The Indigenous Story: a Horror Tale Unheard of and Untold a review by Mona Angéline

 

We are not Animals book cover

 If you had to talk about the lives of the indigenous peoples that inhabited California before and during the arrival of whites, would you have much to say? Do we really know much at all?

That was precisely how I felt before I read "We Are Not Animals" by Martin Rizzo-Martinez. Their real story, the way they must have felt, the way they must have made sense with a world pulled out from under their feet.

To me, the indigenous story had always been effusive. It was a world so far away and so unheard of, so unspoken of, that it felt near impossible to really connect, to understand the fragments I did learn of.

And then, Rizzo-Martinez’s book appeared in my life. A work of art that taught me so much, a read I won’t forget for a long time to come.

The author's masterpiece is an indelible read. It is not for the faint of heart however, both because of its violent content and the academic style that makes for a somewhat strenuous read. I am an academic, and even I avoid tough material for fun!

I wouldn’t be able to give the manuscript any less than five stellar stars however because it is an incredible work of research, and I can't think of anything out there that covers the depths of the hardships that the indigenous peoples of California (and especially those of the San Francisco Bay and Central Coast areas) faced. The only book that does come to mind is Jean Pfaelzer's "California, a Slave State".

Rizzo-Martinez relays the history of the Native American diaspora with such detail, and on the basis of documented individual lives, that I was able to really relate to the indigenous world for the first time. And believe me, it's not that I haven't been trying.

The author describes the indigenous journey in the area as a timeline of violent horror that played out, roughly, in five steps.

First, we read about the arrival of the Spaniards in today's California, prompting mass baptisms of local Native communities. Many of their members moved to the missions after being baptized and were practically imprisoned there as a result.

We are then introduced to a brief period of emancipation after the missions are closed and secularization is established, which grants Native Americans Mexican citizenship and even (theoretical) land ownership to the indigenous population.

This is short lived though. Once California becomes American, the horrors of a massive genocide ensue, the story we've heard and shivered from.

How do the remaining indigenous people manage to stay afloat after being the target of a government endorsed coordinated mass extinction? Their answer lies in individual survival. People resort to hiding among and disguising themselves as the non-indigenous. The loss of the tribal community this entails is irreversible however.

The book concludes with a short foray into today's attempt at a consolidation of the original tribes, with the reestablishing of culture, traditions, nations, and in some cases, land.

This terrorizing journey spanning approximately 200 years is so rarely told that I deem this book among the most important I've read in a long time.

I applaud the author's in depth research and comprehensive history. We need more of these works, more efforts to tell the stories of a people forgotten. I hope that this book will lead to a more narrative, accessible story told widely.

It is immensely important to disseminate the truth about the indigenous story. It is time.

 

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Mona Angéline is an unapologetically vulnerable writer, reader, book reviewer, artist, athlete, and scientist. She honors the creatively unconventional, the authentically "other". She shares her emotions because the world tends to hide theirs. She is a new writer, but her work was recently accepted in a number of literary magazine. She's a regular guest editor for scientific journals. She lives bicoastally in Santa Cruz, California, and in New York and savors life despite, or maybe because of, her significant struggles with chronic illness and mild disability. Learn about her musings at creativerunnings.com. Follow her on Instagram under @creativerunnings and on Twitter at @creativerunning.