An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 (The Lamar Series in Western History) Hardcover – May 24, 2016

For the same reasons the country of Turkey refuses to admit their Armenian Genocide, the US may never admit to genocide within its borders. The book specifically deals with California. People have a general historic notion of the Gold Rush, "49ers", Missions, and a wild San Francisco, but little has been said and understood about the horrific treatment given to the indigenous populations, first by the Spanish and later the Americans. There were at times paid bounties for Indian scalps and more. It's a real eyeopener. I hope that many will read this quite accessible, well referenced book and understand the rest of the California state story.

I live in a beautiful California forest interface area that was once Ohlone Indian territory. I love to go out in the brush to pick wild blackberries and love to see the terrain in the moonlight. It has dawned on me it wasn't all that long ago that Ohlone Indians enjoyed the area just the same way I do now until they were violently run off. I don't have any plans to give the property back, but the troubling thought is often in the back of my mind. When I pick the blackberries, I'm doing something an Indian once did in exactly the same spot.

Banjamin Madley's book AN AMERICAN GENOCIDE is breathtaking! I was born in California in 1935 and grew up there. I shutter to think I might have had an ancestor that participated in any way with the slaughter of 300 thousand California Indians just a century before I was born.
Author Madley is a true historian, a scholar who knows how to do "sherlock-holmes" style of research. In 1769 there were ~310,000 Indians living in California. In 1846 there were ~150,000; in 1870 there were 30,000, and just ten years later, in 1880, census takers recorded the California Indian population at 16,277 (p.3). Every American adult should read this book. Read it and weep. Thomas Headland (December 2, 2016)

A life-long resident of California, in grade school I was taught a version of California history very different from the events described in this excellent book.

We were all taught about Father Junipero Serra. We went on field trips to F. Serra’s missions, a practice that continues to this day. Our text books contained pictures of a serene Father Serra gently instructing members of native tribes working who leisurely work at the missions. Far from the image we were given in grade school, however, and very far from any quality which would have justified his canonization by the Vatican, Father Serra was a sadistic taskmaster who would not hesitate to whip and torture any Indian who slacked off on the job or attempted to escape. (The good fathers at the Vatican should have read this book before making Serra a Saint.)

We were taught that General Fremont simply arrived in California to establish a government in Monterey. In life he was a glory-seeker who disobeyed military orders to survey land in Virginia and instead went to California to cash in on the Gold Rush, brutally massacring any native Indian tribes along the way. Fremont hardly began the genocide. He simply continued a policy practiced by the Russians and before them by the Mexicans. The Russians and Mexicans indeed initiated the policy and practice of exterminating native California Indians.

Johann Sutter, owner of the Sutter Mill which propelled the Gold Rush, is depicted in textbooks as a benign historical figure. In reality he was a leading proponent for “exterminating” native California Indians.

Looking back at those naive days it is clear we were not told the whole story. This book does and exposes the dark, hidden, shameful underbelly of California’s history.

Madley’s account is a bone-chilling account of the genocide of native California tribes, massacre by massacre, killing by killing, death by death. The killings are personalized as far as possible given the existing documentation from contemporary newspaper accounts, correspondence, personal reminisces, autobiographies, and other archival references.

Fully one-half of this book is devoted to a generous bibliography and copious footnotes which support every historical assertion made. There are several appendices, totaling almost two hundred pages, which list, day by day, how many Indians were killed, where they were killed, and the historical source documenting the murder(s). There are maps identifying the location of native California Indian populations and murder sites. There are many illustrations. Madley’s book is an impressive work of scholarship.

Madley’s book is diminished in its repeated theme that Native California tribes were victims of genocide. The introduction consists of a detailed discussion of international standards of actions considered genocide. It is difficult sometimes to determine whether Madley’s intent is academic or to serve as a trial brief for the World Court.

This does not diminish the book’s profound impact. This book is not an easy read. Madley’s book is at times truly gut-wrenching. Some of the contemporary accounts of massacres are very graphic. The butchery is described in great detail as if the authors/participants saw nothing wrong in their acts. It is a real eye-opener, especially if you live in “good ‘ol liberal California,” as Frank Zappa was so fond to sardonically say. So little regard was given to the lives of native California tribes that contemporary reportings in newspapers were given in a matter-of-fact manner. The newspaper reports documented in this book were reported with such regularity and in such a bland manner it was as if they were reporting on the weather, not murders.

This is how, not unlike the rest of the United States, the great State of California began. What sets California’s story apart is that the murderers left a mountain of evidence of their crimes. This book should be required textbook reading in California classrooms.

Ben Madley's book is an important one and highlights a period not often discussed in California history. He highlights key ways that the state of California sponsored violence, assault, and murder on indigenous/first peoples of California. It is a heavy read, but an important one!

This book provides definitive proof of the genocide of California Indians by California militia, vigilantes and the US Army. Professor Madley provides details in chronological order for the genocide from 1846 - 1873. This is one of a few books that actually tells the truth about how white people treated California Indians. Please also read Murder State by Lindsay, Freedom's Frontier by Smith and Strangers in a Stolen Land by Carrico to learn more about the history of white racism against California Indians. You can also read Estanislao - Warrior, Man of God to learn the truth about how California Indians were treated in the Missions. It turns out that many of the white people we venerate as historical figures in California were terrible to the Indians.

Finally some truth about California's blood soaked past. Madley strips away the romantic notions of California's Mission and Gold Rush eras to reveal unspeakable horror, i.e., wholesale dispossession and murder on a grand scale. And these barbaric crimes were largely formulated and executed by state and federal authorities. The people of this state and nation should collectively hang their heads in shame for what we did to the Original People of California. The author's scholarship is beyond reproach. His well documented findings clearly meet the definition of genocide as described in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Dr. Madley's work should be required reading for every student of California and U.S. History.

I bought the Audible version of this book. It is a difficult listen. How much butchery and torture can my ears digest? It goes on like a devil's account book. I give it five stars because it is a sad, Sick and necessary piece of the American history book.