An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

"Buffalo were dark rich clouds moving upon the rolling hills and plains of America. And then flashing steel came upon bone and flesh."

Simon J. Ortiz

"U.S. people are taught that their military culture does not approve of or encourage targeting and killing civilians an know little or nothing about the nearly three centuries of warfare-before and after the founding of the U.S.- that reduced the Indigenous peoples of the continent to a few reservations by burning their towns and fields and killing civilians, driving the refugees out-step by step- across the continent... [V]iolence directed systematically against noncombatants through irregular means, from the start, has been a central part of the Americans' way of war"

John Grenier

Guiding people down the Animas River every summer, we take them down to the take out at Basin Creek on the Southern Ute Reservation. This information often leads to some interesting questions: like "How do the Indians have such nice places on the river?" and "Will there be people selling jewelry when we get out?" These questions always shocked me. They showed not only a general racism, but ignorance for the state of the country and its history. The degree to which Manifest destiny is ingrained into the general psyche of the American public and the ignorance that surrounds the indigenous nations that we share the land mass with is astounding. And I found that I was also ignorant.

Scott and Kirbie recommended An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, to me and the book has blown away several preconceive notions that I have had, and has shown me all of the gaps that there have been in my American history lessons. I had known vaguely of the crimes: the massacre at Wounded Knee, the small-pox infested blankets, the broken treaties, and the genocidal tendencies our country has had in the past. What I knew was just the tip of the iceberg of a lesson that everyone should know in the United States.

In An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Dunbar-Ortiz re-frames the history of the United States, showing it through the lens of settler-colonialism. This was fascinating because our history makes so much more sense when told through this lens. The original thirteen colonies colonized the rest of the continent once they gained Independence from Britain. This spread westward was viewed as manifest destiny, spreading into an empty land, when it was really an invasion, war, and genocide of many different indigenous peoples' who had been living in the Americas for centuries.

One of the most fascinating things about the book was examining how the U.S. military developed its policies in direct response to the wars and how those policies shape military operations today. We have Apache helicopters and Tomahawk missiles, enemy territory is still referred to as "Indian Territory" (which sounds to me like a very insensitive racial slur). The tactics of "counterinsurgency" that are used in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are tactics that were perfected in the Indian wars of the 19th century. The style of all out war is one of genocide, yet the whole world would be offended if the Germans named there helicopters and missiles Jews and gypsies after WWII. This is the style that we have been using in foreign wars.

The level of propaganda, and general forgetfulness of the general public with these events, astounded me. I knew that it went on, but never to the level that it did. Take scalping, for instance. Growing up, and watching westerns, it was always something that Indians did to Anglo's. However, it was actually something that was done by settlers moving west to the Indians, and there were rewards for the scalps. This was a technique that was taken from the British who originally used it as a was to encourage the genocide of the Irish during the British conquest and occupation of Ireland. How did we ever get these switched around. How did we manage to project these atrocious actions and offenses that were committed by the oppressors onto the oppressed? This baffles me and leads to a large feeling of shame.

I am very ashamed of the history of my country. I am ashamed of my country currently. To benefit from a system of oppression, whether or not one is aware of it, is to be complicit in it. And there still are systems in place that are systematically oppressing the Indigenous Peoples' of America, and still movements to pass legislation to further oppress them. I think part of the reason that we never hear about this is because of the cultural guilt we feel and it is so much easier to to put complicated and negative emotions out of sight, out of mind. This attitude wont fix anything though, and the ignorance spread because of it just encourages the stereotyping and racism.

I think that everyone should read this book. The first step in any problem is acknowledging that the problem exists and becoming educated about the complicated issue. I know that I still have much to learn, but I hope that by learning and spreading what I know we can begin to address the system of oppression of the Indigenous Peoples' of the Americas and have productive conversations about how we can remedy the injustices. This is hard, this issue is complicated and has many different sides. But hopefully we can open the lines of communication and the thought process and work towards something better. 

Wampeters, Foma & Granfallons

"Fiction is melody and journalism, new or old, is noise"

Kurt Vonnegut

Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons

I love Vonnegut's novels, I figured I should give his non-fiction a try. This collection was wonderful. There were several themes that were repeated through out all of them, and the prose was just as wonderful as in his novels. It read just like his novels, the voice was the same. I thought this was a wonderful collection, and just like all of the other Vonnegut I have read, it is just as relevant now as it was when it was originally published.

The title was explained in the prologue, and I think these are words that should be used more in real life. "A wampeter is an object around which the lives of many otherwise unrelated people may revolve. The Holy Grail would be a case in point. Foma are harmless untruths, intended to comfort simple souls. An example: 'Prosperity is just around the corner.' A granfallon is a proud and meaningless association of human beings." These words definitely cover the scope of the collection.

I think some of my favorite pieces were ones where he talks about the reasons we have certain prejudices, and the ungracious untruths that are told to the youth. We have a growing distrust of the police because they tried to enforce pointless laws during prohibition and we distrust the military because we couldn't believe in the illusion of the 'innocent soldier boy' after Vietnam. The youth is angry because there's no happy illusion of a better future, and bitter because we are expected to fix the problems when we don't owe the world anything. The world doesn't owe anything to us.

These were wonderful. I especially liked his speeches. I wish that speeches like those were given at my graduation instead of the political rhetoric that has been presented in recent years. I wish there was more thought towards morality instead of votes. From what I've heard a lot of people my age feel the same. I highly recommend this collection. 

Cedar Mesa

There's nothing like a bit of good nature writing to cheer you up when you are down. I'm sure that everyone on the world now knows, rafting on the Animas river was illeg
al for ten days due to a EPA induced spill from an abandoned mine up Cement Creek. The river turned orange and I became a melancholy outlaw, but I gained quite a bit of time to read. So I read a piece of nature writing that is about an area that is not to far from Durango, though it is a place that I have never been: Cedar Mesa.

Cedar Mesa, by David Petersen, describes parts of Cedar Mesa and Comb Wash, the geology, ecology, and some of the history of the area (there were ancestral-Puebloans in the area from approximately 1-1400 AD, after which they disappeared from the area for largely unknown reasons). Petersen also tells us some tales of his experiences in Cedar Mesa, from close encounters with a Puma, to a long hike up Owl Creek with a friend. I like his stories, they're funny and thoughtful.

He also talks about Natural Bridges National Monument, and the way that tourists are often permanently attached to their cars in the southwest. This is something that both worries me, but makes me happy. If they are attached to their cars, it keeps the back country trails uncrowded, and keeps the wilderness much more wild. I'm worried, however, that every year the roads will push farther into the back country in an effort to bring new things to the table. I hope that this doesn't ever happen. I believe that you have to work a little, walk a little, for the rewards of the wilderness.

I liked this book. The prose was beautiful, his stories poetic. There were a few points in the book where you could tell that Petersen was trying to emulate the writing style of Ed Abbey, to which I say: Don't. He did it best and no one will ever be able to write the way that he did ever again. It was a very educational read. I learned a few things about the desert, and I spend quite a bit of time there. All in all, a very enjoyable book.

The Opposite of Loneliness

"We don't have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that's what I want in life."

Marina Keegan

The Opposite of Loneliness

This book took me completely by surprise. It was one that had been on the best seller shelf at Maria's for quite some time. People had said that "It was a bunch of stories about a girl who died," or "a collection of writings by a girl who died." The "died" was always emphasized, and I pushed it off to the side because I find there are enough dead girls in literature. What I found, upon picking this book up, that while this collection was published after the author of the pieces died, the pieces themselves were a commentary on life, as were the introduction, dedication, and epilogue written by teachers, parents, and friends who obviously missed her. 

The Opposite of Loneliness is an amazing literary collection. It consists of short stories and non-fiction essays, and both are wonderful. The short stories ranged between several different subjects, from breakups, to managing adoption, to getting a tattoo that supposedly means "Inner resolve and outer peace, a general levelheadedness and tranquility" but actually means "soybean" in Chinese, to a group of people trapped in a sub at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. What they had in common is that they were all wonderful. They had a wonderful range, well developed characters, had wonderful flow and intrigue. I know that I would have loved to see some of them developed into novels some day. 

The essays were equally wonderful. They asked hard and thought provoking questions, for example why we are much more willing to help whales than people, or will the human race die off if we don't find a way to someday leave Earth, as well as offering personal and touching stories of how both her and her mother experienced and dealt with her Celiac's  disease and how she felt about her approaching graduation from Yale. They were eloquent and thought provoking, and unbelievably fresh. 

I loved this collection. I think that anyone between the ages of 18-26 should read it. It's inspirational, beautiful, and feels infinitely personal (at least it did to me). I also think that everyone 26 and up should read it. It's a wonderful reminder that we can achieve anything we want, that we should never settle, and that it is never to late to start over. This collection was magnificent.

 

Burn Girl

It's not often you find a book that is set in Durango, so when Burn Girl, by Mandy Mikulencak, came out I jumped at the chance to read it. And I'm very glad I did. The YA novel is about a girl named Arlie, who has a large burn scar on her face from a meth lab explosion when she was young. She and her mother fled an abusive step-father to Durango, where they live a life on the fringe. When Arlie's mom dies of an overdose, Arlie's uncle moves to town and becomes her guardian. This normalcy forces Arlie to deal with normal teen drama's, but then someone from the past shows up and puts her new life into jeopardy.

I really liked this book. The characters were convincing, and it was an interesting look at how addiction can be handled in families and what recovery can sometimes look like. The story was fast-paced, and extremely entertaining: I couldn't put it down. It was also neat to read a book set in a place that I see every day, the parks and motels (the shadier places in the book had their names changed, but you can kinda tell what they were based off of), the high school (she even had the lunch breaks right). I really liked this book, a good YA story based along the same lines as Crank, this is a great book.

The Corpse Exhibition

"My friend, there is something stranger that death-to look at the world, which is looking at you, but without any gesture or understanding or even purpose, as though you and the world are united in blindness, like silence and loneliness. And there is something a little stranger than death: a man and a woman playing in a bed, and then you come, just you, you who always miswrite the story of your life."

Hassan Blasim

The Corpse Exhibition

This was an extremely interesting read, especially right after Redeployment. It is a collection of short stories set in Iraq. This was fascinating. These past two books have really brought my own ignorance to light more than I would ever like to admit, but I really don't know that much about Iraq as a country. I know that it is a young country, it became independent from the British Mandate in 1921, but also a very old place. Mesopotamia was the first ancient society I remember learning about as a small child. And it was a grand society at that, after all, the phrase "an eye for an eye" seems like common knowledge. I knew that it was predominantly Muslim, though demographically there are many different sects and tribes.

What I didn't know was that the country has been at war more than they have been peace. And this isn't war like the United States has been at war, occupying other countries. For them it has been War at home. The First Kurdish Iraqi War ended in 1970, the Second Kurdish Iraqi War in '74 and '75, the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-1988, the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the U.S. invasion in 2003 and its occupation until 2013, and the civil war that has ensued sense then. This has been a country with a violent recent history. 

The stories in the Corpse Exhibition were dark, and poignant. They looked into what life was like for people in Iraq in stories that I could place from the Iran-Iraq war up to the present. They were wonderfully written, and there was a mystical feel to the collection that I really liked. Some of the stories were narrated by those who had died, others talked about day to day life, while a few had a fantastical quality to them. I especially liked the story about the man who fell in the "hole" and met a Jinni, and the tale about the family who could make knives disappear but had a very hard time making them reappear. 

There was a of death in the stories, and they often touched on themes of how chaotic and meaningless death is, especially in a war where so many are dying. In Redeployment, the soldiers are often trying to make sense of death, to find a way to have control over it. In the Corpse Exhibition death is often talked about as just another facet of life that there is little control of anyways. While the sadness associated with it is just as poignant and heartfelt, the actual concept of death seems less personal in Corpse Exhibition. I thought this was extremely interesting.

I really enjoyed this book. Poignant, dark, I highly recommend it.

Redeployment

"I guess the Sergeant Major, like most people, needed death to be sensible. A reason for each casualty. I'd seen the same feeble theodicy at funerals in the civilian world. If lung disease, the deceased should be a smoker. If heart disease, a lover of red meat. Some sort of causality, no matter how tenuous, to sanitize it. As if mortality is a game with rules where the universe is rational and the God watching over maneuvers us like chess pieces. His fingers deep into the sides of the world."

Phil Klay

Redeployment

Before I read this book, I didn't know what the term "redeployment" meant. Which is really silly, I think. My country has been in two wars for more than half of my life, there have been roughly three million service tours, and roughly five thousand soldiers have died from 2004-2014. Yet I know so little about the conflict. I was fourteen when we invaded Iraq. I remember some of the political rhetoric, some of the stats. I remember when friends enlisted and deployed. But it's something I don't know much about. It's not something Americans seem to think about on a daily basis as anything more than the amount of money we are spending, and the stereotypes and judgement that surround the area. When I picked up  this book, I though that redeployment meant being sent back over, deployed for a second or third time. It turns out that redeployment is what happens when the soldiers come home. 

Redeployment, by Phil Klay, is a collection of short stories describing what happens to soldiers when they come home and try to resume daily life. They are poignant, sometimes, dark, heart wrenching, and extremely well written.And they deal with things I've never really thought about, things I've never had to deal with. From having to deal with putting down your old dog weeks after returning in the cover story, to the stories of the men preparing the fallen for their own redeployment, each story made me think. 

These are things that I think we really need to think about, or things that are not thought about enough. So much I feel that the war has been swept under a rug, or its put into a box with specific labeling. I'm not really interested in the politics surrounding it. The "do you believe in the war" and all that. I was too young and misinformed to have a well formed opinion when it began, and for a large part of it. I want to take a careful look at the effects, and the effects from both sides. I've known a couple of soldiers who returned from active duty. One resumed his life, got married again, had more kids. Another went back in. And another had a bad time of it, made some mistakes. The culture shock in addition to the traces of what had happened is something that I don't think we can ever fully understand. But I think its something that we need to try to.

 I would love to hear from any vets who have read the book, hear what they thought.  I thought the book was amazing. The writing was phenomenal, there was a distinct voice from the narrator in each story, and the storytelling was brilliant. I think what I loved the most about this book, though, was that it didn't overlook the dead. They still had stories, and their deaths effected others as they went through their own redeployment. These topics are important. And I hope we see them talked about more, and in such an eloquent way, in the future.    

The Nightingale

"In love we find out who we want to be, in war we find out who we are."

Kristen Hannah

The Nightingale

Every once in a while there's a novel that just makes you so attached to the characters, that draws you into the story so completely, and that makes you have these feelings. The Book Thief was one, All the Light You Cannot See was another. With such wonderful prose and compelling stories that paint a world so complete that you can't help but miss the characters after you have finished the book. The Nightingale is such a book.

The story follows two sisters in France at the beginning of World War II. Isabelle and Vianne are scarred from their mothers death and their fathers abandonment, and as the war comes to France they find themselves reacting to the atrocities committed in vastly different ways. Vianne works hard to protect her family, while Isabelle joins the resistance. Throughout the war their wills are tested, and the sisters do what they can to survive.

This book was beautiful. I loved it. I loved the characters, especially Isabella. I loved the way Kristen Hannah wrote. I loved how feminist the book was, with two strong female characters who were both extremely strong in different ways, with different passions and values. I loved that the men in the book never told them not to be strong, or that they couldn't do something. This is one of those books that I couldn't put down once I started and left me crying at the end. It was sad. But so incredibly worth it. This is a novel that I highly recommend!!!

Bluebeard

"We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."

Dr. Mark Vonnegut, M.D.

"That was an ordinary way for a patriotic American to talk back then. It's hard to believe how sick of war we used to be. We used to boast of how small our Army and Navy were, and how little influence generals and admirals had in Washington. We used to call armaments manufacturers "Merchants of Death.

Can you imagine that?"

Kurt Vonnegut

Bluebeard

The more I read of Vonnegut, the more I see of him in his main characters, especially in his books that deal with war. Bluebeard follows the story of Rabo Karabekian, an Abstract Expressionist painter, who just wants to be left alone in his home on Long Island with all of his secrets locked away in a potato barn. One day a sexy, young widow appears and badgers him into writing his autobiography. Rabo writes of his life, how his parents came to America as refugees in the heart of the Great Depression, why he went to war and what he saw there, and what his life was after. 

Bluebeard was amazing. The way Vonnegut balances the creative act of art with the extremely destructive act of war to paint a picture of how we live with the things that we do, and how we live with the survivors guilt that accompanies truly dark events. I really liked this book. I really liked the commentary on war and art, living and dying. I liked how personal it felt, and how vivid the story was. I love his writing style, and I highly recommend

this book to anyone.