I live in Long Beach. Recently, the local university changed its mascot from a prospector, citing the Native American genocide during the Gold Rush.
I’m 43. None of this was taught in school when I was growing up. I don’t know if it has changed.
So anyway, I would like to read up on it. Any suggestions?
A couple of follow-up questions.
If anyone knows, how much of this is taught now in schools? When did it change?
I should preface these recommendations by saying that I'm not an expert in the field. However, I have consistently run across these books during the little reading I've done on the topic. They're both by academic presses and written by trained historians, so they should be good. Medley's book in particular has won several awards.
Lindsay, Brendan C. Murder State: California’s Native American Genocide, 1846-1873. Harvard University Press, 2015.
Madley, Benjamin. An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873. Yale University Press, 2017.
Both those listed by u/gent2012 are good although Lindsay is really focused on the northern half of the state. If you want to dig a little deeper check out:
Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions. 2008 James A. Sandos
The Destruction of California Indians. 1993 Robert Heizer, ed.
A good read about genocide from a natives perspective is provided by Jack Norton (Hupa) in:
Norton, Jack. Genocide in Northwestern California: When our worlds cried. 1979 Indian Historian Press
Specific to your area, I would recommend histories/ethnographies for the Gabrieleno and the Chumash people. A good place to start looking for epi-contact impacts to those people is in the Smithsonian's Handbook of North American Indians. 8: California. Smithsonian Institution. 1978. Heizer, Robert; Sturtevant, William, eds. But see also: Cook, Sherburne F. 1976. The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization. University of California Press, Berkeley. It has good info on what happened to the Chumash.