June CultureKIT: Indigenous Peoples

June CultureKIT: Indigenous Peoples

"International Year of the World's Indigenous People, 1993" by United Nations Photo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/?ref=openverse.

I’m in Canada, so my excerpt from wikipedia and suggestions below are Canadian-centric. (There are a couple of American authors included in my suggestions, however.) Feel free to read beyond my Canadian- and North American-centric intro here!

Indigenous Peoples (from wikipedia):
“In the 21st century, the concept of Indigenous peoples is understood in a wider context than only the colonial experience. The focus has been on self-identification as indigenous peoples, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model.
...
Indigenous peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors ‘Indian’ and ‘Eskimo’ have fallen into disuse in Canada. More currently, the term ‘Aboriginal’ is being replaced with ‘Indigenous’.“

Suggestions

Nonfiction:
Seven Fallen Feathers / Tanya Talaga
Up Ghost River / Edmund Metatawabin
From the Ashes / Jesse Thistle

Fiction:
7 Generations / David A. Robertson (graphic novel)
The Break / Katherena Vermette
Indian Horse / Richard Wagamese
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian / Alexie Sherman
The Birchbark House / Louise Eldrich

And, please do update the wiki with what you read this month:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2026_CultureKIT#June:_Indigenous_Peoples

Well, I'm a month off! LOL I have just read two books that will count for this challenge. I hope to read at least one other fiction book before the end of June as well.

The Berry Pickers This was a reread for me due to a book club selection. I liked it better the second time. I was in charge of researching the author this month which lead me down some interesting paths as well.

This Tender Land features a main character who is Sioux and an Indian school (which is how they were categorized in the US) is a focus of the book as well. This one takes place in Minnesota and along the Mississippi.

I can also recommend By the Fire We Carry and Covered with Night both nonfiction based on the land grabs that the US government made and are still under ajudication today.

>2 beebeereads: Thanks for the additional suggestions! Sorry you were a month ahead! ;-)

I plan to read True Country by Kim Scott, a First Nations Australian.

AI tells me that the winner of the International Booker, Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, announced today includes elements of indigenous Taiwanese culture.

>5 Robertgreaves: Oh, that is interesting! I have that book on my shelf as well. I am ashamed to say that before I traveled to Taiwan last year, I wasn't even aware that there is an indigenous population in Taiwan.

I am requesting two titles from the library that I've been wanting to read for awhile. I will decide which one to focus on when I can look at both of them and take a look at the writing style.

Indigenous continent by Pekka Hämäläinen
The rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk

I suspect I'll buy the one I decide to read since I doubt I'll finish in a month. (They are both around 600 pages, including footnotes.)

I’m finding Ned Blackkhawk’s The Rediscovery of America: Native peoples and the unmaking of U.S. history a bit confusing. That’s not surprising given the breadth of time and geography he’s attempting to cover.

I’m four chapters in. Primarily, there is no discussion of what the term America refers to, although both America and U.S. history are used in the title. The area covered in the first four chapters of the book includes not just the continental US, but parts of what we know as Mexico and Canada. Looking at the structure of the book I deduce that Blackhawk is focusing on US history. There are two sections. Part I: Indians and Empire looks at European colonization (primarily Spain, Great Britain, France) and ends with a chapter entitled “Colonialism's Constitution: the origins of federal Indian policy.” It appears part II (Struggles for Sovereignty) will cover everything from the Monroe Doctrine up to the end of the twentieth century.

I’m also a bit confused over what he refers to as the “inland sea” area. It’s described as centering on the Great Lakes area, but also mentions the Ohio, the Missouri, and the Mississippi River and New Orleans. So I’m guessing we’re talking about what eventually comes into the continental US as the Louisiana Purchase. Googling “inland sea US history” also gets me to a geological situation I don’t remember learning about in school, the Western Interior Seaway (link to Wikipedia.)

My main takeaways:
Epidemics, followed by famine & disease destroy Native communities, followed by European colonization
Enslavement of Native Americans is part of colonization effort. Disperses those left, makes captives used as translators dependent on colonizers.
Encounters Europeans and Natives ( not discovery by Europeans) over time is the history of the making of the United States and North America.

Quote from page 52
Historians have failed to realize this essential truth: indigenous dispossession fueled the rise not only of British North America but also of its foundational institution of chattel slavery.

In other words, dispossessing Native Americans of their land, enslavement, and breaking up their cultures left an absence of labor filled by enslaved Africans.

Trying to get a “big picture” of encounters: four main groups from Eastern seaboard in (does not include southern and southwest groups)

Iroquois
Algonquin-speaking (Wendat, Huron)
Anishinabe (Ojibwe)
Siouan (Ho-Chunk, Lakota, Dakota)