Las Californias Indígenas: A Short History of Three Californias

Historian Damon Akins will discuss alternative narratives centering Native Californians, a population that outnumbered Californios 30:1 throughout the Mexican period, 1821-1850. Traditional narratives about California history reduce the 19th century to false but resilient myths of benevolent padres, docile and happy Native neophytes, and colorful rancheros displaced by rough-and-tumble prospectors. In fact, the period was far from idyllic. Akins’ place-based history highlights sites across Alta and Baja California, such as Guadalupe Valley, San Emigdio Canyon and Yosemite Valley, often overlooked in conventional accounts of Mexican California. By reconstructing life there, he reveals a richer, more accurate history of Indigenous peoples.

Akins is the Lincoln Financial Professor of History at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the co-author, with William J. Bauer Jr., of We Are the Land: A History of Native California.