Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: This War is For a Whole Life [Culture of Resistance] Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 4 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

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s : . f 1 A ? 4a J 4 Fd ’ » This War Is For a Whole Life: The Culture of Resistance Among Southern California Indians, 1850-1966. as . im e , Richard A. Hanks Banning, Cal.: Uskana Press, 2012, 222 pp., $29 ! aReviewed by Tanis Thorne af Department of History, University of California, Irvine Drawing its title from the words of nineteenth century leader Antonio Garra, Richard Hank’s This War Is For a Whole Life is a paean to Southern California Indian peoples’ long struggle for self-determination. A culmination of many years of research, the book is a revision of Hank’s 2006 dissertation, and is solidly based on extensive archival work, knowledge of the secondary literature, and many interviews with Indian people. Like many others who have written about Southern California’s “rich history of resistance” (p. 189) since George Phillips’ pioneering work Chiefs and Challengers, Hanks challenges the stereotype of Mission Indian passivity. Hank’s central argument is that the region is notable for several important pan-Indian leaders, who inspired and mobilized. political action for justice, equality, water, and land, and whose example foreshadowed the rise the pan-Indian organizations in the twentieth century. “The Mission Indian Federation," he writes, “continued the war started by Antonio Garra in 1851—a war for a whole life” (p. 189). The book succeeds admirably in confirming the conclusion that Indian political activism was a very pronounced and persistent feature in Southern California Indian culture. It is beautifully embellished by dozens of historic photographs and graphics. In addition to its coherent thesis, attractive presentation, and engaging writing style, This War has several fine features that increase its appeal to multiple audiences as a reference work, a teaching text, or simply a good read. “Resistance ranged from simple obstruction to assassination,” he declares, “but local Indians remained ready to respond to the next Indian leader of passion and conviction” (p. 47). This is a telling phrase, for Hanks is driven by the same passion and conviction, and adheres to a perennially popular “patriot chiefs” narrative. His sympathies for the enslaved, oppressed, and victimized Indians of Southern California consistently shape his viewpoint. Since he has incorporated much recent scholarship in a reasonably comprehensive way, This War is an up-to-date overview of Indian-white relations in the region, set against the backdrop of national policy developments and transitions, and demonstrating the important linkages among local and national pan-Indian movements. The book contributes new research—for example, fresh examples of Indian resistance to colonialism, such as a strike by Soboba lace makers in 1914—and new gems of information about well-known historical actors and events. The book is organized into nine chapters and a conclusion. Chapter . sets the tone with its discussion of the brutality of the mission system as exemplified by the Juafieno of coastal Orange County. Chapters 2 and 3 ground the work thematically by focusing on Antonio Garra’s efforts to organize pan-Indian warfare against the American intruders in 1851, and on Olegario Calac’s leadership during the critical years of the early 1870s. In the early 1850s, a window for keeping native homelands closed, he argues, because Juan Antonio and Garra failed to cooperate. Calac, he persuasively demonstrates, provided a