Indian Survival

A Review:

Of all the books and articles I have read during my history studies, nothing hit me on such a gut level, with such a visceral reaction, as the accounts of California Indians and the atrocities they faced at the hands of (mostly) Anglo-American interlopers. Somehow, the fact that such genocidal activity took place in the “Golden State,” in the 1850s, escapes widespread notice. The systematic way Indians were exterminated and enslaved is an incredible stain on the settlement of the Frontier.

            Beginning in the late eighteenth century, around the time of the establishment of the Spanish missions, there were perhaps as many as half a million Native Americans living in California, Hurtado writes. By the 1850s that population had been decimated, due to disease, starvation, homicide, and a declining birthrate – “the human cost of dispossessing California Indians and replacing them with a non-native population.”

            First, the Spanish subjugated the indigenous folk with their systems of presidios and missions. Labor was divided according to gender and exploited; sexual relations were strictly controlled by Catholic priests. But forcing single women to sleep together in confined (and locked) rooms, likely led to outbreaks of deadly diseases, Hurtado suggests.

            The central theme of Hurtado’s book is an examination of the survival Indians accomplished in the face of rampant racism, de facto slavery, and, often, outright genocide. Survival was a function of adaptability, Hurtado argues. In the face of forced involvement in the capitalist system, California Indians were “subject to the vagaries of the market” to an astonishing degree. The demands of the white economy created redistribution of native labor and populations as the focus changed from agriculture, to mining, and back again to agriculture. Throughout, California Indians showed ability to transform as well. Though their numbers reached a low point around the turn of the century, and despite the loss of entire tribal entities, the Native population continues to endure against the odds.

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