California’s First Governor Called for Native Extermination—And Got It

In just 20 years, 80 percent of California’s Native Americans were wiped out


California’s inaugural governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, didn’t mince words in 1851: “A war of extermination will continue… until the Indian race becomes extinct.” The state legislature bankrolled his vision, paying bounties for Native scalps and funding militias that poisoned water sources, burned villages, and sold survivors into slavery. By 1870, California’s Native population had plunged from 150,000 to under 30,000—a 80% death rate in 20 years.

This wasn’t frontier chaos—it was policy-written genocide. Today, Burnett’s name still graces schools and streets, while mass graves under shopping malls hold the truth.

(Source: HISTORY - California’s Little-Known Genocide)

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