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An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

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An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
AuthorRoxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Cover artistGabi Anderson
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistory
PublisherBeacon Press, Boston, MA
Publication date
2014
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages296
OCLC868199534

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is a non-fiction book written by the historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and published by Beacon Press. It is the third of a series of six ReVisioning books which reconstruct and reinterpret U.S. history from marginalized peoples' perspectives.[1] On July 23, 2019, the same press published An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People,[2] an adaptation by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese of Dunbar-Ortiz's original volume.

Synopsis

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States describes and analyzes a four-hundred-year span of complex Indigenous struggles against the colonization of the Americas. The book highlights resultant conflicts, wars, and Indigenous strategies and sites of resistance.

The book's contents across many chronological chapters challenge what Dunbar-Ortiz articulates as the founding mythology of the burgeoning country, bolstered in the 19th century by the concept of Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery. In the book, Dunbar-Ortiz seeks to show "how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them". It details how the myth rose out of the imperatives of settler colonialism and graphically depicts this as the seizure of the original inhabitants' territories and subsequent displacement and elimination of them through genocidal practices. One manifestation of the myth and expression of the genocide is identified as the movement to Kill the Indian, Save the Man.[3] Also described is the predominance of anti-Indigenous practices and values celebrated in popular culture in the 19th and 20th centuries through writers like James Fenimore Cooper, especially in his novel and the subsequent cinematic renditions of Last of the Mohicans; Henry David Thoreau; Walt Whitman; and in D.W. Griffith's enormously popular Birth of a Nation. Beyond popular culture, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States details how such policies, practices, and values were manifest through the ranks of the U.S. military to the highest offices of government.

Dedication

The book is dedicated to Jack D. Forbes, Vine Deloria Jr. and Howard Adams.

Table of contents

  • Author's Note
  • Introduction: This Land
In the introduction, Dunbar-Ortiz lays her task on the table:
"How might acknowledging the reality of US history work to transform society? That is the central question this book pursues."
"This book attempts to tell the story of the United States as a colonial settler-state, one that, like colonialist European states, crushed and subjugated the original civilizations in the territories it now rules. Indigenous peoples, now in a colonial relationship with the United States, inhabited and thrived for millennia before they were displaced to fragmented reservations and economically decimated."
Dunbar-Ortiz asserts that the reality of the history of US policies and actions toward Native peoples is a reality of settler-colonial imperialism, and that this reality is inherent in the national origin myth of the United States: Puritan settlers had a covenant with God to take the land, and the basis of the Columbus myth is in the discovery doctrine. She describes how the system of settler colonialism depends on force, violence, and genocide, and concludes that US history cannot be understood without addressing that fact.
In the introduction Dunbar-Ortiz also discusses the changing approaches taken by historical scholars in dealing with these facts, and concludes they have failed to understand that history because they have failed to apply a colonial framework in their approaches.
  • One: Follow the Corn
  • Two: Culture of Conquest
  • Three: Cult of the Covenant
  • Four: Bloody Footprints
  • Five: Birth of a Nation
  • Six: The Last of the Mohicans and Andrew Jackson’s White Republic
  • Seven: Sea to Shining Sea
  • Eight: “Indian Country”
  • Nine: US Triumphalism and Peacetime Colonialism
  • Ten: Ghost Dance Prophesy: A Nation is Coming
  • Eleven: The Doctrine of Discovery
  • Conclusion: The Future of the United States
  • Acknowledgments
  • Suggested Reading (5 pages)
  • Notes (19 pages)
  • Works Cited (15 pages)
  • Index

Reception

Reviews

Among the various reviews, early 21st century issues and tensions in the U.S. have been highlighted. Indigenous press and other press regularly inclusive of Indigenous news, too, have put forth reviews, such as the Tribal College Journal,[4] and The Santa Fe New Mexican.[5]

A reviewer in CounterPunch wrote that this book "will be of great value to those first learning about the Indigenous perspective as well as someone like me who has been reading and writing about native peoples for the past twenty-five years."[6]

Publishers Weekly found the book comprehensive, noting that "Dunbar-Ortiz brings together every indictment of white Americans that has been cast upon them over time, and she does so by raising intelligent new questions about many of the current trends of academia, such as multiculturalism."[7]

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the book was of comparable importance to Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and found that it "synthesizes a vast body of scholarship, much of it by Indians themselves, and provides an antidote to the work of historians who have rationalized the settling of the West and the “civilizing” of the Indians."[8]

From a review in Summit Daily: “Imperialism,” “settler colonialism,” “genocide” and “land theft” are all words that matter when writing and studying this history. Throughout her book, she repeatedly emphasizes the importance of being truthful and accurate when confronted with the often-ugly realities of this nation’s past.[9]

Awards

Recognition of the book's value has also come in the form of praise and awards such as that from Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams,[10] suggesting this is the most important book on the subject of U.S. history.[11] In 2015, it received the American Book Award[12] and the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.[13]

Reading lists and excerpts

The Human Rights Campaign recommended reading and discussing the book as one means of dealing responsibly with Thanksgiving.[14] The book was also included in recommended reading lists by Business Insider,[15] Patch,[16] BookRiot,[17] and Oxfam America.[18]

Salon posted an excerpt about it on Columbus Day.[19]

References

  1. ^ "ReVisioning American History". ReVisioning American History.
  2. ^ Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (23 July 2019). An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People. Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza (adapters). Boston, MA: Beacon Press. ISBN 978-080704939-6.
  3. ^ Pratt, Capt. Richard H. ""Kill the Indian, and Save the Man": Capt. Richard H. Pratt on the Education of Native Americans". Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.
  4. ^ Denetdale, Jennifer (8 November 2015). "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States". Tribal College Journal.
  5. ^ Sanchez, Casey (18 August 2017). ""An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz". Santa Fe New Mexican.
  6. ^ Proyect, Louis (6 October 2017). "History in Red: America According to Its Natives". CounterPunch. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  7. ^ "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  8. ^ Raskin, Jonah (19 Nov 2014). "'An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States': review". SF Gate. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  9. ^ Wetherbee, Karina (8 April 2017). "Book review: 'An Indigenous People's History of the U.S.'". Summit Daily.
  10. ^ Kelley, Robin D. G. (2002). Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press.
  11. ^ Oxman, Richard (23 March 2017). "The Most Important U.S. History Book You Will Read in Your Lifetime". CounterCurrents.
  12. ^ "2015 American Book Awards". 20 July 2015. Archived from the original on 21 Feb 2020. Retrieved 16 Feb 2021.
  13. ^ "The 25th Annual PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Awards". KPFA. November 2015.
  14. ^ HRC staff (26 November 2019). "This Thanksgiving, Support and Center Native American People". Human Rights Campaign.
  15. ^ Katherine Fiorillo (18 November 2021). "The 23 best history books written by women, from previously untold war stories to page-turning biographies". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  16. ^ Megan VerHelst (19 June 2021). "Missing Pages Of History: 31 Books To Read For Juneteenth". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  17. ^ Kim Ukura (7 August 2020). "14 Books for a More Inclusive Look at American History". bookriot.com. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  18. ^ Oxfam Staff (11 June 2020). "Solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement begins with a critical education". Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  19. ^ Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (13 October 2019). "North America is a crime scene: The untold history of America this Columbus Day". Salon.
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