son of witless

" Our Nation was born from genocide. " Then of course you are willing to give back all of ' your ' property which was stolen from the Native Peoples?

Nickolai

The land you say the Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande to enter was an area that the two nations were in dispute over. President Polk had said " We just have to have California " and sent envoys with an offer to buy it. The Mexicans refused to sell it so Polk sent soldiers into the disputed area knowing full well they would draw fire from the Mexicans, and when they did Polk used it as a pretext to urge Congress to declare war on Mexico and take it. After the war Polk paid Mexico five million for it in order to assuage his guilt. But the war was for the express purpose of taking California and the southwest from Mexico as part of Americas manifest destiny it was called. War was then waged on the plains Indians who were crushed by 1890 in order to complete our manifest destiny.

Nickolai

By Naomi Spencer
21 August 2015
The city of Huntington has the distinction of overdose capital of West Virginia, which is the state with the worst overdose rate in the US.
Since January first, at least 520 Huntington residents have overdosed, and 34 have died. Two-thirds of the deaths are attributed to heroin. The rate is 13 times the national average.
Over the past two weeks, Huntington has seen a surge in overdoses involving heroin spiked with the drug fentanyl. According to the Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, samples with fentanyl tested 50 times more powerful than heroin. Heroin users who injected the laced drugs were sent into comas and stopped breathing. In two days’ time, the city saw at least eight overdoses.

Nickolai

https://youtu.be/0ZB9oKQaCN4

Mexico fought for their independence from Spain. And when they won California was just part of the Mexican nation. The Natives weren't bothered that much by the Spanish their footprint was not very large just a string of missions up the El Camino Real and those natives that lived around the missions were corralled and attempted to convert to Christianity. The land was divided into large land grants and rancheros to Spaniards of high standing. The real death of the Natives came when gold was discovered in 1848 and with the gold rush. The gold brought large numbers of men seeking their fortune and they brought European diseases and when they found the natives to be in their way the authorities put a bounty on Indian. Indian scalp's became a way of making money and the natives were hunted down until they were thought to be extinct, that is until Ishi the Last Yahi was discovered 40 years later. This video tells the story

son of witless

I am glad to hear that the Spanish were much kinder to the natives of California than they were to the natives of Mexico and South America. I bet the Incas and the Aztecs wished they had been Californians.

Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA

Names, if they exist please.

If they don't exist, just keep avoiding the question.

Loki Loc: Georgia

There is no such thing as a "Native American." The "Native Americans" are transplants from Central Asia, nor are the ones claiming the title today even part of the first wave.
Indian tribes warred with each other constantly. The Catawba Indians, the Delaware, were practically exterminated by other tribes before the white man even came to this continent. The Anasazi Indians, the Mound Builders, gone. The Hopi were warred on constantly by the Navajo, and to a lesser extent the Apache. The Iroquois were empire builders. The Lakota acquired their land by warring on the far less numerous Pawnee and Crow until they were forced to flee.
Many Indians died from diseases that the white man brought from Europe. They had no natural immunity. At the time, how diseases were spread was not understood by most people. The only case of deliberate infection of Indians with disease that I am aware of occurred during the French and Indian War, when British general Amherst sent Indians a bunch of smallpox infected blankets.
If you want genocide, look to Mexico and South America. The Aztecs sacrificed tens of thousands of victims to the Sun God. So did the Inca in South America. The Conquistadores found willing allies in the subjugated tribes the Aztecs especially, preyed on.
The Spanish and Portuguese truly did exterminate millions of Indians.

Loki Loc: Georgia

What a crock. The Liberal version of the Last of the Mohicans.

peter11937 Loc: NYS

Mexico, yes, and instant third world nation.

Nickolai

All that is true so we will call the immigrants from Asia the aborigines the original peoples of the American continent. The Iroquois was a confederacy of six nations, the Mohawk, the Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora, they had a constitution and women were allowed to vote centuries before they were in the US. As far as Genocide. In 1492 an estimated 10 million people inhabited the continental US European diseases wiped out 90 % of the population. Cultural wars with the aborigines for over 400 years.
After the American Revolution, many Native American lives were already lost to disease and displacement. In 1830, the federal Indian Removal Act called for the removal of the ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ – the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole. Between 1830 and 1838, federal officials working on behalf of white cotton growers forced nearly 100,000 Indians out of their homeland. The dangerous journey from the southern states to “Indian Territory” in current Oklahoma is referred to as the Trail of Tears in which 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease. In 1784, one British traveler noted:
“White Americans have the most rancorous antipathy to the whole race of Indians; and nothing is more common than to hear them talk of extirpating them totally from the face of the earth, men, women, and children.”

In particular, the 1848 California gold rush caused 300,000 people to migrate to San Francisco from the East Coast and South America. Historians believe that California was once the most densely and diversely populated area for Native Americans in U.S. territory; however, the gold rush had massive implications for Native American livelihoods. Toxic chemicals and gravel ruined traditional Native hunting and agricultural practices, resulting in starvation for many Natives.
Further, in 1850, the California state government passed the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians that addressed the punishment and protection of Native Americans, and helped to facilitate the removal of their culture and land. It also legalized slavery and was referenced for the buying and selling of Native children.
“A war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct.”
– California Governor Peter H. Burnett, 1851 


In 1890, Wounded Knee, located on the Pine Ridge Reservation in North Dakota, government officials believed chief Sitting Bull was a Ghost Dancer, someone who rejects “the ways of the white man” and believes that the gods will create a new world without non-believers. In the process of arresting Sitting Bull, federal officials actually ended up killing him, causing a massive rebellion that led to the deaths of over 150 Natives in Pine Ridge. An example of a genocidal event that has featured prominently in the field's historiography is the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. On the morning of November 29, 1864, the Colorado Third Cavalry, under the command of Colonel John M. Chivington, attacked the sleeping encampment of Chief Black Kettle's Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek. The resulting scene left a large number of unarmed Native American men, women, and children dead, their bodies mutilated by Chivington's men. This horrific event has received considerable attention from scholars due to certain statements made previous to the attack. In authorizing Chivington's Third Cavalry in their 100-day tour of duty, Colorado Governor John Evans gave instructions to "kill and destroy, as enemies of the country, wherever they may be found, all such hostile Indians" (U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 1865, p. 47). It was later reported that Chivington echoed this policy by pronouncing his goal to "kill and scalp all, little and big; that nits made lice" (U.S. Congress, Senate, 1865, p. 71). Taken together, a specific group was singled out for utter destruction, and the actions of the Colorado Third Cavalry on the cold morning of November 29, 1864, indicate that such intent was actualized in the massacre of members of that defined group

Nickolai

I would not call the video any such thing as a liberal view I would call it " history "

straightUp Loc: California

I totally signed. :)

I read some of the responses and most of them are typically ignorant. People see how much money California spends and they try to make this big case out of it. Well, California has way more people than most states so that's why we spend so much, but the part that right-wing media always conveniently leaves out is that California also earns a lot more than any other state. The bottom line is California can afford their own expenses. What we can't afford is to keep subsidizing the other states.

As it stands, federal law actually prohibits any state from leaving the Union (which sounds a little draconian to me), so as much as we want to secede we know it's going to be a long process and this initiative is only a step in that direction.

Here are some reason's the California Freedom Coalition presents for working toward this goal of liberty.

1. Taxes:
Since 1987, California has been subsidizing the other states at a loss of tens and sometimes hundreds of billions of dollars in a single fiscal year. As a result, we are often forced to raise taxes and charge fees in California, and borrow money from the future to make up the difference. This is partly why California presently has some of the highest taxes in the country, and so much debt. Independence means that all of our taxes will be kept in California based on the priorities we set, and we will be able to do so while repaying our debts and phasing out the current state income tax.

2. Elections and Government
California’s electoral votes haven’t affected a presidential election since 1876. On top of that, presidential election results are often known before our votes are even counted. So, why should we keep subjecting ourselves to presidents we play no role in electing, to 382 representatives and 98 senators we can’t vote for, and all the government officials and federal judges appointed by those very same people we don’t elect.

3. Trade and Regulation:
The U.S. Government maintains a burdensome trade system that hurts California’s economy by making trade more difficult and more expensive for California’s businesses. As long as California remains within this burdensome trade system, we will never be able to capitalize on the trade and investment opportunities that would be available to us as an independent country. On top of that, the United States is dragging California into the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement which conflicts with our values.

4. Healthcare and Medicine:
The Affordable Care Act was enacted by the U.S. Government to lower the cost of health care and expand health insurance coverage to the uninsured, yet millions of Californians still lack access to quality health care because they can’t afford it. For many, access to hospitals and medicine is a life or death issue. Independence means we can fund the health care programs we want and ensure everyone has access to the medicines they need because our taxes will no longer be subsidizing other states. Finally, California can join the rest of the industrialized world in guaranteeing health care as a universal right for all of our people.

5. Natural Resources:
Certain minerals and other natural resources like coal, oil, and natural gas are being extracted from California at below market value rates by private corporations with the permission of the U.S. Government. While a small portion of the revenue is shared with us, our share has been withheld during times of sequestration. That means the U.S. Government is paying their debts with royalties collected from selling off California’s natural resources. Independence means we will gain control of the 46% of California that is currently owned by the U.S. Government and its agencies. We will therefore take control of our natural resources and be the sole beneficiary of royalties collected if and when they are extracted from our lands.

At this point I would support ANY state that's ready and willing to leave the Union. The federal government is failing the people. It would be nice to see things get better but it's looking like that's a longer shot than Californian Independence.

Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA

Not to be too technical, but I am 100% native American. So are my siblings, parents and grandparents, children and grandchildren, and aunts and uncles.

All born 100% in America.

son of witless

That is true. Cortez had a relatively small number of Spanish to take down a large number of Aztecs. Superior weapon technology and European diseases cannot fully explain his success. There were many native tribes who were allied with the Spanish because the Aztecs had terrorized and murdered them.

Loki Loc: Georgia

Don't let the door hit your butts on the way out. BTW....Secession has been illegal since 1869. When the South seceded, there were no legal prohibitions on the matter. There are now. Of course, California could always rejoin Mexico. Then you could be [i]Mexico del Norte, Con Estampillas de Comida para todos. You could subsidize the Mexican dope cartels rather than the Federal Government. You could end up as a minority in your own country, which appears to be the goal of most Liberals, in their never ending quest to assuage their guilt.