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 communities and nations comprising nearly three million people. These individuals are the descendants of the once fifteen million people who inhabited this land and are the subject of the latest book by noted historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. In An Indigenous Peoplesí History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the indigenous peoples was genocidal and imperialist--designed to crush the original inhabitants. Spanning more than three hundred years, this classic bottom-up history significantly reframes how we view our past. Told from the viewpoint of the indigenous, it reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.
ìRoxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoplesí History of the United States should be essential reading in schools and colleges. It pulls up the paving stones and lays bare the deep history of the United States, from the corn to the reservations. If the United States is a ëcrime scene,í as she calls it, then Dunbar-Ortiz is its forensic scientist. A sobering look at a grave history.î --Vijay Prashad, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South
ìJustice-seekers everywhere will celebrate Dunbar-Ortizís unflinching commitment to truth--a truth that places settler-colonialism and genocide exactly where they belong--as foundational to the existence of the Unites States.î --Dr. Waziyatawin, Dakota activist and author of For Indigenous Minds Only: A Decolonization Handbook
ìDunbar-Ortiz strips us of our forged innocence, shocks us into new awarenesses, and draws a straight line from the sins of our fathers--settler-colonialism, the doctrine of discovery, the myth of manifest destiny, white supremacy, theft and systematic killing--to the contemporary condition of permanent war, invasion and occupation, mass incarceration, and the constant use and threat of state violence.î --Bill Ayers
ìDunbar-Ortiz provides a historical analysis of the US Colonial framework from the perspective of an indigenous human rights advocate. Her assessment and conclusions are necessary tools for all indigenous peoples seeking to address and remedy the legacy of US colonial domination that continues to subvert indigenous human rights in today's globalized world.î --Mililani B. Trask, Native Hawaiian international law expert on Indigenous Peoples' rights and former Kia Aina (Prime Minister) of Ka La Hui Hawaii
ìRoxanne Dunbar-Ortizís Indigenous Peoplesí History of the United States is a fiercely honest, unwavering, and unprecedented statement, one which has never been attempted by any other historian or intellectual. The presentation of facts and arguments is clear and direct, unadorned by needless and pointless rhetoric, and there is an organic feel of intellectual solidity that provides weight and trust. It is truly an Indigenous peoplesí voice that gives Dunbar-Ortizís book direction, purpose, and trustworthy intention. Without doubt, this crucially important book is required reading for everyone in the Americas!î --Simon J. Ortiz, Regents Professor of English and American Indian Studies, Arizona State University
ìAn Indigenous Peoplesí History of the United States provides an essential historical reference for all Americans. Particularly, it serves as an indispensable text for students of all ages to advance their appreciation and greater understanding of our history and our rightful place in America. The American Indiansí perspective has been absent from colonial histories for too long, leaving continued misunderstandings of our struggles for sovereignty and human rights.î --Peterson Zah, former President of the Navajo Nation
ìThis may well be the most important U.S history book you will read in your lifetime. If you are expecting yet another ënewí and improved historical narrative or synthesis of Indians in North America, think again. Instead Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz radically reframes U.S. history, destroying all foundation myths to reveal a brutal settler colonial structure and ideology designed to cover its bloody tracks. Here, rendered in honest, often poetic words, is the story of those tracks and the people who survived--bloodied but unbowed. Spoiler alert: the colonial era is still here, and so are the Indians.î --Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
ìRoxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes a masterful story that relates what the Indigenous peoples of the United States have always maintained: Against the settler U.S. nation, Indigenous peoples have persevered against actions and policies intended to exterminate them, whether physically, mentally, or intellectually. Indigenous nations and their people continue to bear witness to their experiences under the U.S. and demand justice as well as the realization of sovereignty on their own terms.î --Jennifer Nez Denetdale, Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico and author of Reclaiming DinÈ History
ìIn her in-depth and intelligent analysis of U.S. history from the indigenous perspective, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz challenges readers to rethink the myth that Indian lands were free lands and that genocide was a justifiable means to a glorious end. A must read for anyone interested in the truth behind this nationís founding and its often contentious relationship with indigenous peoples.î --Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, Ph.D., Jicarilla Apache author, historian, and publisher of Tillerís Guide to Indian Country
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Introduction
This land
We are here to educate, not forgive.
We are here to enlighten, not accuse.
–Willie Johns, Brighton Seminole Reservation, Florida
Under the crust of that portion of Earth called the United States of America—“from California . . . to the Gulf Stream waters”—are interred the bones, villages, fields, and sacred objects of American Indians. They cry out for their stories to be heard through their descendants who carry the memories of how the country was founded and how it came to be as it is today.
It should not have happened that the great civilizations of the Western Hemisphere, the very evidence of the Western Hemisphere, were wantonly destroyed, the gradual progress of humanity interrupted and set upon a path of greed and destruction. Choices were made that forged that path toward destruction of life itself—the moment in which we now live and die as our planet shrivels, overheated. To learn and know this history is both a necessity and a responsibility to the ancestors and descendants of all parties.
What historian David Chang has written about the land that became Oklahoma applies to the whole United States: “Nation, race, and class converged in land.” Everything in US history is about the land—who oversaw and cultivated it, fished its waters, maintained its wildlife; who invaded and stole it; how it became a commodity (“real estate”) broken into pieces to be bought and sold on the market.
US policies and actions related to Indigenous peoples, though often termed “racist” or “discriminatory,” are rarely depicted as what they are: classic cases of imperialism and a particular form of colonialism—settler colonialism. As anthropologist Patrick Wolfe writes, “The question of genocide is never far from discussions of settler colonialism. Land is life—or, at least, land is necessary for life.”
The history of the United States is a history of settler colonialism— the founding of a state based on the ideology of white supremacy, the widespread practice of African slavery, and a policy of genocide and land theft. Those who seek history with an upbeat ending, a history of redemption and reconciliation, may look around and observe that such a conclusion is not visible, not even in utopian dreams of a better society.
Writing US history from an Indigenous peoples’ perspective requires rethinking the consensual national narrative. That narrative is wrong or deficient, not in its facts, dates, or details but rather in its essence. Inherent in the myth we’ve been taught is an embrace of settler colonialism and genocide. The myth persists, not for a lack of free speech or poverty of information but rather for an absence of motivation to ask questions that challenge the core of the scripted narrative of the origin story. How might acknowledging the reality of US history work to transform society? That is the central question this book pursues.
Teaching Native American studies, I always begin with a simple exercise. I ask students to quickly draw a rough outline of the United States at the time it gained independence from Britain. Invariably most draw the approximate present shape of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific—the continental territory not fully appropriated until a century after independence. What became independent in 1783 were the thirteen British colonies hugging the Atlantic shore. When called on this, students are embarrassed because they know better. I assure them that they are not alone. I call this a Rorschach test of unconscious “manifest destiny,” embedded in the minds of nearly everyone in the United States and around the world. This test reflects the seeming inevitability of US extent and power, its destiny, with an implication that the continent had previously been terra nullius, a land without people.
Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” celebrates that the land belongs to everyone, reflecting the unconscious manifest destiny we live with. But the extension of the United States from sea to shining sea was the intention and design of the country’s founders. “Free” land was the magnet that attracted European settlers. Many were slave owners who desired limitless land for lucrative cash crops. After the war for independence but preceding the writing of the US Constitution, the Continental Congress produced the Northwest Ordinance. This was the first law of the incipient republic, revealing the motive for those desiring independence. It was the blueprint for gobbling up the British-protected Indian Territory (“Ohio Country”) on the other side of the Appalachians and Alleghenies. Britain had made settlement there illegal with the Proclamation of 1763.
In 1801, President Jefferson aptly described the new settler-state’s intentions for horizontal and vertical continental expansion, stating: “However our present interests may restrain us within our own limits, it is impossible not to look forward to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits and cover the whole northern, if not the southern continent, with a people speaking the same language, governed in similar form by similar laws.” This vision of manifest destiny found form a few years later in the Monroe Doctrine, signaling the intention of annexing or dominating former Spanish colonial territories in the Americas and the Pacific, which would be put into practice during the rest of the century.
Origin narratives form the vital core of a people’s unifying identity and of the values that guide them. In the United States, the founding and development of the Anglo-American settler-state involves a narrative about Puritan settlers who had a covenant with God to take the land. That part of the origin story is supported and reinforced by the Columbus myth and the “Doctrine of Discovery.” According to a series of late-fifteenth-century papal bulls, European nations acquired title to the lands they “discovered” and the Indigenous inhabitants lost their natural right to that land after Europeans arrived and claimed it. As law professor Robert A. Williams observes about the Doctrine of Discovery:
Responding to the requirements of a paradoxical age of Re-
naissance and Inquisition, the West’s first modern discourses
of conquest articulated a vision of all humankind united
under a rule of law discoverable solely by human reason. Un-
fortunately for the American Indian, the West’s first tentative
steps towards this noble vision of a Law of Nations contained
a mandate for Europe’s subjugation of all peoples whose ra-
dical divergence from European-derived norms of right conduct
signified their need for conquest and remediation.
The Columbus myth suggests that from US independence onward, colonial settlers saw themselves as part of a world system of colonization. “Columbia,” the poetic, Latinate name used in reference to the United States from its founding throughout the nineteenth century, was based on the name of Christopher Columbus. The “Land of Columbus” was—and still is—represented by the image of a woman in sculptures and paintings, by institutions such as Columbia University, and by countless place names, including that of the national capital, the District of Columbia. The 1798 hymn “Hail, Columbia” was the early national anthem and is now used whenever the vice president of the United States makes a public appearance, and Columbus Day is still a federal holiday despite Columbus never having set foot on any territory ever claimed by the United States.
- The book trailer for An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States was the Shelf Awareness Book Trailer of the Day, 9/12/14
- An excerpt titled "Indian Wars" was featured on The Jacobian, 9/16/14
- "Greed is Good," an excert from An Indigenous People's History of the United States was featured in the online and print editions of This Land Press, 9/12/14
- Salon posted a long excerpt from An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, 10/13/14
- Book TV's taping of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's the BookPeople Bookstore event in Austin, TX is available here
- Truth-Out named An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States its "Progressive Pick of the Week" and posted about Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, the book, and the White House petition, 10/10/14
- The White House petition and An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States were featured in a Latin Post article about Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day, 10/11/14
- Listen to a Soapbox podcast featuring Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz here, 10/12/14
- Truthout featured a Q&A with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz in which she discusses historical figures who were propenents of Native American genocide, 10/19/14
- Laura Flanders of Grit TV interviewed Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on pre-colonial socialism, 10/14/14
- Listen to an interview with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on Wisconsin Public Radio, 10/24/14
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz was interviewed on Uprising Radio/KPFK on why her book isn't just a collective indigenous peoples' perspective but rather a "history of the United States," 11/5/14
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz was part of a Thanksgiving roundtable discussion on The Marc Steiner Show/WEAA, 11/26/14
- In an interview with Christy Thornton on WBAI/Pacifica, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz discusses the myth of Thanksgiving, 11/24/14