-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Albert L. Hurtado, Brendan C. Lindsay. Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846–1873., The American Historical Review, Volume 118, Issue 3, June 2013, Pages 859–860, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/118.3.859
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Despite the shocking title of Brendan C. Lindsay's book, the basic facts of the case he explores are well known. During the gold rush, California miners and settlers motivated by racism, fear, and greed slaughtered thousands of California Indians. Local, state, and federal governments directly and indirectly abetted these murders. Disease and starvation augmented the death toll. By the end of the nineteenth century the state's Indian population stood at about ten percent of its number before European contact. In the twentieth century, scholars like Sherburne F. Cook took note of these grisly facts. Carey McWilliams compared the decimation of California Indians with the results of Nazi death camps. In the years between 1979 and 1987 at least three books about California Indians included the word genocide in their titles. Less controversial words like destruction and extermination were also used to convey the fact that Native Californians were nearly annihilated. More recently scholars have emphasized Indian agency while acknowledging the sorry record outlined above.
