The thousands of years of traditions, culture and history of the indigenous peoples in what is now the United States are not widely told. Even in his bestselling attempt to tell the history of the U.S. through the eyes of the common man, Howard Zinn failed to give the same weight to the experiences of the Native people as he did to those of the settlers. Drawing on historic documentation in addition to years of research and interviews, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States reframes textbook U.S. history--written by European settlers and their descendants--and gives a voice to those who lived here first.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (Blood on the Border), a Native American activist, scholar and historian, presents a revised treatment that is frank, accessible and much needed. She presents a balanced perspective, noting that while there is no one history for all indigenous groups, what has been shared among them is the history of settler colonialism. Most histories present the colonizers in a positive light, as in the story of Thanksgiving, and obscure the realities of land theft and genocide. Dunbar-Ortiz identifies the implicitly biased way in which the nation's history has been told and deconstructs the concept of multiculturalism, explaining how it disempowers indigenous peoples through its inherent assumptions of settler superiority while hiding any implicit racism behind a screen of cultural tolerance. This valuable work will push some readers outside their comfort zones to help them consider a broader perspective. --Justus Joseph, bookseller at Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle