An American Genocide, the United States and the California Indian Catastrophe 1846 to 1873

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Benjamin Madley is an associate professor of history and American Indian studies at UCLA. He argues that the near annihilation of California's indigenous population was not the unavoidable result of two civilizations coming into contact for the first time. It was a case of genocide sanctioned and facilitated not only by California officials, but also by officials of the United States government. We are joined now by Benjamin Madley for a special citations needed interview.

In this extended interview, we speak with UCLA Associate Professor Benjamin Madley about his book, "An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe," and discuss how newspapers, tracts, and paperbacks were an essential element in assisting and priming the public for the genocide of California's native population.

Prof. Madley's work was instrumental in our research for previous Citations Needed episodes - namely, "Episode 158: How Notions of 'Blight' and 'Barrenness' Were Created to Erase Indigenous Peoples" and "Episode 172: The Foundational Myth Machine - Indigenous Peoples of North America and Hollywood" - so we were thrilled to dig even deeper into his work on this special News Brief.