An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe

Between 1846 and 1873, California’s Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. In his talk, Benjamin Madley will describe precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence. He will then narrate the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Besides evaluating government officials’ culpability, Madley will consider why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book. Born in Redding, California, Benjamin Madley is a historian of Native America, the United States, and genocide in world history. He earned a B.A. at Yale University, an M.St. at Oxford University, and a Ph.D. at Yale. He then served as an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral fellow at Darmouth College before joining the faculty at UCLA where he is now Associated Professor of History and Interim Chair of American Indian Studies. Ben has authored a dozen journal articles and book chapters. An American Genocide is his first book. It recently won the 2016 Heyday Books History Award