ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the impacts of shifting settler colonial nations on Indigenous California in the making of the West. The roles of the Spanish mission system, the construction of the Californio identity, and the violent transformation of California into the “American West,” of the United States are described as colonial waves that disrupted existing Indigenous ways of being. This 80-year period set the stage for numerous impacts on gender identity in Indigenous California, especially in the areas impacted by the Spanish missions. The chapter further examines the role of women and Two-Spirit people in the restoration of cultural memories and reclamation of Indigenous identity in California in current times. By using rhetorical analysis, this chapter contributes to the unsettling of colonial records in California by Indigenous scholars.
