The book is the first of its kind — presenting the history of the state’s Native People from the time before memory to the present. Intended to be useful to Native People, students, teachers at the high school or college level, libraries, and policy-makers, it combines a chronological organization with place-based vignettes that illustrate the persistent and ongoing vibrancy of California Native life.
[Read more about the release of Damon's book.]
The book grew out of, and along with, a Historical Perspectives course that Damon teaches at Guilford. Additionally, the book’s reliance on stories as a way to weave together an inclusive and yet comprehensive history is an important part of the Initiate course that he is co-teaching this fall with Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology Eva McGuire and Assistant Professor of Public Health Aleks Babić.
The interview aired on the station’s UpFront news program. Lengthy and in-depth, it and went, in the words of host Brian Edwards-Tiekert, “a long way towards filling [the] gap in the popular imagination between the Gold Rush and the occupation of Alcatraz Island.”