On this edition of Your Call, we’re speaking with William J. Bauer, co-author of We Are the Land: A History of Native California, which centers the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous People who shaped it.
Scholars estimate at least 310,000 Indigenous people lived in what is now California. After the demographic catastrophe of the Gold Rush, the population declined from about 150,000 to 30,000. Bauer says it’s time to correct the misconceptions that exist about California Indian, and California, history. "Rather than being peripheral to or vanishing from California history, Indigenous people are a central and enduring part of the state's history because of their relationship to the land."
Guest:
William J. Bauer, Jr., enrolled citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and co-author of the new book, We Are the Land: A History of Native California
Web Resources:
PBS: The Gold Rush Impact on Native Tribes
The Atlantic, David Treuer: National Parks Should Belong to Native Americans
Bay Nature: Why Indigenous Land Repatriation Is Rare in the Bay Area
