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.