296 pages
Published Sept. 5, 2014 by Beacon Press.
Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.
With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United …
Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.
With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.”
Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.
One of the most challenging books to read, and accept that it actually happened. While it’s heartbreaking, it’s a must-read to understand the struggles and experiences of indigenous communities.
"The United States is a crime scene," one of the quotes from this excellent book, gives you a sense of how Dunbar-Ortiz approaches US history. This book focuses on the profound injustices and immorality of how European colonizers and the inheritors of their project interacted with indigenous people, underlining the hypocrisy of much of the US's founding myths. Most of the book reviews this history from prior to the 20th century - if you're looking for a deeper analysis on more recent events I'd recommend "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee." Overall this book makes a great addition to the US history canon, highly recommend
"The United States is a crime scene," one of the quotes from this excellent book, gives you a sense of how Dunbar-Ortiz approaches US history. This book focuses on the profound injustices and immorality of how European colonizers and the inheritors of their project interacted with indigenous people, underlining the hypocrisy of much of the US's founding myths. Most of the book reviews this history from prior to the 20th century - if you're looking for a deeper analysis on more recent events I'd recommend "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee." Overall this book makes a great addition to the US history canon, highly recommend
You know the myth: Smallpox tragically reduced the native population of North America and so Europeans were handed the destiny to settle a largely uninhabited land. There were a couple wars with the few remaining natives that the US government won, but they were granted land and political autotomy.
No.
There is no sugarcoating in this book. This is the history of nothing less than a systematic genocide of hundreds of different indigenous peoples. A very horrific book to read, but extremely important.
An important read to understand our countries founding.
Very very (very) thorough. I came into this knowing the broad strokes of our real history and this book helped fill in the gaps with specifics. I read this for a class but can't really imagine someone sitting down with this if they have just a casual interest. Recommend if you need this though.
Very very (very) thorough. I came into this knowing the broad strokes of our real history and this book helped fill in the gaps with specifics. I read this for a class but can't really imagine someone sitting down with this if they have just a casual interest. Recommend if you need this though.
