratification. Reasonings given included, that the senators believed too much land granted to the tribes and much of the granted lands were rich in minerals which could be mined and should not be controlled by indigenous communities.80 Additional massacres occurred throughout 1852 in Northern California, such as those against Shasta, Tolowa, Wintu, and Sinkyone people, killing hundreds.81
In 1853, a letter sent to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California by a district attorney outlined the conditions in which native indentured laborers, particularly those kidnapped from Clear Lake, were living. The letter stated that many who were kidnapped and brought to ranches in Napa County had already died due to the inhumane conditions.82 The Superintendent later forwarded this information to the Secretary of the Interior and added that the Indigenous population of California in 1853 was between 75k-100k.83 Superintendent Edward Beale would write to the secretary of Interior:
The unanimity of the vote for hanging the old man is, with me, no sign of its justice; and as for his courage in dying, that is natural to the Indian character, and especially in these California Indians, who are reduced to despair—their country, and all support, taken away from them; no resting-place, where they can be safe; death on one hand from starvation, and on the other by killing and hanging.84
In 1853, there were documented instances of settlers attempting to infect Native Californians with smallpox, there was also multiple cases of Natives being deliberately poisoned by settlers, poisoned food was left out for the starving Indigenous people to find and eat, this would lead to their death.85 Several massacres occurred that year, the largest being the Yontocket massacre against the Tolowa. Settlers surrounded the village of Yontocket, the largest village of the Tolowa, where many had gathered for a religious ceremony. They set fire to the village and shot those who tried to escape, the death toll was anywhere from 150 to 600.86 Smaller massacres would take place elsewhere throughout the year.87
In 1854, an act was passed banning Indigenous Californians from owning firearms, possession of firearms resulted in a fine, and a one to six-month prison sentence, this law would remain in effect till 1913.88 During this period, the Shasta Expedition would lead to further massacres, sporadic killings continued elsewhere.89 The winter months saw a rise in conflict, after settlers attempted to assault a Karuk girl, four settlers were killed by the Karuk in retaliation.90 The Klamath River War began when settlers tried to forcibly disarm the Indigenous people in the region and met resistance.91
The war continued into 1855, after two Natives were killed along the Salmon River, the tribes fled to the mountains. Later retaliatory attacks would kill 22 settlers on the same day. The Klamath River War would be a predecessor to the Bald Hills War.92 From 1855 onwards, it became an increasingly common practice for Indigenous people to be kidnapped from reservations and forced into indentured servitude, particularly women and children.93 A report issued that year accused the officials who ran the Reservations as being highly corrupt.94
1856–1860
In 1856, Indigenous people living in San Diego faced significant danger. Public lynchings occurred, it was a frequent practice for police in Southern California to kill Natives who had not yet been trialled by hanging them in their cell.95 Starving Yokuts who engaged in cattle rustling were attacked by militiamen, after a number of operations, 14 Yokuts had been killed. Soon afterward, militiamen received intelligence of a large Yokut gathering and planned an ambush. Although taken by surprise, the Yokuts managed to repel the ambush and they retaliated by following the retreating militia and burning settler houses and property.96 That same year, California militiamen killed 185 Indigenous people during the Modoc expedition.97 "Slave marts" were reported to be operating in Los Angeles, selling Indigenous Indentured laborers.95
Bald Hills war and Round Valley massacres
In 1857, massacres intensified in Mendocino and the Round Valley region, where settlers were encouraged to settle by the California Superintendent of Indian Affairs.98 One of the earliest settlers killed by the Yuki was William Mantle, Mantle was known to keep "Pet Indians" who were individuals that had been kidnapped from Round Valley and forced into labor. A total of 14 Yuki were killed in retaliation for his murder.99 That year, a massacre of the Yahi people saw 50 people killed, while 81 Achumawi people, and 10 Washoe were killed in numerous separate massacres. Throughout these operations no settlers were killed.100
By 1858, Indigenous Californians living in settler towns often subsisted off discarded food, and many Indigenous women were forced into prostitution.88 Women who were kidnapped were frequently forced into sexual exploitation and attempts by tribes to resist these actions caused further violence.101 Starvation was widespread on reservations in California, on the Round Valley reservation, eight to ten people were dying per day to syphilis and inadequate rations.102 Hunger frequently drove Natives to killing livestock, which would lead to further attacks on Native villages.103
Massacres in Round Valley between 1858 and 1860 killed more than 500 people.104 The term "Indian depredations" was commonly used around Mendocino and Round Valley to justify attacks on Native communities,98 although oftentimes livestock deaths came from other causes. The Wintoon War lead to at least 200 deaths and forced 6 tribes to relocate onto reservations.105 The Mendocino War followed soon after, the immediate catalyst was the killing of three horses by the Yuki, one of which being a prized stallion.106 Much of the violence committed against Indigenous Californians in Mendocino between 1859 and 1860 was done by a militia known as the Eel River Rangers, organized by a prominent "Indian Hunter" Walter Jarboe.107
In the aftermath of the horse killings, a two-week operation by settlers in Round Valley killed over 240 Indigenous people.108 The Eel River Rangers were known to consume local cattle during their operations. Settlers worried they would not be compensated for this loss of cattle.109 In 1859, an Indigenous boy, who was between 12 and 15 years old, was lynched in Tehama County after being accused of setting fire to his master, Col Stevenson's home, leading to at least seven deaths.110 Expeditions were done against the Yana and Maidu in retaliation for the fire, leading to the deaths of at least 42 Yana and Maidu.111 Expeditions along the Pit River that year resulted in hundreds more deaths among Indigenous communities.112
In early 1860, a large massacre targeted the Wiyot. Although Wiyot had maintained peaceful relations with settlers prior,113 over 285 were killed within a week.114 Additional massacres took place in northeastern California throughout the year. In Round Valley, the practice of settler raiding parties routinely kidnapping women and children was common.115 Amendments to the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians resulted in the age of majority altered for indigenous minors from 18 to 25 for boys, and 15 to 21 for girls respectively.116
1861–1865
In 1861, forced labor was widespread in Round Valley. Orphaned children of massacre victims were prime targets to be taken by settlers.117 Two Yuki boys tried poisoning their master, the former California Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Thomas Hanley. Hanley, after discovering the poison, found one of the children and hanged them in public.118 The Horse Canyon massacre in Mendocino killed up to 200 Wailaki people, the massacre was carried out after the Wailaki had killed livestock. Konkow Maidu were persuaded to participate in the massacre by settlers, and the Round Valley Reservation Superintendent, despite not wishing to do so.119
In 1862, a trial took place involving George H. Woodman, a prominent kidnapper of Indigenous children in Mendocino County, during the trial. Over 40 people testified to Woodman's innocence, arguing he saved starving children from turning to theft or "being shot like coyotes." Other witnesses, however, noted that he held exhibitions, in which he displayed his "little brown cubs," commanding them to "lie down" or "roll over" like a dog.120
Conditions in Round Valley deteriorated further, and multiple massacres occurred, the largest of which killed 45 Wailaki people.121 The Konkow fled the reservation that winter. Facing starvation, and aware that killing settler livestock would provoke massacres, they chose to make the journey back to their homelands in Butte County.122 The Yahi had killed three children that year, sparking outrage.123
In 1863, the Konkow Maidu were forced to undertake a return march to Round Valley.122 the Yahi were implicated in further raids, and the murder of two more children.124 In 1864, massacres would continue along the Sacramento River, targeting the Yana, Achumawi and other tribes. The death toll would be 361.125 Yahi in Northern California would continue to face massacres from 1865 to 1871, resulting in over 200 deaths.126
Owens Valley war
In 1862, Owens Valley Paiutes began raiding settler livestock. The livestock, which had consumed and destroyed much of the Valley's resources, forced the Paiutes into food scarcity.127 Settlers responded by raping three Paiute women.128 After Paiutes killed two settlers, a retaliatory massacre resulted in the deaths of over 73 Paiutes and the burning of a village. Further skirmishes lead to costly victories for the Paiutes. Although managing to defend their villages from settlers, they suffered many casualties while doing so.129 Tribes elsewhere in Southern California, including Tejon, were reported to have aided the Owens Valley Paiutes.130
In 1863, Paiutes in Owens Valley murdered three settlers, and two soldiers soon afterwards. Settlers responded with further massacres. By April, 150 Paiutes had been killed. In May, the Owens Valley Paiutes surrendered.131 Starvation led Owen Valley Paiutes to kill cattle, reigniting conflict the following year. In 1865, over 100 Paiutes were coralled and killed in a single incident. Sporadic killings would continue into 1866.132
Consequences for Native populations
Following the American Conquest of California from Mexico, the influx of American settlers due to the California Gold Rush in 1849, and the statehood of California in 1850, state and federal authorities incited, aided, and financed the violence against the American Indians. The California Natives were also sometimes contemptuously referred to as "Diggers", for their practice of digging up roots to eat.133134 On January 6, 1851, at his State of the State address to the California Senate, 1st Governor of California, Peter Burnett said: "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate this result but with painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert."13513665 During the California genocide, reports of the decimation of American Indians in California were made to the rest of the United States and internationally.137
I have the honor to report to the general commanding the Department of the Pacific that I have been in this valley fifteen days, carrying out my instructions to chastise these Indians, or the Indians of Owens River; that I have killed several, taken eleven prisoners, and destroyed a great many rancherias and a large quantity of seeds, worms, &c., that the Indians had gathered for food.
A notable early eyewitness testimony and account: "The Indians of California" (1864) is from John Ross Browne, Customs official and Inspector of Indian Affairs on the Pacific Coast. He systematically described the fraud, corruption, land theft, slavery, rape, and massacre perpetrated on a substantial portion of the aboriginal population.139140 This was confirmed by a contemporary, Superintendent Dorcas J. Spencer.141
Forced labor
The California Act for the Government and Protection of Indians was enacted in 1850 (amended 1860, repealed 1863). This law provided for "apprenticing" or indenturing Indian children to white settlers, and also punished "vagrant" Indians by "hiring" them out to the highest bidder at a public auction if the Indian could not provide sufficient bond or bail. This legalized a form of slavery in California.142 Settlers took 10,000 to 27,000 California Native Americans as forced laborers, including 4,000 to 7,000 children.1011
Prior to 1850, instances of forced indenture of Indigenous Californians were already occurring amongst American settlers. The first federal Indian subagent, John Sutter, owned up to 2000 indentured workers in 1847.143 In 1848, the New York Herald commented that Indigenous people in California were being held in conditions akin to slavery, and were regularly punished and flogged.58 High mortality rates were common among indentured laborers in California.82 Indigenous Indentured labor was driven primarily by a worker shortage created by the gold rush, with most settlers working in the gold fields, Indigenous people were forced to fill the gaps in the workforce.144 Indigenous children were often kidnapped and sold in towns far from their communities, at auctions.145 At these auctions, Natives were generally sold for between $50 to $250 each.146 The indenture of children served to deprive them of their families and culture.145
Starvation and disease
Starvation was acute during the California genocide, and led to a large number of deaths amongst the Indigenous population.147 Reservations experienced large losses of life due to starvation. At the Round Valley Reservation, the population had fallen from 3,450 to 250 between 1857 and 1858, with a large portion having died from starvation. Those at the reservation who were unable to work were not given food.148 Indigenous food sources were destroyed by settler fisheries, and the depletion of local wildlife.149 In 1852, it was stated in the Senate, that the Superintendent of Indian Affairs had received information, that over 15,000 Natives had died of starvation in California the previous year.150
Diseases were widespread, and many died after having already been weakened by malnutrition.151 Indigenous women commonly contracted sexually transmitted infections(STIs),152 which often proved fatal,153154 and were often due to prostitution,152 into which women were reportedly forced into by officials and reservation employees.155The Nome Cult Farm was particularly known for lack of food and prevalence of STIs.104
Violence statistics
In 1943, a study by demographer Sherburne Cook, estimated that there were 4,556 killings of California Indians between 1847 and 1865.2156 Contemporary historian Benjamin Madley has documented the numbers of Californian Indians killed between 1846 and 1873; he estimates that during this period at least 9,492 to 16,092 Californian Indians were killed by non-Indians, including between 1,680 and 3,741 killed by the U.S. Army. Most of the deaths took place in what he defined as more than 370 massacres (defined as the "intentional killing of five or more disarmed combatants or largely unarmed noncombatants, including women, children, and prisoners, whether in the context of a battle or otherwise"). Madley also estimates that fewer than 1,400 non-Indians were killed by Indians during this period.2 The Native American activist and former Sonoma State University Professor Ed Castillo was asked by The State of California's Native American Heritage Commission to write the state's official history of the genocide; he wrote that "well-armed death squads combined with the widespread random killing of Indians by individual miners resulted in the death of 100,000 Indians in [1848 and 1849]."157 Another contemporary historian, Gary Clayton Anderson, estimated that no more than 2,000 Native Americans were killed in California.158 Jeffrey Ostler has critiqued Anderson's estimate, calling it "unsubstantiated" and "at least five times too low".159 In the early 1850s, the California legislature authorized payment for multiple expeditions against the Native Americans of California. Some scholars believe that state legislators and officials "created a legal environment in which California Indians had almost no rights, thus granting those who attacked them virtual impunity which is defined as freedom from punishment."160 In addition, state legislators raised up to $1.51 million to pay for state militia expeditions against California Native Americans.161
Select ethnic groups targeted
While many groups were targeted in the genocide the circumstances of individual groups can be illustrative of the on the ground happenings of the killings.
Yuki
The Yuki people experienced catastrophe by the events of 1847–1853. The United States took possession of California from Mexico in January 1847, with the Gold Rush arriving swiftly in 1848. Hundreds of thousands came in the search of wealth, placing pressure on Indigenous Californians.162 More than 1,000 Yuki are estimated to have been killed in the Round Valley Settler Massacres of 1856–1859 and 400 in the Mendocino War; many others were enslaved and only 300 survived. The intent of the massacres was to exterminate the Yuki and gain control of the land they inhabited. U.S. Army soldiers deployed to the valley stopped further killings and in 1862 the California legislature revoked a law which permitted the kidnapping and enslavement of Native Americans in the state.
A few specific attacks of which there is witness testimony are:
A local paper reported 55 Indians killed in Clinton Valley on October 8, 1856.163
A white farmer, John Lawson, admitted an attack killing eight Indians, three by shooting and five by hanging, after some of his hogs were stolen. He stated that these killings were a common practice.164
A white farmer, Isaac Shanon, testified to killing 14 Indians in a revenge attack after a white man was killed in early 1858.165
White persons from the Sacramento Valley came into Round Valley and killed four Yuki Indians with the help of locals in June 1858, despite having been warned against it by Indian Agents.166
White settlers attacked and killed nine Indians in the mountains edging the valley in November 1858.167
Former Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Thomas Henley (fired two months earlier for embezzling funds), led a massacre of 11 Yuki Indians in August 1859.168
Due to the overwhelming number of killings, an exact death toll is unknowable. The following estimates were made by government agents and newspapers at the time:
1856: 300 total killed over the course of the year.163
Winter 1856–57: About 75 Yuki Indians killed over the course of the winter.169
March–April 1858: 300–400 male Yukis killed in three weeks.170
November 1858 – January 1859: 150+171 or 170172 Yuki Indians killed between November and January
March–May 1859: 240 Yuki killed in assaults led by H.L. Hall in revenge for the slaughter of Judge Hastings's horse173174 and a total of 600 men, women, and children killed within the previous year.175
Yuki women and children were frequently kidnapped by raiders and sold to ranchos and landowners in California, particularly in Round Valley, where settler kidnapping rings operated.176 One example of this is provided by Round Valley Elder Ernestine Ray, who stated:
"They treated Grandma pretty bad . . . She had scars on her back. Mom, she used to cry . . . 'My poor mother she died with scars on her back. They beat her.'"177
These estimates suggest well over 1,000 Yuki deaths at the hands of white settlers. (See Cook, Sherburne; "The California Indian and White Civilization" Part III, pg 7, for an argument in favor of the approximate reliability of figures of Indians killed at this time.)
Yahi
The Yahi were the first of the Yana people to suffer from the Californian Gold Rush, for their lands were the closest to the gold fields.178 Prior to the Gold Rush that began with the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January 1848, the U.S. military had been involved in the destruction of California Natives which included the Yana people. The processes included removals of people from ancestral land, massacres, confinement to small reservations, and the separation of families. In California, miners, ranchers, farmers, and businessmen engaged in acts outlined in the Genocide Convention.179 They suffered great population losses from the loss of their traditional food supplies and fought with the settlers over territory. They lacked firearms, and armed white settlers intentionally committed genocide against them in multiple raids.180 These raids took place as part of the California genocide, during which the U.S. Army and vigilante militias carried out killings as well as the relocation of thousands of Indigenous peoples in California.179 The massacre reduced the Yahi, who were already suffering from starvation, to a population of less than 100.178
On August 6, 1865, seventeen settlers raided a Yahi village at dawn. In 1866, more Yahis were massacred when they were caught by surprise in a ravine. Circa 1867, 33 Yahis were killed after being tracked to a cave north of Mill Creek. Circa 1871, four cowboys trapped and killed about 30 Yahis in Kingsley cave.180
The last known survivor of the Yahi was named Ishi by American anthropologists. Ishi had spent most of his life hiding with his tribe members in the Sierra wilderness, emerging at the age of about 49, after the deaths of his mother and remaining relatives. He was the only Yahi known to Americans.
Tolowa
In 1770 the Tolowa had a population of 1,000;6 their population soon dropped to 1506 in 1910; this was almost entirely due to deliberate mass murder in what has been described as genocide.181 Among these killings, the Yontoket Massacre left 150182 to 600182 Tolowa people recorded dead. Because their homes had burned down, the place received the name "Burnt Ranch." The Tolowa themselves date the first massacre at 1853, stating that between 450 and 600 people were killed. The second dated massacre at 1854 stating that about 150 people were killed.183 The Yontoket massacre decimated the cultural center of the Tolowa peoples. The Native people from the surrounding areas would gather there for their celebrations and discussions. The survivors of the massacre were forced to move to the village north of Smith's River called Howonquet. The slaughter of the Tolowa people continued for some years. They were seemingly always caught at their Needash celebrations. These massacres caused some unrest which led in part to the Rogue River Indian war. Many Tolowa people were incarcerated at Battery Point in 1855 to withhold them from joining an uprising led by their chief. In 1860, after the Chetco/Rogue River War, 600 Tolowa were forcibly relocated to Indian reservations in Oregon, including what is now known as the Siletz Reservation in the Central Coastal Range. Later, some were moved to the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California. Adding to the number of dead from the Yontoket Massacre and the Battery Point Attack, are many more in the following years. These massacres included the Chetco Massacre with 14184 dead, the Illinois Creek massacre with 8 to 1587 dead, the Howonquet Massacre with 7087 dead, the Achulet massacre with 65 dead,185 (not including those whose bodies were left in the lake) and the Smith River Massacre(s) where hundreds may have been killed.181 Contemporary Tolowa recall the conditions of the Klamath Reservation as being reminiscent of a concentration camp. In 1857, desperate Tolowa organized an uprising in hopes of escaping these conditions, which led to 10-20 Tolowa being killed by the U.S. military when soldiers arrived to suppress the uprising.186
Wiyot
Wiyot people were found primarily around Humboldt Bay at the time of their first encounters with settlers. The Wiyot were known to be friendly, and did not engage in conflict with settlers.113 Early incidents included: the murder of 2 Wiyot by white settlers in 1850, with further incidents soon following in the area.187
Multiple massacres of Wiyot took place in 1852, along the Eel River, including one incident in which at least 15 Wiyot were killed.188 Massacres at Humboldt Bay in 1855, resulted in at least 15 killed, with the justification given that Indians "attempted violence upon a lady".189 Further massacres occurred in 1856 killing 6 Wiyot,190 and in 1859, a further 15.191
The largest series of massacres came in 1860, when five separate massacres over the course of a week resulted in the deaths of over 285 Wiyot.114 Before the Indian Island massacre, Wiyot men had left the village to hunt. The volunteer company that arrived noted this absence, and upon encountering unarmed women and children, chose to conserve ammunition, and kill the Wiyot with axes and knives.113 Journalist Bret Harte, who reported and published a scathing article condemning the massacre, was forced to flee Humboldt, after receiving threats of lynching.192
Following the massacres, some Wiyot were forcefully removed to the Klamath reservation. One survivor, Jane Sam, later recounted the starvation and destitution which was found on the reservation.193 Wiyot who were confined to reservations often returned to Humboldt Bay.193 In 1862, a further 28 to 46 Wiyot were massacred in two separate massacres at Light's Prairie and Little River.194
Economic aspects in Southern California
At the outset, the European-American population of Los Angeles County identified a practical application for the utilization of Indian labor within an economy that was experiencing a labor shortage due to the mass migration of working-age EuroAmericans to the gold fields. During the 1850s, white Americans in the Western United States depended on individuals of Amerindian descent to cultivate vast areas of land in return for minimal or non-existent monetary compensation. During the period of the Gold Rush, numerous rancho owners were able to reap significant benefits by driving their livestock into the Central Valley and Sierra foothills, thereby capitalizing on the relatively prosperous years of gold mining.195 Due to Economic expansion because of the increased need for mining, even Indigenous groups in remote locations, such as those in the Coso Range, were incorporated into the economy.27
Forced labor, especially of children, was widespread in Southern California, and "Domesticated Indians"196 made up a significant portion of the early population of the region. These domestics were forcibly indentured labourers, often kidnapped and brought to towns like Los Angeles and San Francisco to work in households or as laborers.197
The rise of forced labor severely impacted many tribes, particularly those in the south, they being heavily affected by the practice. In 1852, a third of Indigenous boys were indentured, and 65% of native women were bound out before the age of 15. Indigenous children were often brought to towns in southern California by kidnappers who would conduct raids in the north.197
Indigenous girls who were held under indenture often experienced sexual abuse. Girls were frequently kidnapped directly from reservations and subject to extreme abuse.198 Indigenous women made up nearly half of all indentured.199 Indigenous people charged with vagrancy, or any other crimes, could also be summarily forced into indentured servitude. 3/4s of all indentured natives in California were under 14.199
Over the course of the genocide, Native people in Southern California often lived in near-famine conditions, and had taxes imposed upon them.157 The Cupeno leader Antonio Garra organised people in San Diego County to revolt against these conditions, Garra's rebellion became one of the largest in Southern California, till his capture by Cahuilla leader Juan Antonio.200
Epidemic disease and famine also decimated the Indigenous population of the state. Tribes in Southern California would suffer through epidemics of smallpox, and massacres. Tribes such as the Cahuilla, Gabrielino, and Yokut, frequently driven by starvation, would steal horses and livestock.157 Almost all "Mission Indians" in California were left landless over the course of the genocide, as their communities were forcibly dispersed, and lands taken by settlers.201
Legacy
Land grab and value
According to M. Kat Anderson, an ecologist and lecturer at University of California, Davis, and Jon Keeley, a fire ecologist and research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, after decades of being disconnected from the land and their culture, due to Spanish and U.S. settler violence, Native peoples are slowly starting to be able to practice traditions that enhance the environment around them, by directly taking care of the land. Anderson and Keeley write, "The outcomes that Indigenous people were aiming for when burning chaparral, such as increased water flow, enhanced wildlife habitat, and the maintenance of many kinds of flowering plants and animals, are congruent and dovetail with the values that public land agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners wish to preserve and enhance through wildland management".202 Through these returned practices, they are able to commit and practice their culture, while also helping the other people in the area that will benefit from the ecological differences.
California Landmark 427, built in 2005 represents the Bloody Island Massacre of the Pomo people that took place on May 15, 1850.203 The monument is used as a center point of an annual festival beginning in 1999 held by Pomo descendants. Candles and tobacco are burned in honor of their ancestors.
Call for tribunals
American Indian scholar Gerald Vizenor has argued in the early 21st century for universities to be authorized to assemble tribunals to investigate these events. He notes that United States federal law contains no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide. He says:
Genocide tribunals would provide venues of judicial reason and equity that reveal continental ethnic cleansing, mass murder, torture, and religious persecution, past and present, and would justly expose, in the context of legal competition for evidence, the inciters, falsifiers, and deniers of genocide and state crimes against Native American Indians. Genocide tribunals would surely enhance the moot court programs in law schools and provide more serious consideration of human rights and international criminal cases by substantive testimony, motivated historical depositions, documentary evidence, contentious narratives, and ethical accountability.204
Vizenor believes that, in accordance with international law, the universities of South Dakota, Minnesota, and California Berkeley ought to establish tribunals to hear evidence and adjudicate crimes against humanity alleged to have taken place in their individual states.205 Attorney Lindsay Glauner has also argued for such tribunals.206
Apologies and name changes
In a speech before representatives of Native American peoples in June 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom apologized for the genocide. Newsom referring to the proposed California Truth and Healing Council said, "California must reckon with our dark history. California Native American peoples suffered violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history .... It's called genocide. That's what it was, a genocide. No other way to describe it. And that's the way it needs to be described in the history books. We can never undo the wrongs inflicted on the peoples who have lived on this land that we now call California since time immemorial, but we can work together to build bridges, tell the truth about our past and begin to heal deep wounds."14207 After hearing testimony, a Truth and Healing Council will clarify the historical record on the relationship between the state of California and American Indians.208
In November 2021, the board of directors of the former "University of California Hastings College of Law" voted to change the name of the institution because of its founder and namesake S. C. Hastings's alleged involvement in the killing and dispossessing of Yuki people in the 1850s.209210 The name change was approved via an act of the California Legislature (California Assembly Bill 1936, 2021–2022 regular session) and was signed into law by the governor on 23 September 2022. The name change took effect on January 1, 2023.211 The institution is now known as the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
In April 2024, Governor Newsom announced California's support for returning ancestral tribal lands to Indigenous communities, describing the initiative as "an acknowledgment of past sins, a promise of accountability, and a commitment to a better future".212 The California Truth and Healing Council, established pursuant to Newsom's 2019 executive order, was charged with examining the historical relationship between the state and Native Americans, with authority to make recommendations on reparation and restoration measures.213
Archaeological evidence of violence and refugeeism in California
Research made in 2015 on Native burial mounds in the San Francisco Bay Area found that Indigenous people would move to different places in order to avoid genocide. The movement can be traced by the dating of the burial mounds since multiple Native tribes found these burial mound spaces as places of religious and cultural freedom.214
The Amah Mutsun are a group of Indigenous peoples who were reported to be unable to pass on their traditions during this time, their practices remained untold for a number of years. People of this group, descendants, and archaeologists participate in conducting collaborative, ethnographic research to bring light to previous practices like burial practices and vegetation patterns.215
Academic debate on the term "genocide"
There is vigorous debate over the scale of American Indian losses after the discovery of gold in California and whether to characterize them as genocide.216217 The application of the term "genocide", in particular, has been controversial.179 According to historian Jeffrey Ostler, the debate mostly rests on disagreements regarding the definition of the term.217 He writes that by a strict ("intentionalist"218) definition, genocide "requir[es] a federal or state government intention to kill all California Indians and an outcome in which the majority of deaths were from direct killing", while by a less strict ("structuralist"218) definition, it "requir[es] only settler intention to destroy a substantial portion of California Indians using a variety of means ranging from dispossession to systematic killing".217 Under the former definition, Ostler argues that "genocide does not seem applicable," whereas under the latter definition, "genocide seems apt."
In 1948, Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defined genocide as
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
— Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2219
For use of the term
Historians who argue the term "genocide" is appropriate point out that the Indian population of California fell quickly and argue that extreme violence was integral to this process.217 Benjamin Madley, a UCLA historian, is one of the most prominent historians espousing this view, writing that "[i]t was genocide, sanctioned and facilitated by California officials" who, according to him, "established a state-sponsored killing machine".134 Historian Brendan C. Lindsay, argued that "rather than a government orchestrating a population to bring about the genocide of a group, [in California] the population orchestrated a government to destroy a group",220 while William T. Hagen wrote that "[genocide] is a term of awful significance, but one which has application to the story of California's Native Americans".221 James J. Rawls argued that Californian whites "advocated and carried out a program of genocide that was popularly called 'extermination'".222 Militias were called out by the governors of California for "expeditions against the Indians" on a number of occasions.223
Supporters of the use of the term "genocide" stress the involvement and complicity of federal and state authorities in perpetrating atrocities against the Indigenous Californians, and point to their statements and policies as evidence of direct genocidal intent. For example, historian Richard White, in a review of Madley's An American Genocide, argues that "no reader of his book can seriously contend that what happened in California doesn't meet the current definition of "genocide"," citing the "relentless attacks by federal troops, state militia, vigilantes, and mercenaries [that] made the enslavement of Indians possible and starvation and disease inevitable".224 White continues, "in California, what Americans have often called "war" was nothing of the sort. For every American who died, 100 Indians perished. They died horribly—men, women, and children. The men who killed them were brutal. Nor did the killings result from a moment of rage; they were systematic." White stresses the complicity of the US federal government, noting that "the funding that the US government provided for California's militia expeditions made attacking Indians possible and profitable".224 Writing about the experience of Indigenous Californian women during this period, Women's studies scholar Gail Ukockis argues that "government officials were quite explicit about their genocidal intent,"225 citing the 1851 State of the State address given by the 1st Governor of California, Peter Burnett, in which he said: "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected."65
Jeffrey Ostler, too, endorsed the usage of the term, writing that it "rests on a substantial body of scholarship".226 Ostler argues that there is a "general consensus" that genocide took place in at least "some times and places in the state's early history".227 Responding to critics of the "genocide" charge that have argued that epidemics were the primary cause of Native mortality,228 Ostler writes that "depopulation from disease more often resulted from conditions created by colonialism—in California, loss of land, destruction of resources and food stores, lack of clean water, captive taking, sexual violence, and massacre—that encouraged the spread of pathogens and increased communities' vulnerability through malnutrition, exposure, social stress, and destruction of sources of medicine and capacities for palliative care".229 He continues, "since the United States' colonization of California was intended to dispossess Indigenous peoples and since that intention had the predictable consequence of making communities vulnerable to multiple diseases which led to massive population loss, disease in this case qualifies as a crucial factor contributing to genocide".230
Karl Jacoby, in his review of An American Genocide, argues that the book removes "any doubt that genocide against Native people took place in the most populous and prosperous state in the US" and that it establishes "conclusively the reality of genocide in the Golden State".231 He also notes that Madley "illuminates the ways that federal and state policies facilitated popular violence against Indians".231 William Bauer Jr. argues that Benjamin Madley "has settled the issue on whether or not genocide occurred in California".232 He writes also that "federal and state governments, those bodies that could or should have protected California Indians from the devastating violence, condoned and perpetrated genocides" and that "civilian leaders in California passed legislation that enabled genocide".233 Margaret Jacobs writes that Madley has made it "nearly impossible to deny that a genocide took place against Native peoples in at least one location and one time period in American history" and that he shows how "the genocide started out as the work of vigilante groups but soon gained state funding and federal support".234 Jacobs points out, for example, that "in 1854, Congress agreed to pay off California's war debt, and by the end of 1856, the federal government had given California more than $800,000 to distribute to bond holders who had financed the genocidal killing in the state."234
In his book The Rediscovery of America, historian Ned Blackhawk argues that "historians have located genocide across Native American history" and cites California as a specific example.235 Blackhawk writes that in California, "settlers used informal and state-sanctioned violence to shatter Native worlds and legitimate their own" and also notes that "in February 1852, for example, the state legislature appropriated $500,000 to fund anti-Indian state militias".236 Regarding the role of the federal government, he writes that they had "earlier attempted an alternate scenario to the genocide at hand. In 1851 and 1852, officials negotiated eighteen treaties across the state; however, bowing to California representatives, the Senate rejected these treaties, essentially authorizing the continued use of settler violence to aid colonization."237
William S. Kiser also concurs that genocide took place in California, writing that "state-sponsored scalp warfare rose to the level of genocide", noting that "well-organized participants acted systematically and relentlessly in their attempts to exterminate racial groups."238
Against the use of the term
Other scholars and historians dispute the accuracy of the term "genocide" to describe what occurred in California, as well as the blame which has been placed directly on the federal government and the state government of California,158 pointing to the fact that disease was the primary factor in the depopulation of California Indians and arguing that mass violence was undertaken primarily by settlers and that the state and federal governments did not establish a policy of physically killing all Indians.217 One of the most prominent historians espousing such a view is Gary Clayton Anderson,239 a University of Oklahoma professor of history who describes the events in California as "ethnic cleansing",158240 arguing that "If we get to the point where the mass murder of 50 Indians in California is considered genocide, then genocide has no more meaning".158 Historian William Henry Hutchinson, wrote that "the record of history disproves these charges [of genocide]",241 while historian Tom Henry Watkins stated that "it is a poor use of the term" since the killings were not systematic or planned.242
In a critical review of Brendan Lindsay's Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846–1873, Michael F. Magliari notes that "\Sherburne\ Cook never described the terrible events of 1846–1873 as a genocide, and neither had any of his leading successors in California Indian history". While acknowledging that actions against some tribes native to California were genocidal, he opts for the term ethnocidal for actions against other tribes, considering the former term's application to all cases "highly problematic". (He rejects the UN Genocide Convention's "sweeping definition" of genocide, whereas Lindsay embraces it.)243 In a subsequent review of Benjamin Madley's An American Genocide, he says that some scholars may find Madley's use of the UN Genocide Convention as an "overly broad and elastic definition", that the evidence of genocide "varies considerably from place to place and is far stronger in some cases", and that Madley's case against the federal government is "not nearly so strong" as that against "frontier miners, farmers, and ranchers".228 Magliari also argues that "epidemics, not violence, still remained by far the greater factor in Native mortality".228 He nevertheless concludes : "Beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt (and by the standards of any reasonable definition), genocide did in fact play a significant role in the US conquest and subjugation of Native California."228
"untitled article". Butte Record. October 18, 1856.
California Legislature, Majority and Minority Reports of the Special Joint Committee on the Mendocino War, Sacramento: California Legislature, 1860
Carranco, Lynwood; Beard, Estle (1981). Genocide and Vendetta, the Round Valley Wars of North California. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Coffer, William E. (1977). "Genocide of the California Indians, with a Comparative Study of Other Minorities". The Indian Historian. 10 (2). San Francisco, CA: 8–15. PMID11614644.
"Johnson to Mackall, 21 August 1859", Indian War Papers, F3753:378, Sacramento: Adjutant General's Office, Military Department, Adjutant General, August 21, 1859
Madley, Benjamin (2012). "The Genocide of California's Yana Indians". In Totten, Samuel; Parsons, Williams S. (eds.). Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts. Routledge. pp. 16–53. ISBN 978-0-415871-921.
Martin, Thomas S. (1975). With Frémont to California and the Southwest 1845–1849. Ashland, OR: Lewis Osborne.
Mcnally, Robert Aquinas (2017). The Modoc War. Bison Books.
Michno, Gregory F. (2003). Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes 1850–1890. Mountain Press Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-87842-468-9.
Shipek, Florence C. (1986). "The Impact of Europeans upon Kumeyaay Culture". In Starr, Raymond (ed.). The Impact of European Exploration and Settlement on Local Native Americans. San Diego: Cabrillo Historical Association. pp. 13–25. OCLC17346424.
"Simmon Storms to Tho. Henley, 23 November 1858, Letters Received", Records of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, RG 75, M234, reel 36:987, Washington, DC: National Archives, November 23, 1858
Thornton, Russell (1990). American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History since 1492. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Tassin, A.G. (1887). "Chronicles of Camp Wright, Part I". Overland Monthly. 10: 25.
"Thos. Henley to Chas Mix, 19 June 1858", Records of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1881, RG 75, M234, reel 36:814-15, Washington, DC: National Archives, June 19, 1858
Rowley, Gavin (2020). "Defining Genocide in Northwestern California: The Devastation of Humboldt and Del Norte County's Indigenous Peoples". Humboldt Journal of Social Relations (42, Special Issue 42: California Indian Genocide and Healing): 86–105.
Ruscin, Terry (1999). Mission Memoirs. San Diego, California: Sunbelt Publications. ISBN 978-0-932653-30-7.
Kroeber, A. L. (1925). Handbook of the Indians of California. United States. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin, 78. Washington. p. 883. hdl:2027/mdp.39015006584174. ↩↩2↩3↩4
Lightfoot, Kent G.; Cuthrell, Rob Q.; Striplen, Chuck J.; Hylkema, Mark G. (2013). "Rethinking the Study of Landscape Management Practices Among Hunter-Gatherers in North America". American Antiquity. 78 (2): 285–301. doi:10.7183/0002-7316.78.2.285. ISSN0002-7316. JSTOR23486319. ↩
Allika Ruby & Adrian R. Whitaker (2019) Remote Places As Post-Contact Refugia, California Archaeology, 11:2, 205-233, DOI: 10.1080/1947461X.2019.1655624 ↩↩2↩3
"Aboriginal Americans". The British Medical Journal. 1 (274): 350. March 31, 1866. Dr. MacGowan, in a lecture delivered at New York, estimated the present number of Indians in the United States to be about 250,000, and said that unless something prevented the oppression and cruelty of the white man, these people would gradually become reduced, and finally extinct. He predicted the total extermination of the Digger Indians of California and the tribes of other states within ten years, if something were not done for their relief. The lecturer concluded by strongly urging the establishment of a Protective Aborigines Society, something similar to the society in England to prevent cruelty to animals. By this means he thought the condition of the Indian might be improved and the race longer perpetuated. ↩
Thornton, Russell (1984). "Social Organization and the Demographic Survival of the Tolowa". Ethnohistory. 31 (3): 187–196. doi:10.2307/482620. ISSN0014-1801. JSTOR482620. ↩
Anderson, M. Kat; Keeley, Jon E. (2018). "Native Peoples' Relationship to the California Chaparral". In Underwood, Emma C.; Safford, Hugh D.; Molinari, Nicole A.; Keeley, Jon E. (eds.). Valuing Chaparral: Ecological, Socio-Economic, and Management Perspectives. Springer Series on Environmental Management. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 79–121. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-68303-4_4. ISBN 978-3-319-68303-4. Archived from the original on July 10, 2023. Retrieved December 9, 2021. ↩
Glauner, Lindsay (Spring 2001). "Need for Accountability and Reparations: 1830–1976 the United States Government's Role in the Promotion, Implementation, and Execution of the Crime of Genocide against Native Americans". DePaul Law Review. 51 (3): 915–916. Archived from the original on November 15, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2016. Therefore, in accordance to Article IV of the Genocide Convention [1948], which requires all parties to prosecute those charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide, regardless of their capacity as a ruler or public official, in a competent tribunal within the State where the crime took place or in a competent international tribunal that has proper jurisdiction over the case, any persons or agencies that commit acts of genocide within the territory of the United States must be held accountable for their crimes. ↩
Vulliamy, Ed. Reclaiming Native Identity in California.2023.The New York Review of Books, (LXX) 11, 45-48 ↩
Hagan, William T. (2014). "How The West Was Lost". In Hoxie, Frederick E.; Iverson, Peter (eds.). Indians in American History: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-81870-1. Archived from the original on January 14, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2023. ↩
Kiser, William S. (March 18, 2025). The Business of Killing Indians: Scalp Warfare and the Violent Conquest of North America. Yale University Press. p. 10. ISBN 0300275285. ↩
Watkins, Tom H. (1973). California: An Illustrated History. American West Publishing Company. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-910118-28-6. Archived from the original on July 10, 2023. Retrieved May 17, 2022. ↩
Prior to the Spanish arrival, California's Indigenous population was estimated as high as 300,000.6 It decreased further from roughly 150,000 in 1848 to 30,000 in 1870 and 16,000 by 1900 as a result of disease, low birth rates, starvation, and genocide. Between 10,000 and 27,000 were also subject to forced labor by U.S. settlers, with California officials repeatedly passing .
Since the 2000s, historians have characterized the period immediately following the conquest of California as one in which U.S. miners, farmers, and ranchers on the American frontier engaged in the systematic genocide of Californian Indians. In 2019, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, described the events as "genocide", adding, "...that's the way it needs to be described in the history books." He also apologized for the "violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history".14 In a 2019 executive order, Newsom announced the formation of a "Truth and Healing Council" to better understand the genocide and inform future generations of what occurred.15
Background
Indigenous Californians
Prior to Spanish arrival, California was home to an American Indian population thought to have been as high as 300,000.16 The largest group were the Chumash people, with a population around 10,000.6 The region was highly diverse, with numerous distinct languages spoken. While there was great diversity in the area, archeological findings show little evidence of intertribal conflicts.9
The various tribal groups appear to have adapted to particular areas and territories. According to journalist Nathan Gilles, because of traditions practiced by the Native people of Northern California, they were able to "manage the threat of wildfires and cultivate traditional plants".17 For example, traditional use of fire by Californian and Pacific Northwest tribes, allowed them to "cultivate plants and fungi" that "adapted to regular burning. The list runs from fiber sources, such as bear-grass and willow, to foodstuffs, such as berries, mushrooms, and acorns from oak trees that once made up sprawling orchards".17 Many practices were used to manage the land without tremendous destruction in other ways including "tillage, pruning, seed broadcasting, transplanting, weeding, irrigation, and fertilizing".18 These groups worked to stimulate the growth and diversity of botanical resources across landscapes. Traditional practices allowed for the "extraordinarily successful management of natural resources available to Native Californian tribes".19 Because of traditional practices of Native Californian tribes, they were able to support habitats and climates that would then support an abundance of wildlife, including rabbits, deer, varieties of fish, fruit, roots, and acorns. The Native people largely followed a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, moving around their area through the seasons as different types of food were available.20
The American Indian people of California, according to sociologist Kari Norgaard, were "hunting and fishing for their food, weaving baskets using traditional techniques" and "carrying out important ceremonies to keep the world intact".21 It was also recorded that the American Indian people in California and across the continent had used "fire to enhance specific plant species, optimize hunting conditions, maintain open travel routes, and generally support the flourishing of the species upon which they depend, according to scholars22 like the United States Forest Service ecologist and Karuk descendent Frank Lake".21
European contact
California was one of the last regions in the Americas to be colonized by European colonists. Spanish Catholic missionaries, led by Franciscan administrator Junípero Serra and military forces under the command of officer Gaspar de Portolá, did not reach this area until 1769. The mission was intended to spread the Catholic faith among the region's American Indian population and establish and expand the reach of the Spanish Empire.20 The Spanish built San Diego de Alcalá, the first of 21 missions standing in modern-day California, at what developed as present-day San Diego in the southern part of the state along the Pacific. (The Spanish also built 30 missions and 11 visitas in Baja California.) Military outposts were constructed to house the soldiers sent to protect the missions.
Before American rule, Spanish and Mexican rule were devastating for the American Indian populations, and "as the missions grew, California's Native population of Indians began a catastrophic decline."2324Gregory Orfalea estimates that pre-contact population was reduced by 33% during the Spanish and Mexican regimes. Most of the decline stemmed from imported diseases, low birth rates, and the disruption of traditional ways of life, but violence was common, and some historians have charged that life in the missions was close to slavery.825 According to George Tinker, an American Indian scholar, "the Native American population of coastal population was reduced by some 90 percent during seventy years under the sole proprietorship of Serra's mission system".26
According to journalist Ed Castillo, member of the Native American Caucus of the California Democratic Party, Serra spread the Christian faith among the Native population in a destructive way that caused their population to decline rapidly while he was in power. Castillo writes that "The Franciscans took it upon themselves to brutalize the Indians, and to rejoice in their death...They simply wanted the souls of these Indians, so they baptized them, and when they died, from disease or beatings... they were going to heaven, which was a cause of celebration".20 According to Castillo, the Native American population were forced to abandon their "sustainable and complex civilization" as well as "their beliefs, their faith, and their way of life".20 However, artifacts found at an archaeological site on San Clemente Island suggested that a group of Indigenous people were practicing traditional ways after the arrival of Europeans and Americans in other parts of California, and until potentially the 1850s.27 The artifacts included subsistence remains, middens, and flaked stone tools.27
Timeline
The following is a rough timeline of some of the key events and policies that contributed to the genocide. It is by no means comprehensive.
1542: California is discovered by Spain. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer sailing under the Spanish flag, explores the California coast and lands in San Diego Harbor, naming it San Miguel. His crew peacefully interacts with Kumeyaay people for six days trading goods and discussing cultural differences. The larger California area is named from a fictional paradise described in the early 16th-century novel "Las Sergas de Esplandián" by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.28
1769: Spanish colonizers extended the Mexican Catholic mission system into the mission system in California, which led to the forced conversion and enslavement of California area Native Americans.293031
1821–1823: Mexico gained independence from Spain and took control of California, continuing the Spanish government's policies of forced labor and conversion of Indigenous peoples.323133
1846–1848: The Mexican–American War led to the annexation of California by the United States. The settlers and U.S. military formed an alliance and were joined by some Indigenous people, although the military had "murdered many Natives".3731 After the war Commodore Robert F. Stockton appointed John C. Frémont military governor of the Territory of California.38
1848: The discovery of gold in California led to the influx of a massive horde of settlers, who formed militias to kill and displace Indigenous peoples.394031
1851–1852: The Mariposa War broke out between white settlers and the Ahwahnechee, resulting in the displacement and killing of Native Americans by the Mariposa Battalion in the Sierra Nevada region.42
1860s: The federal government began a policy of forced removal of Native Americans peoples to reservations, which led to violence and displacement.44
Late 1800s–early 1900s: Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families by the California government and placed in boarding schools, where they were subjected to abuse and forced assimilation.454647
1909: The California state government established the California Eugenics Record Office, which promoted the forced sterilization of people declared by the government to be "unfit", including "Black, Latino and Indigenous women who were incarcerated or in state institutions for disabilities".484950
History
1846–1850
Starting with the conquest of California in 1846, early US incursions into Alta California, then a part of Mexico, saw several massacres take place. Military expeditions led by John C. Fremont saw the earliest massacres of California Indigenous peoples orchestrated by US forces.51 In April 1846, the first of these massacres occurred on the Sacramento River against the Wintu, which killed anywhere from 150 to 1000 people.52 Later that month, Fremont's contingent was attacked by the Klamath leading to two or three deaths. As a result, massacres took place against the Klamath. A total of 14 people were killed. More massacres would be perpetrated by Fremont throughout his campaign in California. At that time, non-Indigenous settlers were outnumbered 15 to 1 in California.53
In 1847, John Sutter was appointed the first federal Indian Subagent in California. As Subagent, Sutter was known to participate extensively in the human trafficking of Indigenous Californians.54 Sutter had kidnapped over two thousand people to work at his ranch in near slave like conditions. The workers were often from the Pomo and Nisenan tribes. Sutter had ordered those around him to keep the Natives under fear. The conditions at the Sutter Ranch were very poor.55
Over the course of 1848, gold miners poured into California from other parts of the US, bringing further violence. The Whitman massacre in Oregon spurred revenge killings against Indigenous communities in California.56 As violence escalated, more settlers arrived 1849. This wave of immigration popularized the term "forty niners" for gold miners in California.57 That year, Pomo, and Wappo laborers killed rancher Andrew Kelsey, a man known for selling indentured Native people.58
Quechan war
In late 1849, the Quechan people came into conflict with white outlaws known as the Glanton gang in Southern California, who ran competing ferrying businesses. The gang committed numerous crimes on local Natives and Mexicans living in the area.59 In part due to the brutality of these outlaws, some settlers reached a deal with the Quechan to run a ferrying business for a quarter of the price that the gang charged. The outlaws killed an Irish ferryman named Callaghan who was ferrying people on behalf of the Quechan and had threatened the tribe. The Quechan attempted to negotiate a compromise, but were beaten by the outlaws in response.60
In 1850, the gang's leader, John Glanton, and 10 others were killed by the Quechan.60 Soon afterwards the government of California would respond, organizing the first state supported militia campaign against California Natives. The Gila Expedition would lead to a massacre of Quechan people and would be used as a model for later operations.61 Other massacres would take place that year in places such as Clear Lake,62 Mendocino, and other areas in the northern regions of California.61
1851–1855
In 1851, numerous treaties were negotiated with California tribes, though none were ratified. Tribes were required to sign and acknowledge such agreements. Resistance to the treaty process was often met with violence, as happened to the Yokuts, who refused to attend treaty negotiations.63
The 1850 "Act for the Government and Protection of the Indian" legalized the indentured servitude of Indigenous children in California, as well as Indigenous people who had committed "Indian crimes." The act intensified the kidnapping and forced labor of Indigenous Californians.64 As conditions worsened, calls were made for a "war of extermination" by governor Peter Burnett in 1851; Burnett had argued the extinction of Natives was inevitable and nearing.65
Mariposa war
As conflicts worsened, Cupeño leader Antonio Garra launched a rebellion against the US. Initially having hoped to negotiate with the settlers, Garra lost patience after taxes were forcibly imposed on the Cupeño and called for an uprising of local Indigenous nations, inviting Hispanic Californians to join him.66 The short lived rebellion lasted only a few months before the Cahuilla leader Juan Antonio captured Garra and handed him over to American forces.67 The rebellion served to heighten settler panic.68
The Mariposa War which targeted the Yokuts, Miwok, and Paiute peoples in the Yosemite region, was one of the major early conflicts of the genocide. Over the course of the war, the Mariposa Battalion carried out massacres against those Indigenous communities living within what is now the modern day Yosemite National Park.69
The head of the Mariposa Battalion, trader James Savage, having learned that some of the tribes wished to fight the settlers, warned that:
It is better for the Indians and white men to be friends, if the Indians make war on the white men every tribe will be exterminated; not one will be left. I have just been where the white men are more numerous than wasps and ants; and if war is made and the Americans are aroused to anger, every Indian engaged in the war will be killed before the whites will be satisfied.70
Savage dismissed attempts to resolve the war through treaties, arguing that tribes in the mountains would continue to resist. He blamed the Treaty Commission for temporarily preventing further attacks by the Mariposa Battalion, claiming that this led to the deaths of eight settlers. Savage also prevented treaty negotiations with the Ahwahneechee, who had sought negotiations, by telling the Treaty Commissioner that their interest was simply a ploy to ambush Savage.71
The war continued, with the Mariposa Battalion's primary strategy being to starve out resisting tribes by burning their food supplies.72 The Mariposa War largely ended when Ahwahneechee leader Tenaya was captured. Soon after the tribe was marched to Fresno.73 Expeditions and massacres would take place targeting the Nissenan,74Wintu, Yana, Nomlaki,75 and Modoc76 as well, in 1851. These actions were somewhat subdued by the Treaty Commission who were hoping to secure agreements that year.74
Northern California conflicts
In 1852, due to the previous year's massacres by settlers, Modoc began attacking emigrant caravans which passed through their territory. Several massacres of these caravans took place as a result of this, such as at Bloody Point.77 Ben Wright, a settler who had participated in previous massacres against the Modoc, called for a truce. When individuals from the tribe came down to negotiate, Wright massacred all those who had arrived. Those killed included the father of future Modoc leader Captain Jack, the death toll was said to be between 30 and 90.78
Wright was later killed by a Rogue River Indian man named Enos, after Wright had sexually assaulted an indigenous woman who worked as an interpreter. Enos was soon hanged for the murder.79 The treaties signed in 1851 were rejected in 1852, when the California Senate voted against ratification. Reasonings given included, that the senators believed too much land granted to the tribes and much of the granted lands were rich in minerals which could be mined and should not be controlled by indigenous communities.80 Additional massacres occurred throughout 1852 in Northern California, such as those against Shasta, Tolowa, Wintu, and Sinkyone people, killing hundreds.81
In 1853, a letter sent to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in California by a district attorney outlined the conditions in which native indentured laborers, particularly those kidnapped from Clear Lake, were living. The letter stated that many who were kidnapped and brought to ranches in Napa County had already died due to the inhumane conditions.82 The Superintendent later forwarded this information to the Secretary of the Interior and added that the Indigenous population of California in 1853 was between 75k-100k.83 Superintendent Edward Beale would write to the secretary of Interior:
The unanimity of the vote for hanging the old man is, with me, no sign of its justice; and as for his courage in dying, that is natural to the Indian character, and especially in these California Indians, who are reduced to despair—their country, and all support, taken away from them; no resting-place, where they can be safe; death on one hand from starvation, and on the other by killing and hanging.84
In 1853, there were documented instances of settlers attempting to infect Native Californians with smallpox, there was also multiple cases of Natives being deliberately poisoned by settlers, poisoned food was left out for the starving Indigenous people to find and eat, this would lead to their death.85 Several massacres occurred that year, the largest being the Yontocket massacre against the Tolowa. Settlers surrounded the village of Yontocket, the largest village of the Tolowa, where many had gathered for a religious ceremony. They set fire to the village and shot those who tried to escape, the death toll was anywhere from 150 to 600.86 Smaller massacres would take place elsewhere throughout the year.87
In 1854, an act was passed banning Indigenous Californians from owning firearms, possession of firearms resulted in a fine, and a one to six-month prison sentence, this law would remain in effect till 1913.88 During this period, the Shasta Expedition would lead to further massacres, sporadic killings continued elsewhere.89 The winter months saw a rise in conflict, after settlers attempted to assault a Karuk girl, four settlers were killed by the Karuk in retaliation.90 The Klamath River War began when settlers tried to forcibly disarm the Indigenous people in the region and met resistance.91
The war continued into 1855, after two Natives were killed along the Salmon River, the tribes fled to the mountains. Later retaliatory attacks would kill 22 settlers on the same day. The Klamath River War would be a predecessor to the Bald Hills War.92 From 1855 onwards, it became an increasingly common practice for Indigenous people to be kidnapped from reservations and forced into indentured servitude, particularly women and children.93 A report issued that year accused the officials who ran the Reservations as being highly corrupt.94
1856–1860
In 1856, Indigenous people living in San Diego faced significant danger. Public lynchings occurred, it was a frequent practice for police in Southern California to kill Natives who had not yet been trialled by hanging them in their cell.95 Starving Yokuts who engaged in cattle rustling were attacked by militiamen, after a number of operations, 14 Yokuts had been killed. Soon afterward, militiamen received intelligence of a large Yokut gathering and planned an ambush. Although taken by surprise, the Yokuts managed to repel the ambush and they retaliated by following the retreating militia and burning settler houses and property.96 That same year, California militiamen killed 185 Indigenous people during the Modoc expedition.97 "Slave marts" were reported to be operating in Los Angeles, selling Indigenous Indentured laborers.95
Bald Hills war and Round Valley massacres
In 1857, massacres intensified in Mendocino and the Round Valley region, where settlers were encouraged to settle by the California Superintendent of Indian Affairs.98 One of the earliest settlers killed by the Yuki was William Mantle, Mantle was known to keep "Pet Indians" who were individuals that had been kidnapped from Round Valley and forced into labor. A total of 14 Yuki were killed in retaliation for his murder.99 That year, a massacre of the Yahi people saw 50 people killed, while 81 Achumawi people, and 10 Washoe were killed in numerous separate massacres. Throughout these operations no settlers were killed.100
By 1858, Indigenous Californians living in settler towns often subsisted off discarded food, and many Indigenous women were forced into prostitution.88 Women who were kidnapped were frequently forced into sexual exploitation and attempts by tribes to resist these actions caused further violence.101 Starvation was widespread on reservations in California, on the Round Valley reservation, eight to ten people were dying per day to syphilis and inadequate rations.102 Hunger frequently drove Natives to killing livestock, which would lead to further attacks on Native villages.103
Massacres in Round Valley between 1858 and 1860 killed more than 500 people.104 The term "Indian depredations" was commonly used around Mendocino and Round Valley to justify attacks on Native communities,98 although oftentimes livestock deaths came from other causes. The Wintoon War lead to at least 200 deaths and forced 6 tribes to relocate onto reservations.105 The Mendocino War followed soon after, the immediate catalyst was the killing of three horses by the Yuki, one of which being a prized stallion.106 Much of the violence committed against Indigenous Californians in Mendocino between 1859 and 1860 was done by a militia known as the Eel River Rangers, organized by a prominent "Indian Hunter" Walter Jarboe.107
In the aftermath of the horse killings, a two-week operation by settlers in Round Valley killed over 240 Indigenous people.108 The Eel River Rangers were known to consume local cattle during their operations. Settlers worried they would not be compensated for this loss of cattle.109 In 1859, an Indigenous boy, who was between 12 and 15 years old, was lynched in Tehama County after being accused of setting fire to his master, Col Stevenson's home, leading to at least seven deaths.110 Expeditions were done against the Yana and Maidu in retaliation for the fire, leading to the deaths of at least 42 Yana and Maidu.111 Expeditions along the Pit River that year resulted in hundreds more deaths among Indigenous communities.112
In early 1860, a large massacre targeted the Wiyot. Although Wiyot had maintained peaceful relations with settlers prior,113 over 285 were killed within a week.114 Additional massacres took place in northeastern California throughout the year. In Round Valley, the practice of settler raiding parties routinely kidnapping women and children was common.115 Amendments to the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians resulted in the age of majority altered for indigenous minors from 18 to 25 for boys, and 15 to 21 for girls respectively.116
1861–1865
In 1861, forced labor was widespread in Round Valley. Orphaned children of massacre victims were prime targets to be taken by settlers.117 Two Yuki boys tried poisoning their master, the former California Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Thomas Hanley. Hanley, after discovering the poison, found one of the children and hanged them in public.118 The Horse Canyon massacre in Mendocino killed up to 200 Wailaki people, the massacre was carried out after the Wailaki had killed livestock. Konkow Maidu were persuaded to participate in the massacre by settlers, and the Round Valley Reservation Superintendent, despite not wishing to do so.119
In 1862, a trial took place involving George H. Woodman, a prominent kidnapper of Indigenous children in Mendocino County, during the trial. Over 40 people testified to Woodman's innocence, arguing he saved starving children from turning to theft or "being shot like coyotes." Other witnesses, however, noted that he held exhibitions, in which he displayed his "little brown cubs," commanding them to "lie down" or "roll over" like a dog.120
Conditions in Round Valley deteriorated further, and multiple massacres occurred, the largest of which killed 45 Wailaki people.121 The Konkow fled the reservation that winter. Facing starvation, and aware that killing settler livestock would provoke massacres, they chose to make the journey back to their homelands in Butte County.122 The Yahi had killed three children that year, sparking outrage.123
In 1863, the Konkow Maidu were forced to undertake a return march to Round Valley.122 the Yahi were implicated in further raids, and the murder of two more children.124 In 1864, massacres would continue along the Sacramento River, targeting the Yana, Achumawi and other tribes. The death toll would be 361.125 Yahi in Northern California would continue to face massacres from 1865 to 1871, resulting in over 200 deaths.126
Owens Valley war
In 1862, Owens Valley Paiutes began raiding settler livestock. The livestock, which had consumed and destroyed much of the Valley's resources, forced the Paiutes into food scarcity.127 Settlers responded by raping three Paiute women.128 After Paiutes killed two settlers, a retaliatory massacre resulted in the deaths of over 73 Paiutes and the burning of a village. Further skirmishes lead to costly victories for the Paiutes. Although managing to defend their villages from settlers, they suffered many casualties while doing so.129 Tribes elsewhere in Southern California, including Tejon, were reported to have aided the Owens Valley Paiutes.130
In 1863, Paiutes in Owens Valley murdered three settlers, and two soldiers soon afterwards. Settlers responded with further massacres. By April, 150 Paiutes had been killed. In May, the Owens Valley Paiutes surrendered.131 Starvation led Owen Valley Paiutes to kill cattle, reigniting conflict the following year. In 1865, over 100 Paiutes were coralled and killed in a single incident. Sporadic killings would continue into 1866.132
Consequences for Native populations
Following the American Conquest of California from Mexico, the influx of American settlers due to the California Gold Rush in 1849, and the statehood of California in 1850, state and federal authorities incited, aided, and financed the violence against the American Indians. The California Natives were also sometimes contemptuously referred to as "Diggers", for their practice of digging up roots to eat.133134 On January 6, 1851, at his State of the State address to the California Senate, 1st Governor of California, Peter Burnett said: "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate this result but with painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert."13513665 During the California genocide, reports of the decimation of American Indians in California were made to the rest of the United States and internationally.137
I have the honor to report to the general commanding the Department of the Pacific that I have been in this valley fifteen days, carrying out my instructions to chastise these Indians, or the Indians of Owens River; that I have killed several, taken eleven prisoners, and destroyed a great many rancherias and a large quantity of seeds, worms, &c., that the Indians had gathered for food.
A notable early eyewitness testimony and account: "The Indians of California" (1864) is from John Ross Browne, Customs official and Inspector of Indian Affairs on the Pacific Coast. He systematically described the fraud, corruption, land theft, slavery, rape, and massacre perpetrated on a substantial portion of the aboriginal population.139140 This was confirmed by a contemporary, Superintendent Dorcas J. Spencer.141
Forced labor
The California Act for the Government and Protection of Indians was enacted in 1850 (amended 1860, repealed 1863). This law provided for "apprenticing" or indenturing Indian children to white settlers, and also punished "vagrant" Indians by "hiring" them out to the highest bidder at a public auction if the Indian could not provide sufficient bond or bail. This legalized a form of slavery in California.142 Settlers took 10,000 to 27,000 California Native Americans as forced laborers, including 4,000 to 7,000 children.1011
Prior to 1850, instances of forced indenture of Indigenous Californians were already occurring amongst American settlers. The first federal Indian subagent, John Sutter, owned up to 2000 indentured workers in 1847.143 In 1848, the New York Herald commented that Indigenous people in California were being held in conditions akin to slavery, and were regularly punished and flogged.58 High mortality rates were common among indentured laborers in California.82 Indigenous Indentured labor was driven primarily by a worker shortage created by the gold rush, with most settlers working in the gold fields, Indigenous people were forced to fill the gaps in the workforce.144 Indigenous children were often kidnapped and sold in towns far from their communities, at auctions.145 At these auctions, Natives were generally sold for between $50 to $250 each.146 The indenture of children served to deprive them of their families and culture.145
Starvation and disease
Starvation was acute during the California genocide, and led to a large number of deaths amongst the Indigenous population.147 Reservations experienced large losses of life due to starvation. At the Round Valley Reservation, the population had fallen from 3,450 to 250 between 1857 and 1858, with a large portion having died from starvation. Those at the reservation who were unable to work were not given food.148 Indigenous food sources were destroyed by settler fisheries, and the depletion of local wildlife.149 In 1852, it was stated in the Senate, that the Superintendent of Indian Affairs had received information, that over 15,000 Natives had died of starvation in California the previous year.150
Diseases were widespread, and many died after having already been weakened by malnutrition.151 Indigenous women commonly contracted sexually transmitted infections(STIs),152 which often proved fatal,153154 and were often due to prostitution,152 into which women were reportedly forced into by officials and reservation employees.155The Nome Cult Farm was particularly known for lack of food and prevalence of STIs.104
Violence statistics
In 1943, a study by demographer Sherburne Cook, estimated that there were 4,556 killings of California Indians between 1847 and 1865.2156 Contemporary historian Benjamin Madley has documented the numbers of Californian Indians killed between 1846 and 1873; he estimates that during this period at least 9,492 to 16,092 Californian Indians were killed by non-Indians, including between 1,680 and 3,741 killed by the U.S. Army. Most of the deaths took place in what he defined as more than 370 massacres (defined as the "intentional killing of five or more disarmed combatants or largely unarmed noncombatants, including women, children, and prisoners, whether in the context of a battle or otherwise"). Madley also estimates that fewer than 1,400 non-Indians were killed by Indians during this period.2 The Native American activist and former Sonoma State University Professor Ed Castillo was asked by The State of California's Native American Heritage Commission to write the state's official history of the genocide; he wrote that "well-armed death squads combined with the widespread random killing of Indians by individual miners resulted in the death of 100,000 Indians in [1848 and 1849]."157 Another contemporary historian, Gary Clayton Anderson, estimated that no more than 2,000 Native Americans were killed in California.158 Jeffrey Ostler has critiqued Anderson's estimate, calling it "unsubstantiated" and "at least five times too low".159 In the early 1850s, the California legislature authorized payment for multiple expeditions against the Native Americans of California. Some scholars believe that state legislators and officials "created a legal environment in which California Indians had almost no rights, thus granting those who attacked them virtual impunity which is defined as freedom from punishment."160 In addition, state legislators raised up to $1.51 million to pay for state militia expeditions against California Native Americans.161
Select ethnic groups targeted
While many groups were targeted in the genocide the circumstances of individual groups can be illustrative of the on the ground happenings of the killings.
Yuki
The Yuki people experienced catastrophe by the events of 1847–1853. The United States took possession of California from Mexico in January 1847, with the Gold Rush arriving swiftly in 1848. Hundreds of thousands came in the search of wealth, placing pressure on Indigenous Californians.162 More than 1,000 Yuki are estimated to have been killed in the Round Valley Settler Massacres of 1856–1859 and 400 in the Mendocino War; many others were enslaved and only 300 survived. The intent of the massacres was to exterminate the Yuki and gain control of the land they inhabited. U.S. Army soldiers deployed to the valley stopped further killings and in 1862 the California legislature revoked a law which permitted the kidnapping and enslavement of Native Americans in the state.
A few specific attacks of which there is witness testimony are:
A local paper reported 55 Indians killed in Clinton Valley on October 8, 1856.163
A white farmer, John Lawson, admitted an attack killing eight Indians, three by shooting and five by hanging, after some of his hogs were stolen. He stated that these killings were a common practice.164
A white farmer, Isaac Shanon, testified to killing 14 Indians in a revenge attack after a white man was killed in early 1858.165
White persons from the Sacramento Valley came into Round Valley and killed four Yuki Indians with the help of locals in June 1858, despite having been warned against it by Indian Agents.166
White settlers attacked and killed nine Indians in the mountains edging the valley in November 1858.167
Former Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Thomas Henley (fired two months earlier for embezzling funds), led a massacre of 11 Yuki Indians in August 1859.168
Due to the overwhelming number of killings, an exact death toll is unknowable. The following estimates were made by government agents and newspapers at the time:
1856: 300 total killed over the course of the year.163
Winter 1856–57: About 75 Yuki Indians killed over the course of the winter.169
March–April 1858: 300–400 male Yukis killed in three weeks.170
November 1858 – January 1859: 150+171 or 170172 Yuki Indians killed between November and January
March–May 1859: 240 Yuki killed in assaults led by H.L. Hall in revenge for the slaughter of Judge Hastings's horse173174 and a total of 600 men, women, and children killed within the previous year.175
Yuki women and children were frequently kidnapped by raiders and sold to ranchos and landowners in California, particularly in Round Valley, where settler kidnapping rings operated.176 One example of this is provided by Round Valley Elder Ernestine Ray, who stated:
"They treated Grandma pretty bad . . . She had scars on her back. Mom, she used to cry . . . 'My poor mother she died with scars on her back. They beat her.'"177
These estimates suggest well over 1,000 Yuki deaths at the hands of white settlers. (See Cook, Sherburne; "The California Indian and White Civilization" Part III, pg 7, for an argument in favor of the approximate reliability of figures of Indians killed at this time.)
Yahi
The Yahi were the first of the Yana people to suffer from the Californian Gold Rush, for their lands were the closest to the gold fields.178 Prior to the Gold Rush that began with the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January 1848, the U.S. military had been involved in the destruction of California Natives which included the Yana people. The processes included removals of people from ancestral land, massacres, confinement to small reservations, and the separation of families. In California, miners, ranchers, farmers, and businessmen engaged in acts outlined in the Genocide Convention.179 They suffered great population losses from the loss of their traditional food supplies and fought with the settlers over territory. They lacked firearms, and armed white settlers intentionally committed genocide against them in multiple raids.180 These raids took place as part of the California genocide, during which the U.S. Army and vigilante militias carried out killings as well as the relocation of thousands of Indigenous peoples in California.179 The massacre reduced the Yahi, who were already suffering from starvation, to a population of less than 100.178
On August 6, 1865, seventeen settlers raided a Yahi village at dawn. In 1866, more Yahis were massacred when they were caught by surprise in a ravine. Circa 1867, 33 Yahis were killed after being tracked to a cave north of Mill Creek. Circa 1871, four cowboys trapped and killed about 30 Yahis in Kingsley cave.180
The last known survivor of the Yahi was named Ishi by American anthropologists. Ishi had spent most of his life hiding with his tribe members in the Sierra wilderness, emerging at the age of about 49, after the deaths of his mother and remaining relatives. He was the only Yahi known to Americans.
Tolowa
In 1770 the Tolowa had a population of 1,000;6 their population soon dropped to 1506 in 1910; this was almost entirely due to deliberate mass murder in what has been described as genocide.181 Among these killings, the Yontoket Massacre left 150182 to 600182 Tolowa people recorded dead. Because their homes had burned down, the place received the name "Burnt Ranch." The Tolowa themselves date the first massacre at 1853, stating that between 450 and 600 people were killed. The second dated massacre at 1854 stating that about 150 people were killed.183 The Yontoket massacre decimated the cultural center of the Tolowa peoples. The Native people from the surrounding areas would gather there for their celebrations and discussions. The survivors of the massacre were forced to move to the village north of Smith's River called Howonquet. The slaughter of the Tolowa people continued for some years. They were seemingly always caught at their Needash celebrations. These massacres caused some unrest which led in part to the Rogue River Indian war. Many Tolowa people were incarcerated at Battery Point in 1855 to withhold them from joining an uprising led by their chief. In 1860, after the Chetco/Rogue River War, 600 Tolowa were forcibly relocated to Indian reservations in Oregon, including what is now known as the Siletz Reservation in the Central Coastal Range. Later, some were moved to the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California. Adding to the number of dead from the Yontoket Massacre and the Battery Point Attack, are many more in the following years. These massacres included the Chetco Massacre with 14184 dead, the Illinois Creek massacre with 8 to 1587 dead, the Howonquet Massacre with 7087 dead, the Achulet massacre with 65 dead,185 (not including those whose bodies were left in the lake) and the Smith River Massacre(s) where hundreds may have been killed.181 Contemporary Tolowa recall the conditions of the Klamath Reservation as being reminiscent of a concentration camp. In 1857, desperate Tolowa organized an uprising in hopes of escaping these conditions, which led to 10-20 Tolowa being killed by the U.S. military when soldiers arrived to suppress the uprising.186
Wiyot
Wiyot people were found primarily around Humboldt Bay at the time of their first encounters with settlers. The Wiyot were known to be friendly, and did not engage in conflict with settlers.113 Early incidents included: the murder of 2 Wiyot by white settlers in 1850, with further incidents soon following in the area.187
Multiple massacres of Wiyot took place in 1852, along the Eel River, including one incident in which at least 15 Wiyot were killed.188 Massacres at Humboldt Bay in 1855, resulted in at least 15 killed, with the justification given that Indians "attempted violence upon a lady".189 Further massacres occurred in 1856 killing 6 Wiyot,190 and in 1859, a further 15.191
The largest series of massacres came in 1860, when five separate massacres over the course of a week resulted in the deaths of over 285 Wiyot.114 Before the Indian Island massacre, Wiyot men had left the village to hunt. The volunteer company that arrived noted this absence, and upon encountering unarmed women and children, chose to conserve ammunition, and kill the Wiyot with axes and knives.113 Journalist Bret Harte, who reported and published a scathing article condemning the massacre, was forced to flee Humboldt, after receiving threats of lynching.192
Following the massacres, some Wiyot were forcefully removed to the Klamath reservation. One survivor, Jane Sam, later recounted the starvation and destitution which was found on the reservation.193 Wiyot who were confined to reservations often returned to Humboldt Bay.193 In 1862, a further 28 to 46 Wiyot were massacred in two separate massacres at Light's Prairie and Little River.194
Economic aspects in Southern California
At the outset, the European-American population of Los Angeles County identified a practical application for the utilization of Indian labor within an economy that was experiencing a labor shortage due to the mass migration of working-age EuroAmericans to the gold fields. During the 1850s, white Americans in the Western United States depended on individuals of Amerindian descent to cultivate vast areas of land in return for minimal or non-existent monetary compensation. During the period of the Gold Rush, numerous rancho owners were able to reap significant benefits by driving their livestock into the Central Valley and Sierra foothills, thereby capitalizing on the relatively prosperous years of gold mining.195 Due to Economic expansion because of the increased need for mining, even Indigenous groups in remote locations, such as those in the Coso Range, were incorporated into the economy.27
Forced labor, especially of children, was widespread in Southern California, and "Domesticated Indians"196 made up a significant portion of the early population of the region. These domestics were forcibly indentured labourers, often kidnapped and brought to towns like Los Angeles and San Francisco to work in households or as laborers.197
The rise of forced labor severely impacted many tribes, particularly those in the south, they being heavily affected by the practice. In 1852, a third of Indigenous boys were indentured, and 65% of native women were bound out before the age of 15. Indigenous children were often brought to towns in southern California by kidnappers who would conduct raids in the north.197
Indigenous girls who were held under indenture often experienced sexual abuse. Girls were frequently kidnapped directly from reservations and subject to extreme abuse.198 Indigenous women made up nearly half of all indentured.199 Indigenous people charged with vagrancy, or any other crimes, could also be summarily forced into indentured servitude. 3/4s of all indentured natives in California were under 14.199
Over the course of the genocide, Native people in Southern California often lived in near-famine conditions, and had taxes imposed upon them.157 The Cupeno leader Antonio Garra organised people in San Diego County to revolt against these conditions, Garra's rebellion became one of the largest in Southern California, till his capture by Cahuilla leader Juan Antonio.200
Epidemic disease and famine also decimated the Indigenous population of the state. Tribes in Southern California would suffer through epidemics of smallpox, and massacres. Tribes such as the Cahuilla, Gabrielino, and Yokut, frequently driven by starvation, would steal horses and livestock.157 Almost all "Mission Indians" in California were left landless over the course of the genocide, as their communities were forcibly dispersed, and lands taken by settlers.201
Legacy
Land grab and value
According to M. Kat Anderson, an ecologist and lecturer at University of California, Davis, and Jon Keeley, a fire ecologist and research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, after decades of being disconnected from the land and their culture, due to Spanish and U.S. settler violence, Native peoples are slowly starting to be able to practice traditions that enhance the environment around them, by directly taking care of the land. Anderson and Keeley write, "The outcomes that Indigenous people were aiming for when burning chaparral, such as increased water flow, enhanced wildlife habitat, and the maintenance of many kinds of flowering plants and animals, are congruent and dovetail with the values that public land agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners wish to preserve and enhance through wildland management".202 Through these returned practices, they are able to commit and practice their culture, while also helping the other people in the area that will benefit from the ecological differences.
California Landmark 427, built in 2005 represents the Bloody Island Massacre of the Pomo people that took place on May 15, 1850.203 The monument is used as a center point of an annual festival beginning in 1999 held by Pomo descendants. Candles and tobacco are burned in honor of their ancestors.
Call for tribunals
American Indian scholar Gerald Vizenor has argued in the early 21st century for universities to be authorized to assemble tribunals to investigate these events. He notes that United States federal law contains no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide. He says:
Genocide tribunals would provide venues of judicial reason and equity that reveal continental ethnic cleansing, mass murder, torture, and religious persecution, past and present, and would justly expose, in the context of legal competition for evidence, the inciters, falsifiers, and deniers of genocide and state crimes against Native American Indians. Genocide tribunals would surely enhance the moot court programs in law schools and provide more serious consideration of human rights and international criminal cases by substantive testimony, motivated historical depositions, documentary evidence, contentious narratives, and ethical accountability.204
Vizenor believes that, in accordance with international law, the universities of South Dakota, Minnesota, and California Berkeley ought to establish tribunals to hear evidence and adjudicate crimes against humanity alleged to have taken place in their individual states.205 Attorney Lindsay Glauner has also argued for such tribunals.206
Apologies and name changes
In a speech before representatives of Native American peoples in June 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom apologized for the genocide. Newsom referring to the proposed California Truth and Healing Council said, "California must reckon with our dark history. California Native American peoples suffered violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history .... It's called genocide. That's what it was, a genocide. No other way to describe it. And that's the way it needs to be described in the history books. We can never undo the wrongs inflicted on the peoples who have lived on this land that we now call California since time immemorial, but we can work together to build bridges, tell the truth about our past and begin to heal deep wounds."14207 After hearing testimony, a Truth and Healing Council will clarify the historical record on the relationship between the state of California and American Indians.208
In November 2021, the board of directors of the former "University of California Hastings College of Law" voted to change the name of the institution because of its founder and namesake S. C. Hastings's alleged involvement in the killing and dispossessing of Yuki people in the 1850s.209210 The name change was approved via an act of the California Legislature (California Assembly Bill 1936, 2021–2022 regular session) and was signed into law by the governor on 23 September 2022. The name change took effect on January 1, 2023.211 The institution is now known as the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
In April 2024, Governor Newsom announced California's support for returning ancestral tribal lands to Indigenous communities, describing the initiative as "an acknowledgment of past sins, a promise of accountability, and a commitment to a better future".212 The California Truth and Healing Council, established pursuant to Newsom's 2019 executive order, was charged with examining the historical relationship between the state and Native Americans, with authority to make recommendations on reparation and restoration measures.213
Archaeological evidence of violence and refugeeism in California
Research made in 2015 on Native burial mounds in the San Francisco Bay Area found that Indigenous people would move to different places in order to avoid genocide. The movement can be traced by the dating of the burial mounds since multiple Native tribes found these burial mound spaces as places of religious and cultural freedom.214
The Amah Mutsun are a group of Indigenous peoples who were reported to be unable to pass on their traditions during this time, their practices remained untold for a number of years. People of this group, descendants, and archaeologists participate in conducting collaborative, ethnographic research to bring light to previous practices like burial practices and vegetation patterns.215
Academic debate on the term "genocide"
There is vigorous debate over the scale of American Indian losses after the discovery of gold in California and whether to characterize them as genocide.216217 The application of the term "genocide", in particular, has been controversial.179 According to historian Jeffrey Ostler, the debate mostly rests on disagreements regarding the definition of the term.217 He writes that by a strict ("intentionalist"218) definition, genocide "requir[es] a federal or state government intention to kill all California Indians and an outcome in which the majority of deaths were from direct killing", while by a less strict ("structuralist"218) definition, it "requir[es] only settler intention to destroy a substantial portion of California Indians using a variety of means ranging from dispossession to systematic killing".217 Under the former definition, Ostler argues that "genocide does not seem applicable," whereas under the latter definition, "genocide seems apt."
In 1948, Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defined genocide as
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
— Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 2219
For use of the term
Historians who argue the term "genocide" is appropriate point out that the Indian population of California fell quickly and argue that extreme violence was integral to this process.217 Benjamin Madley, a UCLA historian, is one of the most prominent historians espousing this view, writing that "[i]t was genocide, sanctioned and facilitated by California officials" who, according to him, "established a state-sponsored killing machine".134 Historian Brendan C. Lindsay, argued that "rather than a government orchestrating a population to bring about the genocide of a group, [in California] the population orchestrated a government to destroy a group",220 while William T. Hagen wrote that "[genocide] is a term of awful significance, but one which has application to the story of California's Native Americans".221 James J. Rawls argued that Californian whites "advocated and carried out a program of genocide that was popularly called 'extermination'".222 Militias were called out by the governors of California for "expeditions against the Indians" on a number of occasions.223
Supporters of the use of the term "genocide" stress the involvement and complicity of federal and state authorities in perpetrating atrocities against the Indigenous Californians, and point to their statements and policies as evidence of direct genocidal intent. For example, historian Richard White, in a review of Madley's An American Genocide, argues that "no reader of his book can seriously contend that what happened in California doesn't meet the current definition of "genocide"," citing the "relentless attacks by federal troops, state militia, vigilantes, and mercenaries [that] made the enslavement of Indians possible and starvation and disease inevitable".224 White continues, "in California, what Americans have often called "war" was nothing of the sort. For every American who died, 100 Indians perished. They died horribly—men, women, and children. The men who killed them were brutal. Nor did the killings result from a moment of rage; they were systematic." White stresses the complicity of the US federal government, noting that "the funding that the US government provided for California's militia expeditions made attacking Indians possible and profitable".224 Writing about the experience of Indigenous Californian women during this period, Women's studies scholar Gail Ukockis argues that "government officials were quite explicit about their genocidal intent,"225 citing the 1851 State of the State address given by the 1st Governor of California, Peter Burnett, in which he said: "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected."65
Jeffrey Ostler, too, endorsed the usage of the term, writing that it "rests on a substantial body of scholarship".226 Ostler argues that there is a "general consensus" that genocide took place in at least "some times and places in the state's early history".227 Responding to critics of the "genocide" charge that have argued that epidemics were the primary cause of Native mortality,228 Ostler writes that "depopulation from disease more often resulted from conditions created by colonialism—in California, loss of land, destruction of resources and food stores, lack of clean water, captive taking, sexual violence, and massacre—that encouraged the spread of pathogens and increased communities' vulnerability through malnutrition, exposure, social stress, and destruction of sources of medicine and capacities for palliative care".229 He continues, "since the United States' colonization of California was intended to dispossess Indigenous peoples and since that intention had the predictable consequence of making communities vulnerable to multiple diseases which led to massive population loss, disease in this case qualifies as a crucial factor contributing to genocide".230
Karl Jacoby, in his review of An American Genocide, argues that the book removes "any doubt that genocide against Native people took place in the most populous and prosperous state in the US" and that it establishes "conclusively the reality of genocide in the Golden State".231 He also notes that Madley "illuminates the ways that federal and state policies facilitated popular violence against Indians".231 William Bauer Jr. argues that Benjamin Madley "has settled the issue on whether or not genocide occurred in California".232 He writes also that "federal and state governments, those bodies that could or should have protected California Indians from the devastating violence, condoned and perpetrated genocides" and that "civilian leaders in California passed legislation that enabled genocide".233 Margaret Jacobs writes that Madley has made it "nearly impossible to deny that a genocide took place against Native peoples in at least one location and one time period in American history" and that he shows how "the genocide started out as the work of vigilante groups but soon gained state funding and federal support".234 Jacobs points out, for example, that "in 1854, Congress agreed to pay off California's war debt, and by the end of 1856, the federal government had given California more than $800,000 to distribute to bond holders who had financed the genocidal killing in the state."234
In his book The Rediscovery of America, historian Ned Blackhawk argues that "historians have located genocide across Native American history" and cites California as a specific example.235 Blackhawk writes that in California, "settlers used informal and state-sanctioned violence to shatter Native worlds and legitimate their own" and also notes that "in February 1852, for example, the state legislature appropriated $500,000 to fund anti-Indian state militias".236 Regarding the role of the federal government, he writes that they had "earlier attempted an alternate scenario to the genocide at hand. In 1851 and 1852, officials negotiated eighteen treaties across the state; however, bowing to California representatives, the Senate rejected these treaties, essentially authorizing the continued use of settler violence to aid colonization."237
William S. Kiser also concurs that genocide took place in California, writing that "state-sponsored scalp warfare rose to the level of genocide", noting that "well-organized participants acted systematically and relentlessly in their attempts to exterminate racial groups."238
Against the use of the term
Other scholars and historians dispute the accuracy of the term "genocide" to describe what occurred in California, as well as the blame which has been placed directly on the federal government and the state government of California,158 pointing to the fact that disease was the primary factor in the depopulation of California Indians and arguing that mass violence was undertaken primarily by settlers and that the state and federal governments did not establish a policy of physically killing all Indians.217 One of the most prominent historians espousing such a view is Gary Clayton Anderson,239 a University of Oklahoma professor of history who describes the events in California as "ethnic cleansing",158240 arguing that "If we get to the point where the mass murder of 50 Indians in California is considered genocide, then genocide has no more meaning".158 Historian William Henry Hutchinson, wrote that "the record of history disproves these charges [of genocide]",241 while historian Tom Henry Watkins stated that "it is a poor use of the term" since the killings were not systematic or planned.242
In a critical review of Brendan Lindsay's Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846–1873, Michael F. Magliari notes that "\Sherburne\ Cook never described the terrible events of 1846–1873 as a genocide, and neither had any of his leading successors in California Indian history". While acknowledging that actions against some tribes native to California were genocidal, he opts for the term ethnocidal for actions against other tribes, considering the former term's application to all cases "highly problematic". (He rejects the UN Genocide Convention's "sweeping definition" of genocide, whereas Lindsay embraces it.)243 In a subsequent review of Benjamin Madley's An American Genocide, he says that some scholars may find Madley's use of the UN Genocide Convention as an "overly broad and elastic definition", that the evidence of genocide "varies considerably from place to place and is far stronger in some cases", and that Madley's case against the federal government is "not nearly so strong" as that against "frontier miners, farmers, and ranchers".228 Magliari also argues that "epidemics, not violence, still remained by far the greater factor in Native mortality".228 He nevertheless concludes : "Beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt (and by the standards of any reasonable definition), genocide did in fact play a significant role in the US conquest and subjugation of Native California."228
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