An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People

"A young readers’ adaptation of the groundbreaking 2014 work, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, offering an important corrective to conventional narratives of our nation’s history.

Questioning the ideologies behind the belief systems that gave birth to America’s dominant origin stories, this book not only challenges the standard tale of European explorers “discovering” America, it provides an Indigenous perspective on key events. The book urges students to think critically about private property and extractive industries, land conservation and environmental rights, social activism, the definition of what it means to be “civilized,” and the role of the media in shaping perceptions. With an eye to the show more diversity and number of Indigenous nations in America, the volume untangles the many conquerors and victims of the early colonization era and beyond. From the arrival of the first Europeans through to the 21st century, the work tackles subjects as diverse as the Dakota 38, the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee, the American Indian Movement’s takeover of Alcatraz, and the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance. A deeply felt connection to the Earth’s health permeates the text, along with the strength and resiliency that have kept Indigenous cultures alive. Maps, photographs, informative sidebars, points for discussion, and a recommended book list round out this accessible, engaging, and necessary addition to school libraries and classrooms.

An excellent read, dismantling American mythologies and fostering critical reasoning about history and current events. (further reading, recommended titles, notes, image credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)" A Kirkus Starred Reveiw, www.kirkusreviews.com show less

The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples

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-Ortizoffers 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 show more 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. show less

This is an ambitious book about a huge topic, and Dunbar-Ortiz has a difficult time doing justice to her subject in such a short volume.

This isn't really a history of indigenous people. This is a history of what white Europeans did (and are still doing) to indigenous people. More white people are named, and more of their actions described, than indigenous individuals.

Dunbar-Ortiz's main thesis is that the long slow genocide of Native Americans is the defining characteristic of the United States, and has served as the inspiration for many aspects of American culture, and has provided the template for American colonialism abroad (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.). Buried in there is her secondary thesis that Native Americans have survived despite show more 500 years of systematic destruction of their people and culture, but unfortunately she doesn't have much time to discuss how they have managed to do this.

This book is a merciless condemnation of the history of the United States. Dunbar-Ortiz does not hold back in criticizing American colonialism. For example, in discussing how much the quest for gold was a driving force in colonization, she says "The systems of colonization were modern and rational, but its ideological basis was madness."

This book is part of a series called ReVisioning American History for Young People. I would think that in a book aimed at a young audience, Dunbar-Ortiz doesn't explain more of the basic definitions and characteristics of colonialism. I think this is another effect of trying to fit a lot of information into a small volume - I really wish she had been given free reign to do justice to her subject.

Despite all of these criticisms (which I think are probably a result of the publisher's restrictions, not Dunbar-Ortiz's skill), this is a devastating and important book, and I think all Americans should read it or at least be aware of its narrative. show less

"A young readers’ adaptation of the groundbreaking 2014 work, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, offering an important corrective to conventional narratives of our nation’s history.

Questioning the ideologies behind the belief systems that gave birth to America’s dominant origin stories, this book not only challenges the standard tale of European explorers “discovering” America, it provides an Indigenous perspective on key events. The book urges students to think critically about private property and extractive industries, land conservation and environmental rights, social activism, the definition of what it means to be “civilized,” and the role of the media in shaping perceptions. With an eye to the show more diversity and number of Indigenous nations in America, the volume untangles the many conquerors and victims of the early colonization era and beyond. From the arrival of the first Europeans through to the 21st century, the work tackles subjects as diverse as the Dakota 38, the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee, the American Indian Movement’s takeover of Alcatraz, and the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance. A deeply felt connection to the Earth’s health permeates the text, along with the strength and resiliency that have kept Indigenous cultures alive. Maps, photographs, informative sidebars, points for discussion, and a recommended book list round out this accessible, engaging, and necessary addition to school libraries and classrooms.

An excellent read, dismantling American mythologies and fostering critical reasoning about history and current events. (further reading, recommended titles, notes, image credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)" A Kirkus Starred Reveiw, www.kirkusreviews.com show less

This book would be good for middle level grades. This book gives the indigenous peoples' side of the story to doctrine of discovery, manifest destiny, and the myth that the US is a nation of immigrants. I would use this in conjunction with history lessons about the US "discovering" the "new world" to show the other side of the story.

I haven't read all the options, but if you're going to pick one book to get a more accurate/less colonized history of Native Peoples in the U.S., this seems like a good one to go with. You won't get the details on most specific tribes, but this is the full sweep of major items to start with. Probably follow-up with one on the specific groups or regions of interest!

Going beyond the story of America as a country “discovered” by a few brave men in the “New World,” Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity.

The original academic text is fully adapted by renowned curriculum experts Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include discussion topics, archival images, original maps, recommendations for further reading, and other materials to encourage students, teachers, and general readers to think critically about their own place in history.