Timeline of Genocide Incidents in the Los Angeles and San Diego Region
CONTENT WARNING: Many of the primary sources linked on this timeline contain racist language or sentiment and graphic accounts of settler-colonial violence against indigenous people.
| Appx.* | Date | Number killed
|
Location | Source | Source files |
| II | May 10, 1849 | 1 | Los Angeles | Foster to Gov., May 13, 1849 in Archives of California, 63:52 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0101a.pdf |
| II | December, 1850 or January, 1851 | 2 | Santa Ysabel Ranch, San Diego County | McKanna, Race and Homicide in Nineteenth-Century California, 53 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0141a.pdf |
| III | Summer of 1851 | 5 – 6 | Los Angeles Basin | Los Angeles Star in DAC, November 13, 1851, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0723.pdf |
| III | November 1, 1851 | 3 – 8 | Los Angeles | Los Angeles Star in DAC, November 13, 1851, 2 and SDU, November 14, 1851, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0730.pdf |
| II | December 27 and 28, 1851 | 2 | Rancho Del Chino in Southern California | Bean to McDougal, January 1, 1852, IWP, F3753:144 | |
| II | January 10, 1852 | 1 | Rancho Del Chino in Southern California | San Diego Herald, January 17, 1852, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0177a.jpg |
| II | March 3, 1852 | 1 | San Gabriel | Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West, 209 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0185a.pdf |
| II | April 3, 1852 | 1 | San Gabriel | LAS, April 3, 1852, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0187a.jpg |
| II | July or August, 1854 | 2 | Los Angeles? | DAC, August 8, 1854, 2 | |
| II | July (?), 1855 | 2 – 3 | Cave Johnson Couts’ Ranch at San Luis Rey? | San Diego Herald in SDU, July 28, 1855, 2; August 2, 1855 letter in DAC, August 7, 1855, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0301a.jpg
|
| II | Before August 2, 1855 | 2 | San Luis Rey | Anonymous, August 2, 1855 in DAC, August 7, 1855, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0304a.jpg |
| II | February (?), 1856 | 1 | Los Angeles | Los Angeles Star in DAC, February 9, 1856, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0319a.jpg |
| II | Before December 13, 1856 | 1 | In or near San Diego | San Diego Herald, December 13, 1856, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0340.pdf |
| II | July 23, 1857 | 1 | San Ysabel | DAC, August 26, 1857, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0359.pdf |
| II | Before August 8, 1857 | 1 | Somewhere in or near Los Angeles | Los Angeles Star in DAC, August 26, 1857, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0363.pdf |
| II | ~March 10, 1858 | 1 | San Bernardino | LAS, March 20, 1858, 2; March 26 telegram in SDU, March 27, 1858, 2; Los Angeles Star in DAC, April 5, 1858, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0379.pdf |
| II | Before May 22, 1858 | 2 | San Bernardino County(?) | LAS, May 22, 1858, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0390.pdf |
| II | October 17, 1858 | 2 | Los Angeles? | LAS, October 23, 1858 in DAC, October 27, 1858, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0404.pdf |
| II | January 31, 1860 | 1 | Los Angeles | LAS, February 4, 1860, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0441.pdf |
| I | April 27, 1860 | 1 | “in the Southeast” | Los Angeles Star in SDU, May 18, 1860, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0066a.jpg |
| II | Before July 5, 1862 | 1 | “Indian rancheria near Toro’s,” presumably in San Bernardino county | LAS, July 5, 1862, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0518.pdf |
| II | January 30, 1867 | 2 – 3 | Mr. James’ sawmill, near San Bernardino | San Bernardino Guardian, February 16, 1867 in Hayes Scraps, Vol.39 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0624a.jpg |
| II | August 21, 1867 | 1 | The Alameda, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County | Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West, 221 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0629a.pdf |
| II | January 21, 1871 | “2-3” | Southern San Diego County | San Diego Union, January 20, 1871, 3 |
TOTAL ESTIMATED NUMBER KILLED IN REGION: 39-48
*Appendix (Appx.) refers to the reference’s location in:
Benjamin Madley, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016.
For full bibliographical references please refer to the text or Atlas credits & references
Abbreviations used in timeline:
DAC: Daily Alta Californian newspaper (San Francisco)
IWP: California Adjutant General’s Office, Military Department, Adjutant General, Indian War Papers F3753
LAS: Los Angeles Star newspaper
MLRV: Martial Law in Round Valley, Mendocino County, California, The Causes Which SDU Sacramento Daily Union newspaper
For full bibliographical references please refer to the text or Atlas credits & references