Silencing California Indian Genocide in Social Studies Texts

Abstract

During the 1850s and 1860s, white settlers perpetrated genocide against California Indians. Militia and regular troops supported by the state and federal governments committed acts of genocide as defined by the United Nations. Government officials, newspaper editors, and pioneers documented the genocide. History and social science textbooks ignore or barely mention murders, rapes, kidnappings, and enslavement of California Indians during the Gold Rush era. The California State Department of Education denies the genocide and textbook companies are silent of Indian genocide in spite of overwhelming evidence.