California Indians

In the second half of the 19th century, the Euro-American citizenry of California carried out mass genocide against the Native population of their state, using the processes and mechanisms of democracy to secure land and resources for themselves and their private interests. The murder, rape, and enslavement of thousands of Native people were legitimized by notions of democracy - in this case mob rule.

Between 1846 and 1873, California's Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide.

Before there was such a thing as "California," there were the People and the Land. We Are the Land is the first and most comprehensive text of its kind, centering the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous people who shaped it. Beginning with the ethnogenesis of California Indians, this book recounts the centrality of the Native presence from before European colonization through statehood—paying particularly close attention to the persistence and activism of California Indians in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

One of the most groundbreaking and highly acclaimed titles that Heyday has published, The Ohlone Way describes the culture of the Indian people who inhabited the Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans. Recently included in the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Top 100 Western Non-Fiction” list, The Ohlone Way has been described by critic Pat Holt as a “mini-classic”.

Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning White boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.

This beautiful and devastating book - part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir - should be required for anyone seeking to learn about California Indian history, past and present. Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems. The result is a work of literary art that is wise, angry, and playful all at once, a compilation that will break your heart and teach you to see the world anew.

Termed the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the southwestern Indians and the first protest novel of California, Ramona is the story of 3 cultures - Indian, Mexican, and Anglo - locked in combat. The upheaval and injustice are humanized through the romance of a beautiful half-Indian orphan who grow up as the ward of Señora Moreno in privileged surroundings, then falls in love with an Indian and joins him in a life of poverty and tragedy. The Ramona Pageant in Hemet, California, based on this romance, has played each year since 1923, reenacting the transition period between Mexican traditions and the new U.S. and state governments.

Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military.

A short story about a fictional encounter with a southern California native American youth who travels to Arizona and encounters the Mojave tribe. He is seeking the blue turquoise gemstones which are highly prized by his tribe. He wants to impress his intended bride with a gift of these beautiful stones. We follow his travels and experience his trials along the way. A good story for adults and young readers as well.

Dr. Lily Leoni may have grown up in the exclusive Wellington Estates, but she will always remain the butler’s niece, an outsider looking in. Arjun Dheer seemed like a kindred spirit until he broke her heart. Lily has moved on, but something’s amiss in her new relationship. On all counts, Arjun Dheer is a savvy businessman and entrepreneur. When a career decision threatens everything he yearns for, the only way out is marrying the wrong girl. But Arjun has never forgotten Lily. With their attraction undeniable and relationship impossible, can Lily and Arjun forge a way through the chaos ...

If you're a fan of Mark Twain's dry wit, oft-hidden humor, and tales of a bygone era on the Mississippi, then you'll love The Desert Rat Scrapbook. Imagine Mark Twain stuck in the desert with no riverboat and a bunch of crusty cowboys instead of river rats.The Desert Rat Scrapbook was first published in 1946 by Harry Oliver, a lifelong desert rat, Oscar nominated artist, and humorist. It's a collection of humor fact, and tall tales collected from the lives of him and others in the southwestern United States. Oliver eventually handed the reigns over to Bill Powers, who published the final ...

When Winston Parker stopped at Sutter’s Fort on his way to a ranch, he bought in California in1846, he hadn’t counted on getting entangled in the life of Moonlight, one of Captain John Sutter’s Indian slaves. In a whirlwind of events, Winston puts off sending for the woman he asked to join him in California, once he got his ranch established. Instead, he finds himself caught up between wanting to help Moonlight’s family escape a life of slavery, or continuing on with his plans of bringing his future wife to his ranch. Love and honor hang in the balance of his decision, but will he ...

If you're a fan of Mark Twain's dry wit, oft-hidden humor, and tales of a bygone era on the Mississippi, then you'll love The Desert Rat Scrapbook. Imagine Mark Twain stuck in the desert with no riverboat and a bunch of crusty cowboys instead of river rats.The Desert Rat Scrapbook was first published in 1946 by Harry Oliver, a lifelong desert rat, Oscar nominated artist, and humorist. It's a collection of humor fact, and tall tales collected from the lives of him and others in the southwestern United States. Oliver eventually handed the reigns over to Bill Powers, who published the final ...

If you're a fan of Mark Twain's dry wit, oft-hidden humor, and tales of a bygone era on the Mississippi, then you'll love The Desert Rat Scrapbook. Imagine Mark Twain stuck in the desert with no riverboat and a bunch of crusty cowboys instead of river rats. The Desert Rat Scrapbook was first published in 1946 by Harry Oliver, a lifelong desert rat, Oscar nominated artist, and humorist. It's a collection of humor fact, and tall tales collected from the lives of him and others in the southwestern United States. Oliver eventually handed the reigns over to Bill Powers, who published the final ...

“You float through life like a piece of driftwood. Aimless. You have nothing to strive for.” Wellington Estates heiress Danielle Riley has everything her heart desires. But for the first time, she wants something she cannot have: Mike, the poor, proud, talented athlete, whose mother is working class, whose family is beneath hers. Mike Melgoza works hard for a living and bears a terrible secret, a secret that clouds his decisions, that pollutes his relationships. He mistakes Danielle’s generosity for pity, spurning her love and everything she represents. Brokenhearted, Danielle embarks...

If you're a fan of Mark Twain's dry wit, oft-hidden humor, and tales of a bygone era on the Mississippi, then you'll love The Desert Rat Scrapbook. Imagine Mark Twain stuck in the desert with no riverboat and a bunch of crusty cowboys instead of river rats. The Desert Rat Scrapbook was first published in 1946 by Harry Oliver, a lifelong desert rat, Oscar nominated artist, and humorist. It's a collection of humor fact, and tall tales collected from the lives of him and others in the southwestern United States. Oliver eventually handed the reigns over to Bill Powers, who published the final ...