Indigenous peoples of California: References & Edit History
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Additional Reading
Classic syntheses of the traditional cultures of the Indigenous peoples of California include A.L. Kroeber, Handbook of the Indians of California (1925, reprinted 1975); Robert F. Heizer and M.A. Whipple (compilers and eds.), The California Indians: A Source Book, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged (1971); Lowell John Bean and Thomas C. Blackburn (eds.), Native Californians: A Theoretical Retrospective (1976); William C. Sturtevant (ed.), Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 8, California, ed. by Robert F. Heizer (1978); Robert F. Heizer and Albert B. Elsasser, The Natural World of the California Indians (1980); and Jack D. Forbes, Native Americans of California and Nevada, rev. ed. (1982).
Descriptions of particular cultures include Raymond C. White, Luiseño Social Organization (1963, reissued 1971); Lowell John Bean, Mukat’s People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California (1972); and Virginia P. Miller, Ukomnóm: The Yuki Indians of Northern California (1979). Very readable books for the nonspecialist are Theodora Kroeber, Ishi in Two Worlds (1961, reissued 1976); and Theodora Kroeber and Robert F. Heizer, Almost Ancestors: The First Californians (1968).
Histories of Native California that illuminate issues of colonial conquest and Indigenous identity include Robert F. Heizer and Alan F. Almquist, The Other Californians: Prejudice and Discrimination Under Spain, Mexico, and the United States to 1920 (1971); George Harwood Phillips, Chiefs and Challengers: Indian Resistance and Cooperation in Southern California (1975); Sherburne F. Cook, The Population of the California Indians, 1769–1970 (1976); Albert L. Hurtado, Indian Survival on the California Frontier (1988); Clifford E. Trafzer and Joel R. Hyer (eds.), Exterminate Them: Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, and Slavery of Native Americans During the California Gold Rush, 1848–1868 (1999); Joel R. Hyer, We Are Not Savages: Native Americans in Southern California and the Pala Reservation, 1840–1920 (2001); Stephen W. Silliman, Lost Laborers in Colonial California: Native Americans and the Archaeology of Rancho Petaluma (2004); George Harwood Phillips, Bringing Them Under Subjection: California’s Tejón Indian Reservation and Beyond, 1852–1864 (2004); James A. Sandos, Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions (2004); Kent G. Lightfoot, Indians, Missionaries, and Merchants: The Legacy of Colonial Encounters on the California Frontiers (2005); and Barbara L. Voss, The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Race and Sexuality in Colonial San Francisco (2008).
Native California life in the 20th and 21st centuries is discussed in Thomas Buckley, Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850–1990 (2002); and Susan Lobo et al. (eds.), Urban Voices: The Bay Area American Indian Community (2002).
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Article History
| Type | Description | Contributor | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Added cross-reference. | Sep 11, 2026 | ||
| Add new Web site: California Native American Heritage Commission - California Indian History. | Oct 28, 2025 | ||
| Updated the names of Indigenous groups. | Mar 18, 2025 | ||
| Add new Web site: Native Americans for Kids and Teachers - California Indians in Olden Times. | May 29, 2019 | ||
| Add new Web site: Native Indian Tribes - History of California Indian. | May 29, 2019 | ||
| Add new Web site: California Missions Foundation - California Indians, Before, During, and After the Mission Era. | Jul 27, 2016 | ||
| Add new Web site: Public Broadcasting Service - Indian County Diaries - California Genocide. | Jul 07, 2014 | ||
| Article revised and updated. | Aug 13, 2008 | ||
| Bibliography revised and updated. | Aug 13, 2008 | ||
| Bibliography revised and updated. | Mar 06, 2008 | ||
| Article revised and updated. | Mar 06, 2008 | ||
| Bibliography revised and updated. | Aug 07, 2007 | ||
| Article revised and updated. | Jul 16, 2007 | ||
| Article revised and updated. | Apr 06, 2007 | ||
| Added new Web site: Shapes and Uses of California Indian Basketry. | Jun 13, 2006 | ||
| Article revised. | Oct 05, 2000 | ||
| Article added to new online database. | Sep 18, 1998 |