The Genocide, Oppression, Resilience, and Sovereignty

of the First Peoples of California

November 21-24, 2019

Definition of Genocide. According to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines the term “genocide” denotes any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such Killing members of the group Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group the conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Four days of presentations, music, documentary films, and political action sessions offer attendees a chance to enhance knowledge of the California genocide and Indigenous peoples’ history. Engage with others who want to learn more about these topics and come away with new understanding. Come together with the community to share ideas for resolutions that will be sent to state officials at the end of the conference.

Can't make the conference in person?

Watch events live from the web on Fri, Nov 21 - Sun Nov 24.

Purpose To contribute to the truth-telling against false narrative about Indigenous nations and peoples, and to further the processes of healing ongoing historical, cultural, and intergenerational trauma; we will raise awareness about the genocide and the continued oppression of California’s Indigenous peoples, while celebrating resilience and survivance. Vision We envision a world wherein all peoples are respected fully and the wrongs of colonial oppression are acknowledged and rectified. For assitance, please call 619-594-1360

Some Thoughts on the Genocide by Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape), Indigenous Law Institute Raphael Lemkin coined the word “genocide” in the early 1940’s. In his book Axis Rule, Lemkin wrote that genocide means: a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. This is a perfect description of the process whereby the “civil world” set out to destroy the exis-tence of the original nations and peoples by means of the genocidal process called “civilization.” In her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (2003), which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, Samantha Power elaborates on Lemkin’s explanation. That explanation accurately matches a description of U.S. federal Indian law and policy directed against Native nations: The perpetrators of genocide would attempt to destroy the political and social institutions the culture, the language, national feelings, religion and economic existence of national groups. They would hope to eradicate the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and lives of individual members of the targeted group. Power quotes Lemkin as follows: Genocide has two phases: one, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor. This imposition, in turn, may be made upon the oppressed population which is allowed to remain, or upon the territory alone, after removal of the population and colonization of the area by the oppressor’s own nationals. Power points out that a “group did not have to be physically exterminated to suffer genocide.” She continues: They could be stripped of all cultural traces of their identity. “It takes centuries and sometimes thousands of years to create a natural culture,” wrote Lemkin, “but Genocide can destroy a culture instantly, like fire can destroy a building in an hour. The 1948 “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” defines the term “genocide” as follows: Any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: Article 1: A. Killing members of the group;

B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

C. Deliberately inflicting on the group the conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Article 3: The following acts shall be punishable: A. Genocide;

B. Conspiracy to commit genocide;

C. Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

D. Attempt to commit genocide;

E. Complicity in genocide. Power writes: For a party to be found guilty of perpetrating this new crime of genocide, it had to (1) carry out one of the aforementioned acts, (2) with the intent to destroy all of part of (3) one of the groups protected. The law did not require the extermination of an entire group, only acts committed with the intent to destroy a substantial part. If the perpetrator did not target a national, ethnic, or religious group as such, then killings would constitute mass homicide, not genocide.

Contact Us For more information, please contact: Mark Wheeler [email protected] or Tamara Strohauer [email protected]