Exterminate Them: Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and Enslavement of Native Americans during the California Gold Rush

by Clifford E. Trafzer (Editor), Joel R. Hyer (Editor)

Overview

Popular media depict miners as a rough-and-tumble lot who diligently worked the placers along scenic rushing rivers while living in roaring mining camps in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Trafzer and Hyer destroy this mythic image by offering a collection of original newspaper articles that describe in detail the murder, rape, and enslavement perpetrated by those who participated in the infamous gold rush. "It is a mercy to the Red Devils," wrote an editor of the Chico Courier, "to exterminate them." Newspaper accounts of the era depict both the barbarity and the nobility in human nature, but while some protested the inhumane treatment of Native Americans, they were not able to end the violence. Native Americans fought back, resisting the invasion, but they could not stop the tide of white miners and settlers. They became "strangers in a stolen land."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628951806
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	01/31/1999
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	203
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Clifford Trafzer is Director of American Indian Studies at University of California, Riverside. Joel R. Hyer is Visiting Faculty Fellow of History at California State University, San Marcos.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword Preface Introduction Chapter 1 White American Perceptions of California Indians Chapter 2 Native American Reaction to the Invasion Chapter 3 Other Native Resistance Chapter 4 The Gold Rush and Native Americans of Southern California Chapter 5 Anglo Depredations Against California Indians Chapter 6 Indian Relations with the State and Federal Governments Suggested Reading Index