California

===Indigenous===
{{Main|Indigenous peoples of California}}

California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in [[pre-Columbian North America]].<ref>Klein, Barry T. Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian. 7th ed. West Nyack, NY: Todd Publications, 1995</ref> Historians generally agree that there were at least 300,000 people living in California prior to European colonization.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eargle |first=Dolan H. Jr. |title=Native California guide: an introduction to the original peoples from earliest to modern times |date=2008 |publisher=Trees Co. Press |others=Fred Dodsworth |isbn=978-0-937401-11-8 |edition=Ed. 2008 |location=San Francisco |oclc=212858363 |quote=Estimates of the Native population in 1776 range from 300,000 to one million.}}</ref> The [[indigenous peoples of California]] included more than [[Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas#California|70 distinct ethnic groups]], inhabiting environments ranging from mountains and deserts to islands and redwood forests.<ref>{{Cite web |title=California Indian History – California Native American Heritage Commission |url=https://nahc.ca.gov/resources/california-indian-history/ |access-date=November 25, 2022 |website=nahc.ca.gov}}</ref>

Living in these diverse geographic areas, the indigenous peoples developed complex forms of ecosystem management, including [[forest gardening]] to ensure the regular availability of food and [[medicinal plants]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians |publisher=Ballena Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-87919-126-0 |editor=Blackburn, Thomas C. and Kat Anderson |location=Menlo Park, California}}</ref><ref name="Cunningham2010">{{cite book |last=Cunningham |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nuYuYGHwCygC&pg=PA135 |title=State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California |publisher=Heyday |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-59714-136-9 |location=Berkeley, California |pages=135, 173–202 |access-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427074202/https://books.google.com/books?id=nuYuYGHwCygC&pg=PA135 |archive-date=April 27, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> This was a form of [[sustainable agriculture]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=M. Kat |url=https://archive.org/details/tendingwildnativ0000ande |title=Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge And the Management of California's Natural Resources |publisher=University of California Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-520-24851-1 |url-access=registration}}</ref> To mitigate destructive large wildfires from ravaging the natural environment, indigenous peoples developed a practice of [[controlled burn]]ing.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/firecaliforniase00sugi |title=Fire in California's Ecosystems |publisher=University of California Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-520-24605-8 |editor-first1=Neil G. |editor-last1=Sugihara |pages=[https://archive.org/details/firecaliforniase00sugi/page/n433 417] |chapter=17 |editor2=Jan W. Van Wagtendonk |editor-first3=Kevin E. |editor-last3=Shaffer |editor-first4=Joann |editor-last4=Fites-Kaufman |editor-first5=Andrea E. |editor-last5=Thode |url-access=limited}}</ref> This practice was recognized for its benefits by the California government in 2022.<ref name="Elassar-2022" />

These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and, on the resource-rich coasts, large [[chiefdom]]s, such as the [[Chumash people|Chumash]], [[Pomo people|Pomo]] and [[Salinan]]. Trade, intermarriage, craft specialists, and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups. Although nations would sometimes war, most armed conflicts were between groups of men for [[Revenge|vengeance]]. Acquiring territory was not usually the purpose of these small-scale battles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutton |first=Mark Q. |title=An introduction to native North America |date=2021 |isbn=978-0-367-54046-3 |edition=6th |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |chapter=A Broad Portrait of California Native Societies |oclc=1204267735 |quote=Though actual battles with numerous combatants were sometimes fought, most armed conflict concerned small groups of men bent on revenge. Acquiring territory was not usually the goal of warfare.}}</ref>

Men and women generally had different [[Gender role|roles]] in society. Women were often responsible for weaving, harvesting, processing, and preparing food, while men for hunting and other forms of physical labor. Most societies also had roles for people whom the Spanish referred to as ''joyas'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kroeber |first=Alfred Louis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pcKAQAAIAAJ |title=Phonetic Constituents of the Native Languages of California |publisher=University Press |year=1912 |page=164 |language=en |quote=The institution of berdaches or women-men is one of frequent occurrence among the California natives... Among the coastal stocks south of San Francisco the custom flourished, and the individuals, termed 'joyas' by the Spanish...}}</ref> who they saw as "men who dressed as women".<ref name="Miranda-2010">{{Cite journal |last=Miranda |first=Deborah A. |date=April 1, 2010 |title=Extermination of the Joyas: Gendercide in Spanish California |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/glq/article/16/1-2/253/34704/EXTERMINATION-OF-THE-JOYASGendercide-in-Spanish |journal=GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies |language=en |volume=16 |issue=1–2 |pages=253–284 |doi=10.1215/10642684-2009-022 |s2cid=145480469 |issn=1064-2684}}</ref> ''Joyas'' were responsible for [[Death rituals|death]], [[burial]], and [[mourning rituals]], and they performed women's social roles.<ref name="Miranda-2010" /> Indigenous societies had terms such as [[two-spirit]] to refer to them. The [[Chumash people|Chumash]] referred to them as ''<nowiki/>'aqi.<ref name="Miranda-2010" />'' The early Spanish settlers detested and sought to eliminate them.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Contemporary archaeology in theory: the new pragmatism |date=2010 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |editor1-first=Robert W. |editor1-last=Preucel |editor2-first=Stephen A. |editor2-last=Mrozowski |isbn=978-1-4051-5832-9 |edition=2nd |location=Chichester, U.K. |oclc=495597287 |quote=In 1775, Alta California Governor Pedro Fages observed that there were two to three joyas in each village, and that all Indians were consequently addicted to 'this abominable vice.'}}</ref>

[[File:"Protecting The Settlers" Illustration by JR Browne for his work "The Indians Of California" 1864 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Between 1846 and 1873, U.S. government agents and private settlers perpetrated many massacres against [[indigenous Californians]]. At least 9,456 were killed with estimates as high as 100,000 deaths.<ref name="Madley">{{cite book |last=Madley |first=Benjamin |title=An American Genocide, The United States and the California Catastrophe, 1846–1873 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-300-18136-4 |pages=11, 351}}</ref><ref name="Homepage of Chuck Smith" />]]

The indigenous peoples saw declines in their population under Spanish, Mexican, and American rule. A major cause was Eurasian diseases to which they had not yet developed a natural immunity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Destruction of the California Indians |url=http://www.learncalifornia.org/doc.asp?id=1617 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111207115225/http://www.learncalifornia.org/doc.asp?id=1617 |archive-date=December 7, 2011 |access-date=April 15, 2012 |publisher=LearnCalifornia.org }}</ref> After California became a part of the United States, they were often forcibly removed from their lands by American [[settler]]s and [[Act for the Government and Protection of Indians|''de facto'' enslaved]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Risling Baldy |first=Cutcha |title=We are dancing for you: native feminisms and the revitalization of women's coming-of-age ceremonies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcxYDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |publisher=University of Washington Press |date=2018 |isbn=978-0-295-74345-5 |location=Seattle |pages=61–63 |oclc=1032289446}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Act for the Government and Protection of Indians {{!}} American Experience {{!}} PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-act-for-government-and-protection-of-indians/ |access-date=March 3, 2021 |website=www.pbs.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=September 2, 2016 |title=Los Angeles' 1850s Slave Market Is Now the Site of a Federal Courthouse |url=https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/los-angeles-1850s-slave-market-is-now-the-site-of-a-federal-courthouse |access-date=December 28, 2022 |website=KCET |language=en}}</ref> Many [[indian reservation|reservations]] to which they were moved were not sustainable.<ref name="Homepage of Chuck Smith">{{Cite web |website=Homepage of Chuck Smith |title=Indians of California - American Period |url=http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/anth6_americanperiod.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511152205/http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/anth6_americanperiod.html |archive-date=May 11, 2012 |access-date=March 3, 2021}}</ref> Militias hired to protect settlers also perpetrated numerous massacres.<ref name="Homepage of Chuck Smith" /><ref name="Baumgardner 2005 171">{{Cite book |last=Baumgardner |first=Frank H. |title=Killing for Land in Early California: Indian Blood at Round Valley: Founding the Nome Cult Indian Farm |date=2005 |publisher=Algora |isbn=978-0-87586-803-5 |location=New York |page=171 |oclc=693780699}}</ref> There has been significant discussion over the scale of the Native American losses and whether it should be labeled an [[ethnic cleansing]] or [[California genocide|genocide]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Magliari |first=Michael F. |date=May 1, 2023 |title=The California Indian Scalp Bounty Myth: Evidence of Genocide or Just Faulty Scholarship? |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/ch/article/100/2/4/196102/The-California-Indian-Scalp-Bounty-MythEvidence-of |journal=California History |language=en |volume=100 |issue=2 |pages=4–30 |doi=10.1525/ch.2023.100.2.4 |s2cid=258779393 |issn=0162-2897}}</ref> Supporters of ''ethnic cleansing'' point out that most of the deaths resulted from diseases and settler actions.<ref name="Anderson 2016 407–433">{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Gary Clayton |date=2016 |title=The Native Peoples of the American West: Genocide or Ethnic Cleansing? |journal=Western Historical Quarterly |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=407–433 |doi=10.1093/whq/whw126 |issn=0043-3810 |jstor=26782720}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Magliari |first=Michael |date=April 1, 2017 |title=An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-abstract/64/2/341/26348/An-American-Genocide-The-United-States-and-the |url-status=live |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=64 |issue=2 |pages=341–342 |doi=10.1215/00141801-3789465 |issn=1527-5477 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501234045/https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-abstract/64/2/341/26348/An-American-Genocide-The-United-States-and-the |archive-date=May 1, 2023 |access-date=May 1, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Alexander Nazaryan-2016"/> Supporters of ''genocide'' point to the role of the government in initiating and enabling the atrocities. In 2019, the 40th governor of California, [[Gavin Newsom]] apologized to the indigenous peoples of California for the events.<ref name="Soir.senate.ca.gov" /><ref name="Alexander Nazaryan-2016">{{Cite web |last=Alexander Nazaryan |date=August 17, 2016 |title=California's state-sanctioned genocide of Native Americans |url=https://www.newsweek.com/2016/08/26/california-native-americans-genocide-490824.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514162600/https://www.newsweek.com/2016/08/26/california-native-americans-genocide-490824.html |archive-date=May 14, 2022 |access-date=May 14, 2022 |website=[[Newsweek]] |language=en}}</ref>