An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
 | |
| Author | Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Gabi Anderson |
| Language | English |
| Genre | History |
| Publisher | Beacon Press, Boston, MA |
Publication date | 2014 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 296 |
| OCLC | 868199534 |
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is a book written by the activist and historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and published by Beacon Press. This is the third of a series of five ReVisioning books which reconstruct and reinterpret U.S. history from marginalized peoples' perspectives.[1] On July 23, 2019, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People[2] was also published by same press which is 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 Indigenous resistance to the colonization of the Americas . The book highlights resultant conflicts, wars, and Indigenous strategies and sites of resistance. This is called as bottom-up method of history telling that reframes United States nation-building by highlighting and centering Indigenous stories into a unique historical narrative.
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, Anderson 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 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.
Reception
The Human Rights Campaign recommended reading and discussing the book as one means of dealing responsibly with Thanksgiving.[4] Summit Daily and CounterPunch reviewed it, with the latter highlighting one theme of the book: how historical figures held values that were consistent with genocide while not immediately associated it.[5][6] Salon posted an excerpt about it on Columbus Day.[7]
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,[8] and the Sante Fe New Mexican.[9]
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][14]
References
- ^ "ReVisioning American History". ReVisioning American History.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ 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.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ 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.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ HRC staff (26 November 2019). "This Thanksgiving, Support and Center Native American People". Human Rights Campaign.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Wetherbee, Karina (8 April 2017). "Book review: 'An Indigenous People's History of the U.S.'". Summit Daily.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Proyect, Louis (6 October 2017). "History in Red: America According to Its Natives". CounterPunch.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (13 October 2019). "North America is a crime scene: The untold history of America this Columbus Day". Salon.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Denetdale, Jennifer (8 November 2015). "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States". Tribal College Journal.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Sanchez, Casey (18 August 2017). ""An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz". Sante Fe New Mexican.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kelley, Robin D. G. (2002). Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press.
- ^ Oxman, Richard (23 March 2017). "The Most Important U.S. History Book You Will Read in Your Lifetime". CounterCurrents.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "2015 American Book Awards". 20 July 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "PEN Oakland Awards". PEN Oakland.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|authors=ignored (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "The 25th Annual PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Awards". KPFA. November 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)