Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome Benjamin Madley, History Professor at UCLA and author of 'An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873'. Drawing upon years of archival research, his work challenges long-standing narratives that attribute this demographic collapse primarily to disease or displacement. He argues that what occurred meets the legal and historical criteria of genocide: a state-sponsored system of violence. Despite immense loss, California’s Indigenous peoples have endured, rebuilt, and continue to assert their sovereignty.
