Timeline of Genocide Incidents in the Southern Goldfields 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 |
| I | ~October, 1848 | 1 | Mokolumne Region | Green, “Life and Adventures of a 47-er of California,” 12 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0003a.pdf |
| II | Probably 1848 or 1849 | 1 | Near Mt. Oakum | William Joseph in Uldall and Shipley, “Nisenan Texts and Dictionary,” 177 | |
| II | October, 1849 | 1 | Indian Gulch near Volcano | Mason, History of Amador County, 204 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0104a.jpg |
| III | December, 1849 | ~7 | Near Volcano | Conner, “Connor’s Early California,” 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0665a.pdf |
| II | February 4, 1850 | 3+ | High in the mountains, several days’ march from Sonora, perhaps near the north fork of the Stanislaus River | Perkins, February 1, 1850 journal entry in Perkins, El Campo de Los Sonoraenses, 37-41 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0113a.jpg |
| I | Early 1850 | 2 | “Big Oak Flat” | Duval in Dillon, Texas Argonauts, 135 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0012a.jpg |
| II | Early 1850 | 1– 2 | Near Big Oak Flat | Duval in Dillon, Texas Argonauts, 134 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0112a.jpg |
| III | After June 5, 1850 | ~6+ (“Old Men, Squaws, and Children”) | “twenty-five miles up into the Mountains” from Big Oak Flat | Pancoast, Quaker Forty-Niner, 298; Woods, Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings, 138 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0688a.jpg
|
| III | November 4, 1850 | 15 | Moklumne Hill | Rogers to Winn, November 4, 1850, IWP, F3753:16; Stockton Journal, November 27, 1850; DAC, November 29, 1850, 2; Sacramento Transcript, December 2, 1850 2 | |
| III | January 1851 | 20 | 25 miles from Columbia | Eyewitness in Stockton Times, February 12, 1851, 1 | |
| III | January 8, 1851 | 40 – 60+ | Near Agua Fria | Burney to McDougal Jan 13, 1851, California, Senate Journal, 1851, 603-605; Palmer to Father, January 16, 1851 in Bunnell, Discovery of the Yosemite, 31-32; Express Rider, January 19, 1851 in Marysville Herald, January 24, 1851, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0704.pdf |
| III | Just before January 12, 1851 | 20 | Near Sonora | Perkins, January 12, 1851 journal entry in Perkins, “El Campo de Los Sonoraenses,” 104 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0705a.jpg |
| III | Before January 20, 1851 | 10+ | “four or five miles” from the “Middle Fork of the Cosumnes” River | Wm Graham in Sacramento Transcript, January 20, 1851, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0707.pdf |
| II | On or before January 26, 1851 | 3 | Near [Big?] Oak Flat | Mountaineer, January 26, 1851, in Stockton Times, February 8, 1851, 2 | |
| I | Early February, 1851 | 4+ | “Between the middle and south forks of the Stanislaus” | Correspondent in DAC, February 15, 1851, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0030a.jpg |
| III | Before February 4, 1851 | 10+ | Near “Agua Frio” | R.W., February 4, 1851 in DAC, February 7, 1851, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0711.pdf |
| I | Before February 8, 1851 | 5 | North Fork of the Tuolomne | Stockton Times, February 8, 1851, 2 | |
| II | March, 1851 | 1 | Jackson, Calaveras County | Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West, 207 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0146a.pdf |
| II | April 8, 1851 | 1 | At or near “Hick’s Ranch, on Sutter’s Creek” | SDU, April 10, 1851, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0150a.pdf |
| II | May 12, 1851 | 1 | Hornitas, Mariposa County | Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West, 208 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0160a.pdf |
| II | December, 1851 | 1 | “near Volcano” | Calaveras Chronicle in DAC, December 16, 1851, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0171a.jpg |
| II | Between May 20 and June 2, 1852 | 1 | Near “headwaters of the Merced.” | Stockton Journal in Nevada Journal, June 12, 1852, 2 | |
| II | September 1, 1852 | 1 | Near Volcano | John Doble, Doble’s Diary, 1851-1854, September 2, 1852 journal entry, 197 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0218a.jpg |
| II | Before February 25, 1853 | 3 | “near the South Fork of the Stanislaus” | P.P., February 25, 1853 in DAC, March 2, 1853, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0228a.jpg |
| II | June 7, 1853 | 1 | Near Mokelumne Hill | Chronicle summarized in SDU, June 15, 1853, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0245a.jpg |
| II | September 24, 1853 | 3 | Scott’s Bar, Middle Fork, Cosumnes | El Dorado Republican in SDU, October 3, 1853, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0249a.jpg |
| II | Before December 3, 1855 | 1 | Eight miles from Sonora | Sonora Herald in SDU, December 3, 1855, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0315a.jpg |
| II | Before December 8, 1855 | 1 | Near Sonora | Correspondent to Columbia Clipper in SDU, December 8, 1855, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0316a.jpg |
| II | Before December 19, 1857 | 3 | Near West Point, Calaveras County | Calaveras Chronicle, December 19, 1857 in SDU, December 21, 1857, 4 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0370.pdf |
| II | 1858 | 1 | Amador County | Gonzales-Day, Lynching in the West, 233 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0372a.pdf |
| II | March 28, 1858 | 1 | “near North Branch” | Calaveras Chronicle in SDU, April 6, 1858, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0382.pdf |
| II | September 13, 1858 | 1 | Near Coulterville | Coulterville in DAC, September 24, 1858, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0400.pdf |
| II | Before October 5, 1858 | 1 | Mariposa Region | SDU, October 5, 1858, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0403.pdf |
| II | December 3, 1858 | 1 | Jackson | Telegram in DAC, December 5, 1858, 2; Ledger in SDU, December 6, 1858, 1; Butte Record, December 11, 1858, 1 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0406.pdf |
| II | March 4, 1860 | 1 | “Near Fiddletown,” Amador County | Jackson Ledger, March 10, 1860 in DEB, March 13, 1860, 2 | |
| III | July 20, 1860 | 8 – 10 | “on Jackass Gulch” in the Tuolumne region | Tuolumne Courier, July 28, 1860 in SDU, August 1, 1860, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0929.pdf |
| II | Before August 1, 1860 | 1 – 4 | “Lancha Plana, Amador county” | San Joaquin Republican and Lancha Plana Dispatch in DEB, August 1, 1860, 3 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0460.pdf |
| II | Before October 10, 1865 | 1 | “Colorado, in Mariposa county” | SDU, October 10, 1865, 2 | http://nahc.ca.gov/webmaster/atlas/evidence/i0607.pdf |
TOTAL ESTIMATED NUMBER KILLED IN REGION: 216-242
*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)
DEB: Daily Evening Bulletin newspaper (San Francisco)
IWP: California Adjutant General’s Office, Military Department, Adjutant General, Indian War Papers F3753
SDU: Sacramento Daily Union newspaper
For full bibliographical references please refer to the text or Atlas credits & references