California Sun

Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 24”, 3,800 USD

California Sun is a tribute to the resistance of California’s Native peoples to settler colonialism’s systematic oppression and genocide. In 1852, the Governor of California declared, ‘A war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct.’ Despite treaties guaranteeing Indian safety and protection, the State of California offered to pay for Indian scalps, resulting in continued attacks upon the Native population. (It paid $1 million.) In the 1850s, California passed a series of laws that allowed any Native member of its population to be declared vagrant (upon the word of a white person), thrown in jail, and sold at auction. Other laws allowed the kidnapping and selling of Indian children as slaves.