Home
Gallery
Search
Register
Log in
About Us & RulesCalifornia: The Not-So Golden State
3 posters
Page 1 of 1
California: The Not-So Golden State
by Guest Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:32 pm
Blessed with beauty and wealth, California fails to come to terms with its past.
Paradise lost: Native Americans in the Yosemite Valley, California, c.1870.
This summer I had the good fortune to spend time in California, a land with spectacular natural beauty and a relatively recent recorded history. The museums and historic sites we visited tend to summarise this by saying that for thousands of years the Native Americans of California – the Shasta, the Chumash, the Yurok, or one of the many other California Indian tribes and language groups – lived in harmony with the land until, in the late 18th century, Spanish Franciscan friars from Mexico arrived in Southern California to found missions, convert the native peoples and set them to labour on the mission farms and ranches, colonising the area between San Diego and Fort Ross. The Spanish coincided with Russian fur traders, who had arrived in California by way of Alaska and who imposed their own form of colonisation on the coastal regions, as they sought the precious pelts of sea otters. In 1846, US military officers took control of California, declaring it to be ‘henceforth … a portion of the United States’. In 1848, gold was found in the American River and, by 1849, fortune-seekers had started to arrive in great droves. Others came to California to take advantage of the beautiful and fertile landscape, to found lodgings, build roads and run lumber mills. The modern settlement of California had begun.
In 1880, a census recorded that there were just 16,277 Native Americans in California. It is estimated, however, that a century earlier the native population had been around 310,000; approximately half are thought to have died in the Russo-Hispanic period (1769-1846). This means that the Native American population fell by around 134,000 in the 31 years that followed the discovery of gold. Many, especially in the first swathe, had died from what Thomas Hariot in his 16th-century account of the native peoples of Virginia – pondering the ‘marvellous accident’ by which ‘within a few days after our departure … the people began to die very fast’ – described as ‘invisible bullets’: the diseases carried by Europeans that proved deadly to native peoples in colonised areas around the world. But many others died from forced labour and racially motivated massacres.
This fact is glossed and passed over in several of the museums and commemorative sites I’ve seen. The deaths of the Native Americans are mentioned, but disease carries the weight of responsibility and the story quickly moves on to the intrepid settlers, many of whom experienced great hardships. An honourable exception was the excellent volunteer-run museum at Mount Shasta, whose interpretation claims that the gold-seekers and settlers burned native villages and shot their people. They tell the story of Chief Sunrise, Got-A-Uke-Ek-Su, of the Shasta people, who signed a peace treaty in 1851, which was celebrated by a barbecue hosted by the Scott Valley settlers. It was poisoned. Although the chief himself did not eat, realising that the white people were not eating, many Shasta people died and the survivors were forced to relocate to Indian reservations in other states. Only 30 Shasta women, who had married white men, stayed in the area. All today’s Shasta people are descended from them.
The scholarship is, however, unequivocal about the extermination of the native peoples of California. Benjamin Madley’s 2017 book, An American Genocide, cites earlier works, such as that by anthropologist Russell Thornton, who recognised that ‘the largest, most blatant, deliberate killings of North American Indians by non-Indians surely occurred in California’. Madley’s work exposes many of the so-called Indian wars as simple massacres. If the reality of this has gone unnoticed, it is probably because, between 1846 and 1873, around 80 per cent of Californian Indians died and many of the massacres left no survivors. There are, therefore, few recorded voices of native witnesses to the killings – non-native perpetrator and bystander reports, biased and minimised as they are, become the historian’s major source.
Adam Hochschild’s superlative King Leopold’s Ghost (1998) examines the forced labour and mass extermination of the Congolese people under King Leopold of Belgium, whose personal fiefdom it was. It almost coincided with the Californian atrocities. Both genocides were justified and legitimised by racial hatred. Ideas are not innocent. Remembering the damage they do is why the study of history is so important.
Suzannah Lipscomb is Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Roehampton and author of The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex and Marriage in Early Modern Languedoc (Oxford, forthcoming).
https://www.historytoday.com/suzannah-lipscomb/california-not-so-golden-state
Paradise lost: Native Americans in the Yosemite Valley, California, c.1870.
This summer I had the good fortune to spend time in California, a land with spectacular natural beauty and a relatively recent recorded history. The museums and historic sites we visited tend to summarise this by saying that for thousands of years the Native Americans of California – the Shasta, the Chumash, the Yurok, or one of the many other California Indian tribes and language groups – lived in harmony with the land until, in the late 18th century, Spanish Franciscan friars from Mexico arrived in Southern California to found missions, convert the native peoples and set them to labour on the mission farms and ranches, colonising the area between San Diego and Fort Ross. The Spanish coincided with Russian fur traders, who had arrived in California by way of Alaska and who imposed their own form of colonisation on the coastal regions, as they sought the precious pelts of sea otters. In 1846, US military officers took control of California, declaring it to be ‘henceforth … a portion of the United States’. In 1848, gold was found in the American River and, by 1849, fortune-seekers had started to arrive in great droves. Others came to California to take advantage of the beautiful and fertile landscape, to found lodgings, build roads and run lumber mills. The modern settlement of California had begun.
In 1880, a census recorded that there were just 16,277 Native Americans in California. It is estimated, however, that a century earlier the native population had been around 310,000; approximately half are thought to have died in the Russo-Hispanic period (1769-1846). This means that the Native American population fell by around 134,000 in the 31 years that followed the discovery of gold. Many, especially in the first swathe, had died from what Thomas Hariot in his 16th-century account of the native peoples of Virginia – pondering the ‘marvellous accident’ by which ‘within a few days after our departure … the people began to die very fast’ – described as ‘invisible bullets’: the diseases carried by Europeans that proved deadly to native peoples in colonised areas around the world. But many others died from forced labour and racially motivated massacres.
This fact is glossed and passed over in several of the museums and commemorative sites I’ve seen. The deaths of the Native Americans are mentioned, but disease carries the weight of responsibility and the story quickly moves on to the intrepid settlers, many of whom experienced great hardships. An honourable exception was the excellent volunteer-run museum at Mount Shasta, whose interpretation claims that the gold-seekers and settlers burned native villages and shot their people. They tell the story of Chief Sunrise, Got-A-Uke-Ek-Su, of the Shasta people, who signed a peace treaty in 1851, which was celebrated by a barbecue hosted by the Scott Valley settlers. It was poisoned. Although the chief himself did not eat, realising that the white people were not eating, many Shasta people died and the survivors were forced to relocate to Indian reservations in other states. Only 30 Shasta women, who had married white men, stayed in the area. All today’s Shasta people are descended from them.
The scholarship is, however, unequivocal about the extermination of the native peoples of California. Benjamin Madley’s 2017 book, An American Genocide, cites earlier works, such as that by anthropologist Russell Thornton, who recognised that ‘the largest, most blatant, deliberate killings of North American Indians by non-Indians surely occurred in California’. Madley’s work exposes many of the so-called Indian wars as simple massacres. If the reality of this has gone unnoticed, it is probably because, between 1846 and 1873, around 80 per cent of Californian Indians died and many of the massacres left no survivors. There are, therefore, few recorded voices of native witnesses to the killings – non-native perpetrator and bystander reports, biased and minimised as they are, become the historian’s major source.
Adam Hochschild’s superlative King Leopold’s Ghost (1998) examines the forced labour and mass extermination of the Congolese people under King Leopold of Belgium, whose personal fiefdom it was. It almost coincided with the Californian atrocities. Both genocides were justified and legitimised by racial hatred. Ideas are not innocent. Remembering the damage they do is why the study of history is so important.
Suzannah Lipscomb is Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Roehampton and author of The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex and Marriage in Early Modern Languedoc (Oxford, forthcoming).
https://www.historytoday.com/suzannah-lipscomb/california-not-so-golden-state
Guest- Guest
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by 'Wolfie Tue Oct 02, 2018 4:35 pm
I wonder why that author is picking on California alone, when most American states have just as bad a history in abusing and exploiting their First Nation peoples ???
Especially around the Dakotas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and the likes, where the American gov't is still skitching the FBI onto any areas that resist against continuing invasions by mining, oil and forestry concerns..
Then, of course, there were the British, Dutch, French and Scandinavian invasions from the East. The USA is renown for countless broken treaties and genocides across the 18th and 19th centuries..
Maybe the good reader/lecturer has a few more prospective books in the pipeline ???
'Wolfie- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 8189
Join date : 2016-02-24
Age : 66
Location : Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by Guest Tue Oct 02, 2018 4:39 pm
Oh dear poor apologism from Wolf
This is a particular article on California. So why go off other aspects, when she has centered on this one to write about?
What a ridiculous apologist argument to make, to divert talking about this event in history
Maybe you need to stop diverting and actually talk about the subject at hand, as we often talk about European colonialisms and the wrongs done with this. Where I constantly have to correct your many poor uneducated claims and revisionist history on this.
She makes it very clear why she wrote, as she spent lots of time there and how the history is glossed over from the past in muesums in California.
She is correcting that, by speaking up.
This is a particular article on California. So why go off other aspects, when she has centered on this one to write about?
What a ridiculous apologist argument to make, to divert talking about this event in history
Maybe you need to stop diverting and actually talk about the subject at hand, as we often talk about European colonialisms and the wrongs done with this. Where I constantly have to correct your many poor uneducated claims and revisionist history on this.
She makes it very clear why she wrote, as she spent lots of time there and how the history is glossed over from the past in muesums in California.
She is correcting that, by speaking up.
Guest- Guest
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by 'Wolfie Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:44 am
What a surprise... Not..
Once again poor delusional little Dodge is spouting bullshit yet again..
Claiming that I'm being some kind of supposef"apologist" for pointing out that California's historical sins are mere.y part of a much bigger picture.
Didge is really getting too pathetic here, falsely claiming that I've apparently said something here that I have clearly not..
**********************************************
Also, note where Dodge apparently doesn't count those Spanish and Russian invaders as "European" settlers, in his insults there -- they must have come from another universe altogether, if the diddery one doesn't consider them European colonial invaders.
'Wolfie- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 8189
Join date : 2016-02-24
Age : 66
Location : Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by Guest Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:30 am
And yet again everyone can see Wolf trying to divert yet again, the poor little puppy that he is, yapping at my heels
Has he actually talked about the article?
Nope
Has he actually talked about the article?
Nope
Guest- Guest
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by 'Wolfie Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:25 am
Bug off, doddery Dodger...
Nowhere in my comments can anyone see any actual deflections, apologies, or actual abuse against the author..
Only in your delusional imagination, you simpering great snowflake.
'Wolfie- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 8189
Join date : 2016-02-24
Age : 66
Location : Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by Guest Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:26 am
WhoseYourWolfie wrote:
Bug off, doddery Dodger...
Nowhere in my comments can anyone see any actual deflections, apologies, or actual abuse against the author..
Only in your delusional imagination, you simpering great snowflake.
Still no comments on the actual article
Guest- Guest
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by veya_victaous Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:34 am
Sadly wolf is right, the same stories are repeated through out the new world.
Literally to civilized for their own good, killed through exposure to European's with adaptions to lack of sanitation and hygienedescribed as ‘invisible bullets’: the diseases carried by Europeans that proved deadly to native peoples in colonised areas around the world.
veya_victaous- The Mod Loki, Minister of Chaos & Candy, Emperor of the Southern Realms, Captain Kangaroo
- Posts : 19114
Join date : 2013-01-23
Age : 41
Location : Australia
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by Guest Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:35 am
veya_victaous wrote:Sadly wolf is right, the same stories are repeated through out the new world.Literally to civilized for their own good, killed through exposure to European's with adaptions to lack of sanitation and hygienedescribed as ‘invisible bullets’: the diseases carried by Europeans that proved deadly to native peoples in colonised areas around the world.
Where did Wolf say about diseases?
Or anything on the article?
Guest- Guest
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by 'Wolfie Wed Oct 03, 2018 2:43 pm
Didge wrote:WhoseYourWolfie wrote:
Bug off, doddery Dodger...
Nowhere in my comments can anyone see any actual deflections, apologies, or actual abuse against the author..
Only in your delusional imagination, you simpering great snowflake.
Still no comments on the actual article
Oh, do bugger off you fuck-brained moron...
I have been commenting on her article all along, you sniveling little weasel-mouthed turd..
'Wolfie- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 8189
Join date : 2016-02-24
Age : 66
Location : Lake Macquarie, NSW, Australia
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by Original Quill Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:33 pm
WhoseYourWolfie wrote:
I wonder why that author is picking on California alone, when most American states have just as bad a history in abusing and exploiting their First Nation peoples ???
Especially around the Dakotas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and the likes, where the American gov't is still skitching the FBI onto any areas that resist against continuing invasions by mining, oil and forestry concerns..
Then, of course, there were the British, Dutch, French and Scandinavian invasions from the East. The USA is renown for countless broken treaties and genocides across the 18th and 19th centuries..
Maybe the good reader/lecturer has a few more prospective books in the pipeline ???
The reason why California is singled out in these tales of tragedy is because it is today so successful and wealthy. New Mexico is a poor state, as are the Dakotas. It wouldn't do to beat on them, because the stark contrast is not there.
A better view is gained by reading Ishi, by Theodora Kroeber, which chronicles the efforts of the University of California at Berkeley to preserve the culture of the Yana tribes along the Sacramento River in northern California:
T. Kroeber wrote:"The beginning of the end of the Yana might be said to have been in the year 1844, when a spate of land grants was made by the Mexican government in the Sacramento Valley bordering on the Yana country. After 1844, Mexico's time of trouble at home and abroad brought to an end any further expansion of Alta California, the thrust which carried Mexican hegemony up valley to the Yana hills..."
The fate of these tribes was secondary to these Mexican land grants.
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 37540
Join date : 2013-12-19
Age : 59
Location : Northern California
Re: California: The Not-So Golden State
by Guest Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:56 pm
Which shows Quill did not read the article either and more apologism by him also
So lets give him a chance and see why this was an article about Californian history.
She explains very clearly why and as seen the left go into defense mode.
It is so easy to predict how the left will act
You see the left are just as nationalistic as the right and this proves it
So lets give him a chance and see why this was an article about Californian history.
She explains very clearly why and as seen the left go into defense mode.
It is so easy to predict how the left will act
You see the left are just as nationalistic as the right and this proves it
Guest- Guest
Similar topics» California, the Golden State, returns the gold...
» California: The Physical Collapse Of A Social State
» California Lawmakers Vote to Become Sanctuary State
» Cops hunting the Golden State Killer got the WRONG MAN by using a free genealogy site and ordered innocent sickly 73-year-old to give DNA to clear himself - then his daughter helped nail 'real killer'
» Florida state employees aren't allowed to discuss why their state is being swallowed by the Atlantic
» California: The Physical Collapse Of A Social State
» California Lawmakers Vote to Become Sanctuary State
» Cops hunting the Golden State Killer got the WRONG MAN by using a free genealogy site and ordered innocent sickly 73-year-old to give DNA to clear himself - then his daughter helped nail 'real killer'
» Florida state employees aren't allowed to discuss why their state is being swallowed by the Atlantic
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
» TOTAL MADNESS Great British Railway Journeys among shows flagged by counter terror scheme ‘for encouraging far-right sympathies
» Interesting COVID figures
» HAPPY CHRISTMAS.
» The Fight Over Climate Change is Over (The Greenies Won!)
» Trump supporter murders wife, kills family dog, shoots daughter
» Quill
» Algerian Woman under investigation for torture and murder of French girl, 12, whose body was found in plastic case in Paris
» Wind turbines cool down the Earth (edited with better video link)
» Saying goodbye to our Queen.
» PHEW.
» And here's some more enrichment...
» John F Kennedy Assassination
» Where is everyone lately...?
» London violence over the weekend...
» Why should anyone believe anything that Mo Farah says...!?
» Liverpool Labour defends mayor role poll after turnout was only 3% and they say they will push ahead with the option that was least preferred!!!
» Labour leader Keir Stammer can't answer the simple question of whether a woman has a penis or not...
» More evidence of remoaners still trying to overturn Brexit... and this is a conservative MP who should be drummed out of the party and out of parliament!
» R Kelly 30 years, Ghislaine Maxwell 20 years... but here in UK...