An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (ReVisioning History Book 3)

excellent reference that supports the global moral innovation framework
Humanity has not changed over the last 5-10,000 years. When we settled down to become farmers, we produced more food than we consumed, and four ancient civilizations dominated humanity 5,000 years ago – Egypt, Sumer, India and China. Egyptians enslaved Jews and evolved through the Roman Empire that officially adopted christianity in 380ce and became the 2.3 billion Christians worldwide today by migrating westward to Europe and the Americas, along with Africa that is shared with Muslims (who evolved through the Sumer-Amorites-Hittites-Persians-Ottoman route).Roxanne’s book is a descriptive look at the U.S. History that details the genocide of the Native Americans under a nicer label of ethnic cleansing today. The tactics, attitude, use of Christianity backed up by military force form the core of the Innovator World of Christians who focus a lot more on innovations than morality. To sustain humanity, we must balance innovations with morality reflected in the universally accepted golden rule: Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. Especially in this age of Internet, no one can continue to hide behind Hollywood fantasies and brainwash our children through education that do not reflect reality. This book is refreshing, detailed, and very descriptive (albeit depressing at times). The content is available in bits in pieces everywhere. This is among the first attempts I know that integrate the pieces together as they relate to Native Americans. There are still a few missing pieces like the 1529 Treaty of Zaragoza was a complement to the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas that defined the world as Spanish and Portuguese territory, only to encourage the innovative British empire to conceptualize a new type of entity called “company.” The British East India Company started in 1600 partly to bypass the authority of the Pope, after they learned the tremendous wealth available in the New World especially after 1588 when the British defeated the Spanish Armada that was funded by the 20% royalty collected from all trades in the Americas. Native American history is an important piece of USA history as part of the global Christianity community component of the Christian, Muslim, Indian and Chinese communities that make up over 90% of humanity today and analyzed in the Moral Innovations framework.The key shortcoming of the book is what future actions to take. The last couple of pages address education, but descriptive education of the past is not enough. The value that should be taught to our children is to balance innovations with integrity by following the golden rule. There is too much of a disconnect if there is an abrupt introduction of a descriptive textbook of Native American history. It will take time and sustained effort to address and evaluate how USA must re-assess the push for global human rights when imperial USA abuses its own Native Americans who worked well with African American slaves during the civil war.USA is a great nation. It is driven by Protestant values and a core attribute is the American Dream which gives opportunities for the motivated to pursue success. This is becoming more difficult as the wealth gap widens. However, joining the pursuit of money by conforming to the abuse of fellow Native Americans should not be encouraged. Some schools teach tools of trade that ignores core values, but it is the core values such as moral innovations that sustain a great society like the USA.This book is a must read to start in that direction. Check out the blog moralinnovator.wordpress.com

An Inconvenient Historical Truth
(This book is also available with the subtitle “For Young Readers” and is a condensed version with easier terminology and definitions)-Dunbar paints a rather gruesome, factual, inconvenient picture of US history as it impacted the tribes, nations, culture, societies that existed in the Americas prior to white European entry. She emphasizes the point that Europeans did NOT “discover” the continent (since millions of natives were already in the Americas). (Of course one could claim that the continent was a discovery for Europeans, but the former concept, according to the author, is what premises the “manifest destiny” concept to justify European conquest of the land and extermination of the natives.) There may be times that Dunbar overstates the conquest, but the fact of annihilation of natives is certainly an inconvenient truth and is compared to the Hebrew conquest of the Canaanite lands in biblical texts.-p 25 Before Europeans, America was occupied by millions of natives. “Each indigenous nation or city-state or town comprised an independent, self-governing people that held supreme authority over internal affairs and dealt with other peoples on equal footing. Among the factors that integrated each nation, in addition to language, were shared belief systems and rituals and clans of extended families that spanned more than one town. The system of decision making was based on consensus, not majority rule. This form of decision making baffled colonial agents who could not find Indigenous officials to bribe or manipulate.” In governance, for some groups the male elder was the executive. In other groups like Muskogees, there were 3 branches: 1) civil administration, 2) military, 3) sacred. The Haudenosaunee had “Great Law of Peace” which inspired essential parts of the US Constitution, (though Dunbar does not say exactly which parts but one may conclude it is also the US 3 branches of government.) And they also had 3 principles: 1) Peace, 2) equity and Justice, and 3) to be of one mind, unity. The point is that Indigenous groups had a thriving society and governance among themselves and thus can’t be written off as heathen, savages, p 26. “By the time of the European invasions, Indigenous peoples had occupied and shaped every part of the Americas, established extensive trade networks and roads, and were sustaining their populations by adapting to specific natural environments, but they also adapted nature to suit human ends,” which was by using fire to their advantage for example to burn undergrowth to foster more growth or to better manage deer populations for hunting, p 27. William Cronon notes that natives were: “…harvesting a foodstuff which they had consciously been instrumental in creating” in terms of buffalo and plants, and “Native Americans created the world’s largest gardens and grazing lands—and thrived. Native peoples left an indelible imprint on the land with system of roads that tied nations and communities together across the entire landmass of the Americas” which were used by settlers and at times became current modern highways p 28-9. (i.e. US 12 in S. MI from Detroit to Chicago—the Saulk trail). “North America in 1492 was not a virgin wilderness but a network of Indigenous nations, peoples of the corn”. Corn and squash were staple vegetables for many and corn was a sacred gift of an ancestral “corn woman”, p 30.

There are many stories about black people in America in this book. The white people really hurt them during the civil war. I feel bad for them. Decent book. Also they killed all the Natives but thats how you rule countries.

Excellent