All my life, from when I was a little Republican shitstain to now, I always had a soft spot for the Native Americans. No rationale or so-called “nuance” ever made what the settlers did okay. In school we didn’t learn much about the Native Americans. We learned a tiny bit about their infrastructure and where they would typically live, but nothing that humanized them, we didn’t learn about culture or traditions or their own history. We learned that “Colombus sailed the Ocean Blue a long time ago in 1492 and came to America to give new inventions and spread religion to these far-off undiscovered lands”. Then you find out in HS or on your own time that 95% of that sentence is completely false, especially the coming to America part, he never went to any part of the Lower 48. You also learn about the Pilgrims in school. We learned that “some stuffy Christians who were even stuffier than the ones in England came over here to practice their religion in peace. They were a bit in over their heads and needed the Native Americans to help. They thanked each other and ate pumpkin pie with Turkey and stuffing and agreed that they were all friends” and then you learn what actually happens and it’s fucking terrifying. I had a nightmare as a little kid that drunken pilgrims were breaking in and trying to steal my family’s house. it really shook me for like a week or 2. Seeing as how like everything we were taught was utterly bullshit, what else is interesting to learn about the Native Americans? I ask because I found a “fun fact” (not very fun once you realize what the US did to these people) that the area I live in used to have Native Americans living here for 12,000 yrs STRAIGHT! Disgusting to think that that legacy is over because of racism and greed. Any short reads or good videos you would recommend?
Native Americans in what would become the US had stone-age tribal societies and oral traditions. It’s difficult to establish a consistent history for groups like that. To make things worse, by the time anyone wanted to make a serious unbiased attempt to document their culture, their culture had been changed long enough that no one alive remembered what pre-contact life was like.
You might have better luck with Central and South American natives. The Aztecs and Mayans had written records, and the Incans left behind cities full of artifacts. Or check out the Inuit - they’re largely isolated so they had less of a change forced on them than the tribes living in more desirable areas.
Or, depending where you are, you could always just seek out the local tribes and visit. Most of them have museums and books written by tribal historians and welcome people with a serious interest.
The History on Fire podcast by Daniele Bolelli has a TON of episodes about Native American history. Daniele has a thick Italian accent, but he’s a REALLY good storyteller and I enjoy listening to him. Some notable episodes:
The Real History Behind Killers of the Flower Moon.
The Last War Chief: The Story Of Joe Medicine Crow.
The Story of Tom Le Forge, The Real Life Dances With Wolves.
This story isn’t about Native Americans DIRECTLY (although a lot is said about them), it’s about WHY the WAY LESS SHITTY white people who ALSO colonized America DIDN’T make it into the history books the same way as those Pilgrims you mentioned (TRIGGER WARNING: Pilgrims being dicks.) The Wildest Man You’ve Never Heard Of.
These two are multiparters (so 9 episodes in total) that dig into the history of probably the two most famous Native historical figures in North America. It’s worth listening to these two one after the other, as these two men were contemporaries with a long, complex and often tumultuous relationship.
This one’s another four parter about the conquest of Mexico and the conflict between the Spaniards and the Mexica (Aztecs). People of the Sun.
This three parter explores the parallels between the Sand Creek Massacre (which happened to the Cheyenne people in Colorado) and My Lai (during the Vietnam war). Anything That Moves.
IF you like all that, you might also check out THIS series from Our Fake History, debunking a bunch of historical myths about Pocahontas. Sebastian and Daniele are frequent guests on each other’s shows. Did Pocahontas Really Save John Smith?.
Sebastian also does a series on Columbus (which can’t help but focus on a lot of Native perspectives), so if you want to hate that guy EVEN MORE… Columbus?
EDIT:
This is an Our Fake History with Daniele on as a special guest. Daniele and Sebastian talk about Liver Eating Johnson, a white man / cannibal / Indian killer… or was he and is that ALL made up?
EDIT 2:
Also, if you DON’T know about the Navajo Code Talkers, you’d probably be interested.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Great book
I’m not sure about other tribal groups, but if you want to know about the Haudenosaunee, I’m your gal to ask.
Dunno if you can read spanish, but the letters sent between Colombo and the spanish royalty is a great way to get just a bit more pissed off. We read it in the original old castillian, which didn’t click until I was older and understood colonization (read: when I stopped being a lib).
A lot of focus on people like Bartolome de las Casas, and not enough about how much indigenous culture was lost.
There are two YouTube channels I like about American Indian / Native American history. One is called Indigenous History Now (Invidious mirror) and the other is called Ancient Americas (Invidious mirror). Both of these focus on more long-form content.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
@ButtigiegMineralMap if you’re into books, pro-tip, US historians tend to call much of the period of colonization the “Westward expansion”. It’s best to pick books by Indigenous scholars.
It’s not entirely about the Indians (the first chapter is) but based on your description I think you’d enjoy A People’s History of the United States.
Never read Zinn before but I’ve heard nothing but good things, even from SocDem DemocracyNow
