The People who, lived on this land were not American Indians, until The white man called them that, They had their own, identiti
581158
I did not think at,that time of the story The American Indian, Was all that concerned about silver as a wealth, but I imagine the knew the White , man's obsession, for the silver,
3113673
When one's world is not what they believe it is!

 Then to find out they are part of bigger movement through time, without their own consent!!
4482900
White takes a refreshingly sympathetic approach to talking about human influences on the land. He talks about both American Indians and white settlers that makes them seem real and relevant to today and gives them credit for being real, thinking people. A welcome change from many books.
567152
From the cover: This book begins with a description of the New England Indian and how he lived for centuries before the arrival of the white man. It then goes on to pinpoint the fate of specific Connecticut tribes, after the Dutch and English arrived, a fate which reduced their numbers until only 123 pure-blooded Indians remain in the state today (c. 1972).
3792153
It is an excellent history of how immigrants assimilated. All were called "genetically inferior" to start, but were able to shed those labels.
3626924
Since the earliest contacts the Papago, now known as Tohono O'odham, occupied the Sonoran Desert living in both Sonora, Mexico and Arizona. No real border existed for them and intermarriage was common.
When "border security" became an issue in recent times, the Sonoran O'odham had difficulties visiting or living with their Arizona relatives, friends.
In this short plea, written by O'odham tribal members, the case is made for allowing the O'odham to be considered as one nation, which they clearly are, so that the customary contacts can be maintained.
Anyone interested in border issues should be aware of this document.
ernestschusky.com
4235601
Awesome book, it shows the horrible reality of the European and immigrant white Americans move into the Native american frontier, in a 1st person dialogue.  The speaker is what he is, flaws and all.  He doesn't hate the American Indians, but lives in the world of the white invasion.  If you want "politically correct," this is not for you.  It's a novelized recon of one figure in early America.  It got me and my Gramps onto Louis Lamour. A preview of Dances with Wolves.  Possibly an inspiration?
4964176
The Quapaw Spook Light is not anything to do with White People. It was here before they were and it is a Native Story. It was there before Inns, cars or europeans. The Osage and Quapaws saw it and also Cherokees on the Trail of Tears. Stop stealing our stories and changing them. That is culture theft.
878005
In The Legacy of Conquest, Patricia Nelson Limerick puts forth her thesis that the conquest of the Trans-Mississippi West is an ongoing economically driven process.  Focusing on the West as a physical place rather than a mythic ideal, the author demonstrates how the frontier never closed and that the conquest continues to this day.  The book looks at the conquerors of the West and the obstacles they face from Native peoples, westward expansion, immigration, and government interference or the lack thereof.  Those coming west did not come with the idea of destroying the land or the Indians, but with the hope of economic improvement and opportunity.
 Few people coming west concerned themselves with the Native Americans whose land they began to occupy.  Farmers, ranchers, and miners seeking wealth worried more about their own survival than the survival of Indians.  Many pioneers portrayed themselves as victims when their dreams of wealth came face to face with the reality of grasshopper plagues, overgrazed ranges, and barren mines.  This self-victimization continues to this day with these same groups decrying government waste while asking for subsidies.  However, some who came to the west did become true victims.
 Some of those who came west in an attempt to make their fortune mining ended up working in the mines of large companies or working other low paying jobs.  Those who worked in the mines put themselves in grave danger everyday.  With no safety regulations and labor laws that blamed workers for their injuries, mining was one of the deadliest occupations.  Attempts to unionize Mineworkers led to mine owners using violence and murder to dissuade union membership.  Many who worked the mines immigrated from England and Ireland.  These European immigrants, while low on the class scale, were not as low as those who came from a different ethnic background.
 Non-white immigrants all faced similar experiences.  Chinese immigrants, hoping to improve their lives, faced hostility from all sides.  Local and state governments barred them from living in certain areas, bringing over their families, and working in all but the most menial and dangerous of occupations.  Mexicans and Latinos who came to work in agriculture faced constant harassment and persecution that continues to this day.  The idea that an immigrant is taking a job from an American plays a large part in anti-immigration movements to this day.  Unfortunately, most who oppose immigration refuse to realize that the jobs immigrants perform are ones that most Americans consider to menial or low paying to perform.  Limerick's weaving of the past and present together shows how the problems of the Old West are still with us today.
 The author does an excellent job of examining the past problems of the West and showing how they are unresolved.  Arguments between ranchers and the federal government persist over grazing fees.  Farmers receive payments for not growing certain crops.  Mining laws allow companies to buy land for a shockingly low price and strip it of its mineral worth and beauty.  Native Americans, pushed onto reservations, are now suing for the enforcement of past treaties.  Limerick shows the irony of the attitude of the West in pushing the federal government away with one hand while reaching for a handout with the other.
 While The Legacy of Conquest is highly recommended to students of American history, it does have its flaws.  The author overuses metaphor in the early chapters of the book, making it read more like an opinion piece than a historical one.  The author's inclusion of the Mormon Church's problems seems forced and does not belong in a book about the economically driven conquest of the American West.  Limerick also uses a non-chronological approach that may bother some readers.  However, the author does an excellent job at combining primary and secondary sources into an interesting book.  Despite some minor problems, Limerick shows that while the appearance of the West changes the conquest of the West continues.
672806
Sally Morgan writes from the heart as she explores her family's hidden Aboriginal history in a book that spares no punches.  My Place is all about identity and what racism and prejudice can do to a people.  The white  settlers who colonized Australia have systematically tried to bury the  Aboriginal people and their way of life but somehow against all odds they  have survived, and people like Sally Morgan are standing up to be counted  as the descendants lost tribes of mixed race people who were never given a  chance to choose who they wanted to live with.  Sally Morgan writes with  startling clarity as she describes her childhood with her half Aboriginal  Grandmother who would never admit to being native, and often told her  Grandchildren to lay claim to an Indian heritage rather than admit the  truth.  Sally's Grandmother's fears lay deep within her own childhood when  she was taken away from her mother, and it was this fear she passed onto  Sally's mother who was three quarter's white.  Both women were terrified of  white authority and the power it had to tear families apart.  My Place is a  haunting, true story of one woman's search for her roots in a country that  saw Aboriginal blood as a taint rather than a celebration.  We need more  books like this on our bookshelves, and even more people to read them...
4854513
Okay, I am part Cherokee.  But have just recently became more interested on how I got here (currently Northwest Arkansas).  Now I know.  But I did not know all of the background history and behind-the-scenes schemes that were going on to bring my family here.  It is a sad story about a naked land grab.  Everyone used nuance to their advantage but ultimately Cherokees trusted the courts and the courts acted, in some cases, without power.  It is an old story.  Powerful forces with Jackson's involvement stole thousands of acres of Indian land.  The story is interesting, the writing good and the facts powerful.  It is not what most people think and I am amazed at the ignorance many have about "my people" who were often living better than their non-Indian neighbors.  Fortunately the government was less greedy with Oklahoma and many Indians elected to stop or stay in Arkansas (where others had been for some time).  It is a great history and a good read.
2768307
The one major problem I as a Native American have with this book was that the author wrote that the original Native American Indians of Hetch Hetchy were Miwoks. The truth is that they were not the original Indians of Hetch Hetchy OR Yosemite. In the book he writes the story of the Screech Brothers who were the first Non-Indians to settle the area, but the Screech Brothers said that the owners of Hetch Hetchy were Paiutes and not Miwoks. The Miwoks came up as workers for the whites from the valley floor and the foothills. They were not indigenous to the high Sierra Nevada. The Paiutes and the "Big Creek Indians" had a battle over Hetch Hetchy and the Paiutes retained ownership over Hetch Hetchy Valley. Up until Hetch Hetchy was flooded the only Indians recorded entering Hetch Hetchy were Paiutes and not Miwoks. There are even photos taken by C. Hart Merriam of Paiutes returning from gathering acorns from Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Another thing, the Central Miwoks never entered Yosemite Valley. It was the Southern Sierra Miwuks who gave the name of Yosemite the name "Yosemite" which in their langauge means "The Killers". Now why would Miwoks call the people who lived in Yosemite Valley "The Killers"? That is because the original Indians of Yosemite were Paiutes and the docile Miwoks were afraid of them. If you read Dr. Lafayette H. Bunnell's book, which the author quoted, he would've read that when James Savage, the leader of the Mariposa Battalion, captured Chief Tenaya he said that Chief Tenaya spoke Paiute. Plus here is something most historians don't know, because they don't do their research, but James Savage could speak Miwok, because he married many Miwok women and had Miwoks working for him. They were even his scouts. But Savage could not speak to Tenaya because Tenaya spoke Paiute. Bunnell also wrote that Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Paiute Colony of Ahwahnee,and that his band of Ahwahnees were mainly Paiutes and Monos. Bunnell also wrote that the Paiutes hid out in a "northern valley just like Yosemite", which is Hetch Hetchy. Not once did Bunnell write that Tenaya's band was Miwok...not once. Tenaya was born at Mono Lake, which is a Paiute area. No other tribal group could go into the area of the war-like Paiutes without being attacked. Also during that time Miwoks and Paiutes were warring...so the Yosemite Miwoks are a myth. There were none. Only Yosemite Paiutes and Hetch Hetchy was their home and owned by Paiutes.

So you see the "battle over Hetch Hetchy" was going on way before the whites entered the area. So please write the truth and do your research and give the Paiutes the credit they deserve. Also the rock writings are "Great Basin". Which means Paiute.

For years "historians" have been getting it wrong and the Paiutes have suffered for years because they lost the battle with the encroaching white miners, who flooded the sierra nevada, with their Miwok workers.
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The Menomini are one of a few tribes in the United States who have managed to maintain their original homeland. First contacted by explorer and fur trader Nicolet in 1634, they were peaceful food collectors (especially wild rice) who managed to avoid much further contact for two hundred and fifty years. Then Walter Hoffman<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Mide-wiwin-Grand-Medicine-Society-of-the-Ojibway/dp/1410222969/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Mide'wiwin: Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibway</a>&nbsp;published an ethnography that revealed much about their religious beliefs as well as their social organization. (A moiety or dual division with subdivisions of patrilineal clans)
Not long after this revelation, the Menomini came under intense pressure from the government to relocate in Minnesota. They were familiar with the land because it was part of their hunting territory, and they wanted nothing to do with it. Aided by a few sympathetic whites, they were able to resist and presently live on a small reservation that is a remnant of their former land.
Kessing's work greatly expands on what Hoffman did, and its most important contribution is to lay out a model of acculturation and show how the Menomini fit the model as their culture has changed over a three hundred year period.
The work is essential for anyone interested in culture change theory and of course for students of the Menomini.
ernestschusky.com
3222935
Being from the area in question and having grown up around Reelfoot Lake I am well aware of all the stories of fiction that explain the formation of such a beautiful place.  I felt that Jay Fellman did an excellent job of putting the reader into the actual circumstances that led to the formation of the lake and the nature of the people at the time.  We tend to put a great deal of romanticism around those that first occupied these wild areas of the new west at that time. Though the truth is that they were rough, made their own rules most of the time and were out to take whatever they could out of the new territories for their own benefit. It was too bad that we had to hear of the despicable nature of Thomas Jefferson's nephew but it exemplified some of the disreputable things that were done in the name of slavery.  As a southerner it is always gratifying to hear stories of how slavery was handled in the north.  Last but not least of all is that Fellman provides some factual background on the naming of Reelfoot Lake.  There was a small river or creek if you will named "Reelfoot" that ran into the Mississippi from an area that is today the northern end of the lake and where the lake's name was taken from.  Though there were native Indian tribes of Choctaw, Chickasaw, and some Cherokee that ocuppied the area at various times, the truth is they were not likely to settle there because it was a swampy lowland filled with poisonous snakes even before the lake was formed and not very conducive to even the hardiest tribes for permanent settlement though it was very popular for wildlife and hunting forays to feed their tribes.  I don't believe that his book will remove the mysterious naming of the lake and Indian influence at the time from the restaurant tables and stories of mystery but his is after all, a book based on fact and not fiction. I found it enlightening though at times somewhat slow as a read.
2730704
The author of the chapter 1- Robert H.Heusen is sincere at p. 2 saying that other local ethnicities were indigeneous to the area where Armenia was established much later-e.g.the Khaldeans,the Urartians etc.;that ancient authors wrote about it clearly. I would add that Strabo in the Ic.wrote in his Geography of the World that the Armenian political unit was created by a certain general of the army of another country on the land snatched from the Iberians/Moskhians; this is in vol 5 of Strabo,the Loeb Classical Library edition in 1936;this is the area where the Republic of Armenia was created in 1918. I recently learned that its name was planned to be 'Republic of Erevan'(not Armenia) and the League of the Nations promised to the government of Kartu i.e. Georgia that the creation of Armenia in Caucasia was a temporary measure-F.Nansen from that League of the Nations desired to create some footing somewhere in the world for refugees driven out from the Balkans and that soon the League of the Nations would move the Republic of Armenia and her Armenian and other refugees-unwanted citizens of Turkey-to the Mediterranean. These facts are known from materials published by F. Nansen available in English and some translated into Russian now on the web. The creation of that republic and that of Azerbaijan in 1918 in the area was the gross violation of the human rights of the indigeneous nation called by several names:the Iberians,the Moskhians,the Kardi etc. R.Heusen is absolutely right in telling readers that even before World War I,the Armenians were a minority in what became the Republic of Armenia in 1918. After reading those truthful remarks it was a sad surprise to me to see on the next page "a map of the historical Armenia" encompassing greater territory than the Great Britain. R.Heusen wrote the former was 238,000 square miles against 228,000 square miles of the latter. The term Armenian Plateau is frequently used by the author. It is unwelcome as other names were usually used for that plateau. Moses Khorenatsi is discussed at several pages. It is over two centuries that he is widely denounced for being a fictitious author and therefore called Pseudo-Moses Khorenatsi. I have thoroughly researched materials on that author in publications,in unpublished archives of Prof. Mikheil Tamarashvili known as Michele Tamarati in Rome and Paris. Many authors in XIX century revealed the absurdity of the writings attributed to him:among them Mr. Lenormann,Ilia Chavchavadze criticised that pseudo author and his promoters from the Mkhitarist congregation in Venice- Western Europe for spreading false information.'Gate of Alans' (p. 152)usually has a better term in historical sources:the Gate of Aragvi. Metsamor mentioned at p. 49 is the distorted term from Kartu term 'Metsamuli' meaning 'Cherry colour'-as nearby clyffs are reddish with minerals. This Kartu/Kartuli designation was given to those clyffs,the nearby village and the river by ethnic Kartu population millenia ago before aliens-Armenians among them-immigrated to that area-some as refugees,others as invaders accompanying alien armies. Authors of this book mention a huge number of writings of persons- including the ancient Persians,Greeks,Romans,Kartu(Shota Rustaveli,History of Kartly,Dionysius the Areopagite,Georgian Chronicle(p. 242);myriad of modern authors and those of XIX-XX cc. The book is clearly addressed to modern young ethnic Armenians and teach them that they are entitled not only to what was made the Republic of Armenia in 1918(itself an abuse of the human rights of another-indigeneous nation that has created a kingdom including the territory of that area in much early days),but to the region'greater than the Great Britain'.Still I give to the authors of this book 'excellent', i.e. 5 stars- for excellent misinformation.
4317120
The white family portrayed in this movie is not a normal disfunctional family. The three brothers seldomly argue, the parents are in constant state of bliss with each other living in a beautiful big house in an urban city in the United States of America. This view is a complete opposite of what the First Nations Peoples family life is considered to be and sets up the notion that First Nations Peoples would be better of with the White man's lifetsyle.
The youngest child brings to life a traditional image of an Haudenusaunee toy, decked out in feathers, leather loin cloth and a shaved head, with a magical cupboard given to him by his brother for his birthday. The child's reaction to seeing the toy alive was, "are you a real Indian?" as if they were extinct like dinosaurs. Throughout the movie there is no encounter with a present day First Nations Peoples to balance the movie or to quash the idea of extinction. Once they aquaint each other and Little Bear explains that he is from 1761, he trustingly jumps into the child's hand as the music grows. So historically the White man was always nurturing to the indian, right? In another irony, the boy gives a plot of land. He took his mothers flower box for growing infant plants and even brought a tippi to life so as Little Bear could have a home.
The boy feels the need to educate himself on his new found pet and takes out books on the Iroquois, known officially as the Haudenusaunee (meaning "people of the long house") that are almost as old as Little Bear and are tainted with Eurocentric views on the Haudenusaunee. The name Iroquois came from their enemy, the Algonquin who called them the Iroqu, meaning "rattlesnakes." The French later added the suffix "-ois" to the previous name given by the Algonquin.
When the boy's friend catches on about the `closet,' his friend puts in a cowboy and brings it to life. This ruff, alcoholic and his horse is fearless and starts yelling out "I'dien?" when he finds out about Little Bear. Once he sees him he starts screaming "Redskin" and the dialogue continues in the same vein, which would be considered unacceptable if the word was "nigger" and it was a clansman that came alive. This Cowboy and Indian brings up memories of the adults' childhoods that are watching the movie with their kids, not correcting their own misconceptions.
2538325
This man should not be written about but should be written off... He was an outrageous bully who won because of the rampant ignorance...he is who Hitler modeled after with his ethnic cleansing.  He ruined what could have been in America for demonizing and ruining a whole people.  Native Americans were the only real sustainable culture that respected God through actions and not talk.  The white people are the savage and the lifestyle is full of greed, disease because of close quarters with animals, and disdain for justice and truth.

I do not believe we should be reading lies based on skewed messed up perspectives and continuing the path towards total demise.