Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846-1873

Brendan C. Lindsay investigates the use of democratic government's petitions, referenda, town meetings and votes to carry out mass genocide against Californian Native Americans.  Inspired by his experience of campus resistance to the very idea that genocide had been committed, he set out to document it.  "The present is a product of the past," he contends.  Democratic actions, "perpetrated by democratic, freedom-loving U.S. citizens in the name of democracy, but really to secure great wealth in the form of land," built the state on a foundation of blood and theft.  The author hopes a work of history will illuminate California’s political questions of today, and make clear that democracy is no guarantee against the worst human behavior.

Brendan C. Lindsay is a lecturer of history at the University of Central Florida.  He holds a PhD in history from the University of California, Riverside.

Joseph Chmura
Assistant Director and Access Services Librarian