Roxanne Dunbar-OrtizAn Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning History)

Humanity has not changed over the last 5-10,000 years. When we settled down to become farmers, we produced more food than we consumed, and four ancient civilizations dominated humanity 5,000 years ago - Egypt, Sumer, India and China. Egyptians enslaved Jews and evolved through the Roman Empire that officially adopted christianity in 380ce and became the 2.3 billion Christians worldwide today by migrating westward to Europe and the Americas, along with Africa that is shared with Muslims (who evolved through the Sumer-Amorites-Hittites-Persians-Ottoman route).Roxanne's book is a descriptive look at the U.S. History that details the genocide of the Native Americans under a nicer label of ethnic cleansing today. The tactics, attitude, use of Christianity backed up by military force form the core of the Innovator World of Christians who focus a lot more on innovations than morality. To sustain humanity, we must balance innovations with morality reflected in the universally accepted golden rule: Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. Especially in this age of Internet, no one can continue to hide behind Hollywood fantasies and brainwash our children through education that do not reflect reality. This book is refreshing, detailed, and very descriptive (albeit depressing at times). The content is available in bits in pieces everywhere. This is among the first attempts I know that integrate the pieces together as they relate to Native Americans. There are still a few missing pieces like the 1529 Treaty of Zaragoza was a complement to the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas that defined the world as Spanish and Portuguese territory, only to encourage the innovative British empire to conceptualize a new type of entity called "company." The British East India Company started in 1600 partly to bypass the authority of the Pope, after they learned the tremendous wealth available in the New World especially after 1588 when the British defeated the Spanish Armada that was funded by the 20% royalty collected from all trades in the Americas. Native American history is an important piece of USA history as part of the global Christianity community component of the Christian, Muslim, Indian and Chinese communities that make up over 90% of humanity today and analyzed in the Moral Innovations framework.The key shortcoming of the book is what future actions to take. The last couple of pages address education, but descriptive education of the past is not enough. The value that should be taught to our children is to balance innovations with integrity by following the golden rule. There is too much of a disconnect if there is an abrupt introduction of a descriptive textbook of Native American history. It will take time and sustained effort to address and evaluate how USA must re-assess the push for global human rights when imperial USA abuses its own Native Americans who worked well with African American slaves during the civil war.USA is a great nation. It is driven by Protestant values and a core attribute is the American Dream which gives opportunities for the motivated to pursue success. This is becoming more difficult as the wealth gap widens. However, joining the pursuit of money by conforming to the abuse of fellow Native Americans should not be encouraged. Some schools teach tools of trade that ignores core values, but it is the core values such as moral innovations that sustain a great society like the USA.This book is a must read to start in that direction. Check out the blog moralinnovator.wordpress.com

I'm reading this book for an Indigenous Studies course. While the history is often difficult to take in, knowing the truth of the American origin story is paramount to progress of the present and the future. Dunbar-Ortiz is a brilliant writer, easy to follow. She does not impose her opinion, but offers the facts (that hopefully lead you to draw your own rational conclusions about this period of our history). This book will be one of the few course requirements that I keep in my personal library.

This is an excellent read and audible experience that helps lift the white sheets covering the truth to dispell the ‘official national narrative, which some may call American history. It gives one a sense of the cruelty of today’s American reality, domestically and globally, a sense of origin. Unfortunately, the core competence of the American culture is the ability to regionalization and make right the ugly words, deeds and actions that in some cases hides in plain sight and in others stand boldly for all to see. I read the book…then listened to it…filling a 100 page composition notebook with notes. Thanks to the authors.

Ms.Ortiz thank you for writing this book. An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States should be MANDATORY READING FOR ALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. The book gives us the TRUE history of AMERICA!!!!!

At the outset let me explain that this is my approach and may well not fit anyone else's POV.History is literally the written record of past events. So my feeling is that good history is a marshalling of the facts as they occurred. Not what someone today thinks they thought, but what they did. Of course, what people have written is from their POV, nobody else's. So a history depends for its value on how well documented or recorded it is. The historian can certainly draw conclusions, but those should be clearly labelled as such; the writer's opinion of what facts they have obtained. The facts themselves gain value only so far as they are properly documented. So why did I start with this statement? This book presents the native american experience from a POV that is clearly at odds with the average American's knowledge and experience. OK so that can be a very good thing. (I remember many decades ago reading "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and experiencing a serious reorientation of my attitude about US history. ) This book tries to go farther, but there are a lot of statements such as "settlers killed xx indian women and children" etc. that are not referenced. They may be absolutely factual, but how am I to judge, since no referencing is necessarily (the book actually has a lot more footnoting than many other history books I have read, to be sure) included, I recently read "The Pelopennisian War" and I appreciated that the author was at pains to indicate the different interpretations or spin that people have on some incidents and then made a case as to what is most probable. This approach lets me use my judgement on things. A book like the present example clearly has taken a side on just about everything; if you are going to do that you have to work harder to establish the facts. I prefer if people don't take this approach, rather, let the history inform the reader.There is another aspect that can be quite troublesome. I prefer that a historian, or someone who is clearly claiming to reflect history accurately, should cite "facts" and then provide whatever documentation one can. As opposed to stating a position or opinion and relentlessly repeating it as though that makes it more credible. The early part of this book contains a lot opinion stated as accepted fact that lean very hard on a Marxist or Socialist analysis. Sorry, then lable your book an op ed. I was close to dropping the book but luckily I did continue and there is a lot of good "food for thought" that follows.A specific example - the book repeatedly assails what it calls myths of US history. I think the opinions here are perhaps right on the mark and the points need to be taken. But care is needed I think. Attacking a belief system as mythological cuts both ways. "How the West was Won" (a movie made decades ago) promotes a myth that needs to be debunked. But there is also the myth of "the noble savage" in which all native americans had a higher level of culture than Europeans. Here is my take: Native Americans are/were just people, just like Europeans. Not better, not worse. In the history of the world the encounter of technologically superior cultures with other cultures has generally been a trail of tears. There is the irresistible temptation to claim that Native American societies were clearly better than any one else, that they have/had a superior philosopy and traits. Native Americans should not have been treated as they were, but not because they are/were superior but because there is a higher standard for treating any human beings.The history of Native Americans is a horror story that just keeps on going. But it undermines the story if one tries to shoehorn one's political/economic outlook onto that story. This book is good in that it helps correct our view of the past that has been reinforced by self serving myths. But it should not do the same thing itself, apparently justifying it because "our side was right or innocent", etc.So the book is worth reading, just don't stop after the first couple of chapters, and don't just accept statements as true because the side that is presented is more sympathetic.

It can be difficult to follow at times, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of the message. I’m glad I read this book.