Robert Aquinas McNally

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Five Questions with Robert Aquinas McNally

In this feature from California Sun, I make the leap from Lava Beds National Monument as center of the created universe over the best burger in my hometown to dinner with John Steinbeck and friends. Scroll down.

Little Indian War Goes Big

The few ups and many downs of the Modoc War of 1872–73: gunfights, battles, hangings, decapitations in the name of science, all played out against the backdrop of California's state-sponsored gencoide of Native peoples. A hard and necessary story.

Answers to Writing Questions You May Never Have Thought of

Carpentry is a good metaphor for explaining the difference between being a writer and being an author, for example. You'll also learn why backpacking with sons Darren McNally and Brian McNally is way cool, and how it is that partner Gayle Eleanor and I prefer wild places to cities.

A Dark History Hits Home (240 KB)

California's governor apologizes for the state's Native genocide before a gathering of tribal leaders and takes a first step toward healing a complex and bloody legacy. This article appears in the winter 2019 issue of California History.

California's Genocide Steps into the Light

In only the two years since The Modoc War was published, this state's extermination of Native peoples has lost its news value. More and more people, including non-Natives, have heard of it. There's a reason, and it's likely other than what you think.

Harte for the Wiyots

A young journalist working along the northern coast of California, Bret Harte found out how dangerous it could be to confront the genocidal reality behind a massacre of local Wiyot Indians.

California Governor Opens the Door on Native Genocide in the State's Closet and Apologizes

In an unprecedented move in front of a gathering of tribal leaders, Gov. Gavin Newsom took responsibility for California's state-sponsored attempt to wipe out its Native peoples in the second half of the 19th-century. He went on to apologize for this atrocity and to establish a Truth and Healing Council to address the genocide's unresolved justice issues.

A Small Step in the Right Direction. Now Comes the Hard Part.

Oregon has expressed governmental "regret" over the many injustices that were the Modoc War of 1872–1873. That's a small step in the right direction. Now it's California's turn to go big and admit the 19th-century genocide that took place in this state. This unpalatable truth affects every Californian, Native and non-Native alike, to this day.

The Journalist and the Modocs

During the Modoc War, an intrepid correspondent from the New York Herald raised the bar for reporting on Natives.

The Nod and a Wink Slaughter: What California's Genocide Looked Like

In the 1850s local militia campaigns paid for the state set upon California's Indigenous people. Here's what one of those death squads looked like.

Telling the Truth About the Modocs

Sometimes the book you set out to write differs from the book you finish. The truth may be other than what you imagined. Here's the backstory.

Events

In Case You Missed It: "The Refugee Story: Beginning, Middle, and End"

Here's the video of the panel discussion I moderated with Katya Cengel, author of Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back, and Sieu Sean Do, A Cloak of Good Fortune: A Cambodian Boy's Journey from Paradise Through a Kingdom of Terror. Both books focus on the Cambodian genocide: Katya as a compassionate reporter chronicling the cruel fate of refugees deported to a country they no longer know, Sieu as a firsthand survivor of the Khmer Rouge's killing fields. I moderated from the point of view of California's genocide against its Indigenous peoples, on display in The Modoc War. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Extension.

In Case You Missed It: "Writing & Reporting Nowhere into Somewhere"

Here's the recording of the book reading and discussion I did with author Ray March and Univ. of Nebraska editor Matthew Bokovoy on May 18, 2021 via Francie & Finch Bookshop in Lincoln, NE. My Modoc War covers an obscure Indian conflict in the remote northeastern corner of frontier California, yet this little-told story illuminates the shameful treatment of Native Americans across the United States and the horror of the California genocide. Set against much the same geographical backdrop, Ray March's Mass Murder in California's Empty Quarter details the all-too-common collision of greed, tribal disenrollment, and violence on the reservation.

Robert Aquinas McNally

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