We Are the Land - by Damon B Akins & William J Bauer

About the Book

"Before there was such a thing as "California," there were the People and the Land. Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, and settler colonial society drew maps, displaced Indigenous People, and reshaped the land, but they did not make California. Rather, the lives and legacies of the people native to the land shaped the creation of California. We Are the Land is the first and most comprehensive text of its kind, centering the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous people who shaped it. Beginning with the ethnogenesis of California Indians, We Are the Land recounts the centrality of the Native presence from before European colonization through statehood-paying particularly close attention to the persistence and activism of California Indians in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The book deftly contextualizes the first encounters with Europeans, Spanish Missions, Mexican secularization, the devastation of the Gold Rush and statehood, genocide, efforts to reclaim land, and the organization and activism for sovereignty that built today's casino economy. A text designed to fill the glaring need for an accessible overview of California Indian history, We Are the Land will be a core resource in a variety of classroom settings, as well as for casual readers and policy-makers interested in a history that centers the native experience"--

Book Synopsis

"A Native American rejoinder to Richard White and Jesse Amble White's California Exposures."--Kirkus Reviews

Rewriting the history of California as Indigenous.

Before there was such a thing as "California," there were the People and the Land. Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, and settler colonial society drew maps, displaced Indigenous People, and reshaped the land, but they did not make California. Rather, the lives and legacies of the people native to the land shaped the creation of California. We Are the Land is the first and most comprehensive text of its kind, centering the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous people who shaped it. Beginning with the ethnogenesis of California Indians, We Are the Land recounts the centrality of the Native presence from before European colonization through statehood--paying particularly close attention to the persistence and activism of California Indians in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The book deftly contextualizes the first encounters with Europeans, Spanish missions, Mexican secularization, the devastation of the Gold Rush and statehood, genocide, efforts to reclaim land, and the organization and activism for sovereignty that built today's casino economy. A text designed to fill the glaring need for an accessible overview of California Indian history, We Are the Land will be a core resource in a variety of classroom settings, as well as for casual readers and policymakers interested in a history that centers the native experience.

From the Back Cover

"The colonial assault on California's Native communities has come in many toxic forms, including the many bad history books that have painted Indigenous Peoples as doomed and now vanished. With We Are the Land, Damon Akins and William Bauer offer a powerful tonic. This masterful history presents the experiences of California Indians as marvelously complex, grounded in land and place, and most of all continuing, from the days of Indian autonomy before the Spanish through the maelstrom of the Gold Rush and on to the conflicted, postindustrial American present. A remarkable and welcome accomplishment, this book will change the way we understand California's Indians and California's history."--Louis S. Warren, author of God's Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America

"Damon Akins and William Bauer have succeeded brilliantly in writing the first ever comprehensive history of Native California. Centering Indigenous perspectives and deep connections to place, We Are the Land provides an erudite and moving account of California's Native peoples as explorers, adapters, workers, visionaries, artists, activists, sometimes victims but always survivors, and an enduring part of California history."--Jeffrey Ostler, author of Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas

"An ambitious project to reclaim California history as inherently Indigenous. Grounded in land and place, it is not so much a history but rather--and rightfully--histories, interwoven stories of peoples created in and of the land. This is a long-awaited and monumental book."--Terri A. Castaneda, author of Marie Mason Potts: The Lettered Life of a California Indian Activist

"This book is a must-read for anyone interested in California history. Bauer and Akins have produced a powerful and richly narrated history of the Indigenous experience from time immemorial to the present. From cover to cover, this book values Indigenous voices and knowledge systems to produce an incredibly engaging story of our collective past. We are the Land is high narrative and scholarship at its best!"--Kent Blansett, author of A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement

"This monumental effort seeks nothing less than reimagining California's history. It's an important contribution not only to California but also a template for other regional, national, and global histories. Simply put, this book is a breathtaking, sweeping, and inspiring read."--Natale Zappia, author of Traders and Raiders and co-author of Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scene

Review Quotes

"We Are the Land is an excellent book. . . . a history of California's Indigenous people in action, shaping places that, in turn, shape them. They made this history."-- "American Historical Review"

"This book is a welcome contribution to the growing field of California Indian Studies."-- "Society for US Intellectual History"

"Thankfully, this is not your parents' book on the history of California."-- "American Anthropologist"

"We Are the Land foregrounds Indigeneity in California -- a state in which genocidal narratives operate to complete the work of actual genocide in effectively scrubbing any Native American presence from the story of California. The book offers a resounding refusal of this erasure, instead offering a comprehensive history of Native California that encompasses past and present to underscore the continual presence and centrality of Indigenous peoples throughout settler colonization, missionization, statehood, and the present."-- "Book Riot"

"It will be very good to keep this book close at hand and to insist that our students do the same. It is timely, it is a significant accomplishment, and it is welcome."-- "California History"

"This well-written, accessible book reconceives California as Indigeneous land...the text itself is a powerful illustration of the ongoing challenges of colonialism and the Indigeneous survival of its many formations."-- "Pacific Historical Review"

"Damon Akins and William Bauer unveil a fascinating narrative about California Indians that breaks free from conventional boundaries of time and space. . . . Anyone interested in the history of Indigenous peoples will wish to read and enjoy it."-- "Hispanic American Historical Review"

"The stories Atkins and Bauer gather in this survey are about the Natives themselves, offering a compassionate reading of a people who have, even in some of the best revisionist studies, remained the 'other' on the periphery. The details and voices of California Indians' lives that the authors amplify from oral histories, primary documents, and secondary sources draw out the drama and recast the history of the 31st state from the perspectives of its First Peoples."

-- "The Nation"

"This richly sourced work. . . . is a refreshing read, offering a much-needed perspective of California history."-- "CHOICE"

"Akins and Bauer have written a classic. . . . A relocation of the region's indigenous peoples from a history based on their erasure to a history based on their preeminence."-- "CounterPunch"

"We Are the Land is an astonishing work of scholarship, storytelling, and solidarity. . . . It will set the standard for the many other stories of the People waiting to be told."-- "Sierra Magazine"

"Combines lyrical storytelling with academic narration to foreground Indigenous oral stories. . . . The book's well-researched micro-histories coalesce to create a necessary rewriting of Californian history."-- "Civil Eats"

"In what seems an overdue departure from standard histories, Akins and Bauer's comprehensive account places indigenous people at the heart of California's story."-- "Boston Globe"

"A Native American rejoinder to Richard White and Jesse Amble White's California Exposures. . . . [And] a welcome contribution to Native studies and the rich literature of California's first peoples." -- "Kirkus Reviews"

"This is a history of personal stories. Many make for painful reading. All are to the point."-- "Geography Realm"

About the Author

William J. Bauer, Jr. is an enrolled citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes and Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Damon B. Akins is Professor of History at Guilford College, in Greensboro, North Carolina, and a former high school teacher in Los Angeles.