Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Knihy

Today, over five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations in the United States represent nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native individuals who once lived here. The long-standing genocidal actions of the US settler-colonial regime have largely been excluded from historical accounts. Acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz presents a history of the United States from the Indigenous perspective, illustrating how Native Americans have resisted the expansion of the US empire for centuries. With increasing support for movements like replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, this work serves as a vital resource for understanding contemporary issues. Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the foundational myths of the United States, revealing that policies against Indigenous peoples were colonialist, aimed at seizing their territories and displacing or eliminating them. These policies were often celebrated in popular culture by figures such as James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and endorsed at the highest levels of government and military. The genocidal policy reached its peak under President Andrew Jackson, with US Army General Thomas S. Jesup infamously stating that the Seminoles could only be eradicated through extermination. Spanning over four centuries, this history reframes the narrative of the United States and addresses the silences

Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the U.S. settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture and in the highest offices of government and the military. Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples' history radically reframes U.S. history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.

"Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US's history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today. She explains that the idea that we are living in a land of opportunity - founded and built by immigrants - was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover, Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good - but inaccurate - story promotes a benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception. While some of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, others are descendants of white settlers who arrived as colonizers to displace those who were here since time immemorial, and still others are descendants of those who were kidnapped and forced here against their will. This paradigm shifting new book charges that we need to stop believing and perpetuating this simplistic and ahistorical idea and embrace the real (and often horrific) history of the United States"--Publisher's description

2020 American Indian Youth Literature Young Adult Honor Book 2020 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People,selected by National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Children’s Book Council 2019 Best-Of Lists: Best YA Nonfiction of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · Best Nonfiction of 2019 (School Library Journal) · Best Books for Teens (New York Public Library) · Best Informational Books for Older Readers (Chicago Public Library) Spanning more than 400 years, this classic bottom-up history examines the legacy of Indigenous peoples’ resistance, resilience, and steadfast fight against imperialism. Going beyond the story of America as a country “discovered” by a few brave men in the “New World,” Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity. The original academic text is fully adapted by renowned curriculum experts Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include discussion topics, archival images, original maps, recommendations for further reading, and other materials to encourage students, teachers, and general readers to think critically about their own place in history.

The book delves into the origins of the United States as a settler state, emphasizing its unique economic foundation based on land sales and enslaved labor. It critiques both liberal and rightwing narratives that misrepresent the colonization process, arguing that they uphold a misleadingly benign view of American history. The text highlights the violent conquest of Indigenous lands and the role of early settlers in this process, while also addressing themes of self-indigenization and historical erasure related to settler colonialism and white supremacy.