Raise your hand if you didn’t learn Indigenous history in school — or if you only learned a racist, white-centric, colonizer version of it. Infuriatingly, the prevalence of harmful myths about Native history is still far, far too common. In this comprehensive history of Native America, Ned Blackhawk adds his voice to the growing chorus of Indigenous scholars and historians who are fighting back against this erasure. — Laura Sackton, Book Riot
The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, as a new generation of scholars insists that any full U.S. history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of the modern United States.
Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century. In this transformative synthesis he shows that:
- European colonization in the 1600s was never a predetermined success;
- Native nations helped shape England’s crisis of empire;
- the first shots of the American Revolution were prompted by Indian affairs in the interior;
- California Indians targeted by federally funded militias were among the first casualties of the Civil War;
- the Union victory forever recalibrated Native communities across the West;
- twentieth-century reservation activists refashioned U.S. law and policy.
Blackhawk’s retelling acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account and revealing anew the varied meanings of the United States. [Adapted from publishers’ description.]
ISBN: 9780300276671 | Yale University Press
Courtesy of the publisher, check out the resources below.
Instructor’s Guide and Discussion Questions (PDF)
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