California genocide
The California genocide was a series of systematized killings of thousands of Indigenous peoples of California by United States government agents and private citizens in the 19th century. It began following the American Conquest of California from Mexico, and the influx of settlers due to the California Gold Rush, which accelerated the decline of the Indigenous population of California. Between 1846 and 1873, it is estimated that non-Natives killed between 9,492 and 16,094 California Natives. In addition, between several hundred and several thousand California Natives were starved or worked to death. Acts of enslavement, kidnapping, rape, child separation and forced displacement were widespread. These acts were encouraged, tolerated, and carried out by state authorities and militias.
| California genocide | |
|---|---|
| Part of the California Indian Wars and Native American genocide in the United States | |
"Protecting The Settlers", illustration by J. R. Browne in The Indians Of California, 1864 | |
| Location | California |
| Date | 1846–1873 |
| Target | Indigenous Californians |
Attack type | Genocide, ethnic cleansing, human hunting, slavery, rape, Indian removal |
| 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) 100,000+ (per Castillo/California Native American Heritage Commission) |
| Injured | 10,000–27,000 taken as forced laborers by white settlers; 4,000–7,000 of them children |
| Perpetrators | United States Army, California State Militia, White American settlers |
The 1925 book Handbook of the Indians of California estimated that the Indigenous population of California decreased from perhaps as many as 150,000 in 1848 to 30,000 in 1870 and fell further to 16,000 in 1900. The decline was caused by disease, low birth rates, starvation, killings, and massacres. California Natives, particularly during the Gold Rush, were targeted in killings. Between 10,000 and 27,000 were also taken as forced labor by settlers. The state of California used its institutions to favor white settlers' rights over Indigenous rights, dispossessing natives.
Since the 2000s several American academics and activist organizations, both Native American and European American, have characterized the period immediately following the U.S. Conquest of California as one in which the state and federal governments waged genocide against the Native Americans in the territory. In 2019, California's governor Gavin Newsom stated, "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." and apologized for the "violence, discrimination and exploitation sanctioned by state government throughout its history" and called for a research group to be formed to better understand the topic and inform future generations.