An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People

Dunbar-Ortiz stresses that Indigenous peoples are not just remnants of ancient civilizations who live on reservations. They are citizens of sovereign nations who fight to reclaim land after centuries of intrusions. This is crucial to understanding their historical perspective and current goals.

Although Indigenous nations did not have privatized land or written alphabets, they built great cities, governments with separation of powers, hydraulic agricultural systems, and works of art that rivaled those in Europe. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy maintained democratic institutions long before the United States Constitution. Indigenous stewardship of the land led to sustainable food and water, and they made treaties with neighbors with the expectation that both sides would honor them. This changes with the arrival of Europeans who viewed land as a commodity and warfare as a zero-sum game. From an Indigenous perspective, these were invasions in the way that Europeans frame conflicts with outside empires as invasions. To the Powhatan Confederacy, Pequot, and other nations, retaliating against settlements is necessary to protect their sovereignty. So is allying with foreign powers to curb the United States’ expansion.

Years of direct combat and irregular warfare strained Indigenous nations. Some, often a “client class” of elites, decided to adopt Western ways, including slavery and debt-building land equipment (101). This drove a wedge in the Muscogee between those who cooperated with U.S. agents and those like the Red Sticks that wanted to continue the fight. Regardless, the US often reneged on treaty obligations by encouraging squatters on the East Coast and settler revolts in Mexico and Hawai’i. Even after conquering the continent and beyond, the US continued to strip away land through allotment and termination policies.

The prayer-based Ghost Dance movement changed Indigenous resistance on two fronts. For one, the movement spread rapidly throughout reservations, encouraging unity among nations that the U.S. military feared. It also marked a shift toward nonviolent resistance. Pursuing legal options and activism, the Pueblo established a forum for regaining illegally taken lands, and Indigenous Alaskans removed segregationist policies. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was the first U.S. law to recognize tribal authority to self-govern. The National Indian Youth Council and activists of the 1960s used the legal system and provocative occupations to ensure access to hunting and fishing lands, improve reservation conditions, and expand awareness of Indigenous experiences.

The fight for Indigenous rights is now a global movement with recognition from the United Nations and non-Indigenous partners who want to correct injustices. The importance of the Standing Rock movement goes beyond the protest of a pipeline; it exposes how government and business interests continue to disregard these peoples. With social media and other outlets, Indigenous nations can present this evidence to the world without a filter. These are not the poverty-stricken peoples of terminal narratives. These are active citizens who are here to stay.

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People is disheartening or even upsetting for those who want to see the country as a positive force in the world. Even people who feel the U.S. is flawed but moving toward a more equal society may find challenges to their beliefs in this book. But it is important to understand how past injustice shapes policy today.

It is impossible to remove the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny from American history. The Doctrine of Discovery allowed settlers to view the “New World” as free land and the people in them as obstacles. Manifest Destiny, inspired by Calvinist doctrine, led American politicians to view expansion as necessary and inevitable, even if it meant wars and massacres. Both beliefs are informed by White supremacy, which distracts the lower White classes from their own poverty and at best sees Indigenous peoples as menial laborers. Missionaries and military-style boarding schools that beat students for practicing traditions led to broken families on the reservations—a self-fulfilling prophecy. Genocidal acts like the destruction of towns, forced removals, killing of noncombatants, and separation of children from families were all American policies at some point.

The remnants of these acts are everywhere: One of the earliest colonial seals is a near-naked Indigenous man asking for European help. The Second Amendment supported anti-Indigenous militias. Many state, county, and city names originate from the unique nations that first lived there. Dunbar-Ortiz writes that ideas like the Doctrine of Discovery are so prevalent that many people “don’t realize it is shaping their attitudes and actions,” which is evident in the Standing Rock protests (222).

Indigenous relations are also one of the earliest examples of U.S. foreign policy, which influences its current international affairs. For example, the U.S. positioned Muscogee who adopted colonizer values as “respectable” in contrast to the “outlaw” resistors (101). These allies often did not reflect the will of the people, and many were victims of debt traps. This dynamic continues to emerge in the 21st century, when the U.S. injects itself into a developing country’s conflict and supports the side that benefits America’s strategic interests.

The difference today is that Indigenous peoples can communicate their side of events outside of traditional media and partner with other Indigenous nations and non-Indigenous allies. Quoting Native historian Jack Forbes, Dunbar-Ortiz states that society is a product of the past. Unless today’s citizens acknowledge the pain their ancestors caused, they can’t resolve these conflicts.