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The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book: Revised and Expanded
When it was first published in 2010, The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book was heralded as a groundbreaking illustrated history of Indigenous activism and resistance in the Americas over the previous 500 years, from contact to present day. Eleven years later, author and artist Gord Hill has revised and expanded the book, which is now available in color for the first time.
The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book powerfully portrays flashpoints in history when Indigenous peoples have risen up and fought back against colonizers and other oppressors. Events depicted include the the Spanish conquest of the Aztec, Mayan and Inca empires; the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico; the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890; the resistance of the Great Plains peoples in the 19th century; and more recently, the Idle No More protests supporting Indigenous sovereignty and rights in 2012 and 2013, and the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016.
With strong, plain language and evocative illustrations, this revised and expanded edition of The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book reveals the tenacity and perseverance of Indigenous peoples as they endured 500-plus years of genocide, massacre, torture, rape, displacement, and assimilation: a necessary antidote to conventional histories of the Americas.
The book includes a foreword by Pamela Palmater, a Mi'kmaq lawyer, professor, and political commentator.
The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book powerfully portrays flashpoints in history when Indigenous peoples have risen up and fought back against colonizers and other oppressors. Events depicted include the the Spanish conquest of the Aztec, Mayan and Inca empires; the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico; the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890; the resistance of the Great Plains peoples in the 19th century; and more recently, the Idle No More protests supporting Indigenous sovereignty and rights in 2012 and 2013, and the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016.
With strong, plain language and evocative illustrations, this revised and expanded edition of The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book reveals the tenacity and perseverance of Indigenous peoples as they endured 500-plus years of genocide, massacre, torture, rape, displacement, and assimilation: a necessary antidote to conventional histories of the Americas.
The book includes a foreword by Pamela Palmater, a Mi'kmaq lawyer, professor, and political commentator.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 2002
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1577 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
April 18, 2022
I really appreciated the original, so I was excited to pick this one up. This revised and expanded version includes additional stories from 2010 up to the present day, and it’s also in colour! The 2010 version is black and white and has a sort of zine aesthetic, which is great, but this is an over-sized full colour version that is really striking. The illustrations are detailed and eye-catching, with rich colours.
This is a graphic history book describing the colonization of the Americas and Indigenous resistance to it. Obviously, 500 years of resistance to colonization over two continents is a lot to cover, so each section is pretty short, from a page to a handful of pages. It gives you the outline of some of the biggest conflicts in different areas, which will hopefully inspire readers to explore it in more depth.
Together, though, they form a narrative that is desperately needed, especially in a school setting. Even when colonialism is taught about or discussed in non-Indigenous spaces, it tends to frame Indigenous people as objects being acted upon: A list of terrible things that happened to Indigenous people. These comics give back agency, showing that Indigenous people have been resisting for hundreds of years and continue to, whether through warfare, protests, occupations of lands, or political strategizing.
Also, by being in a colourful comic format, it makes the information much more accessible than a dense history book. I would recommend not reading this book in one or two sittings, like I did. Because the comics have to condense a ton of information, it can be a lot to take in at once, especially with all the names and places mentioned. More importantly, this does not shy away from the brutal tactics of genocide, and reading about all of them back to back can be overwhelming. Do go in aware of that, and that it discusses murder, rape, torture, and other disturbing content.
Despite having read a fair bit about colonization of the Americas at this point in my life, every book--especially those by Indigenous authors--shocks me in the new depths and horrors of initial colonization as well as recent colonial tactics. But it also describes the rich cultures and civilizations of Indigenous peoples across the Americas, and it discusses the many victories, even if small or temporary, that get erased in more simplified tellings.
It is also packed full of interesting information in general, like I learned that in the Mayan city of Romina, they had a string of terrible male leaders succeeded by Lady K’awali. After her reign, they began a matrilineal system of descent, because apparently she was such a successful leader that they decided to switch strategies and stick with women from now on.
Also, I am mad that I am just now learning about Ganienkeh, a territory that was successfully reclaimed by Mohawk people and is to this day an independent sovereign territory. They are a dry community and have a school, lumber mill, golf course, and bingo hall. It’s not a reservation, it operates outside of US or Canadian control, and it was a result of them occupying their own unceded land.
The recent additions from 2010 onwards are especially inspiring, and it’s well worth picking up this new version even if you read the older one. It shows a growing coalition and network of support, especially across Canada, which has mobilized huge acts of resistance and solidarity. I think if you’re living on occupied land, it’s your responsibility to at the very least know its history, and this is a great place to start or supplement your education.
This is a graphic history book describing the colonization of the Americas and Indigenous resistance to it. Obviously, 500 years of resistance to colonization over two continents is a lot to cover, so each section is pretty short, from a page to a handful of pages. It gives you the outline of some of the biggest conflicts in different areas, which will hopefully inspire readers to explore it in more depth.
Together, though, they form a narrative that is desperately needed, especially in a school setting. Even when colonialism is taught about or discussed in non-Indigenous spaces, it tends to frame Indigenous people as objects being acted upon: A list of terrible things that happened to Indigenous people. These comics give back agency, showing that Indigenous people have been resisting for hundreds of years and continue to, whether through warfare, protests, occupations of lands, or political strategizing.
Also, by being in a colourful comic format, it makes the information much more accessible than a dense history book. I would recommend not reading this book in one or two sittings, like I did. Because the comics have to condense a ton of information, it can be a lot to take in at once, especially with all the names and places mentioned. More importantly, this does not shy away from the brutal tactics of genocide, and reading about all of them back to back can be overwhelming. Do go in aware of that, and that it discusses murder, rape, torture, and other disturbing content.
Despite having read a fair bit about colonization of the Americas at this point in my life, every book--especially those by Indigenous authors--shocks me in the new depths and horrors of initial colonization as well as recent colonial tactics. But it also describes the rich cultures and civilizations of Indigenous peoples across the Americas, and it discusses the many victories, even if small or temporary, that get erased in more simplified tellings.
It is also packed full of interesting information in general, like I learned that in the Mayan city of Romina, they had a string of terrible male leaders succeeded by Lady K’awali. After her reign, they began a matrilineal system of descent, because apparently she was such a successful leader that they decided to switch strategies and stick with women from now on.
Also, I am mad that I am just now learning about Ganienkeh, a territory that was successfully reclaimed by Mohawk people and is to this day an independent sovereign territory. They are a dry community and have a school, lumber mill, golf course, and bingo hall. It’s not a reservation, it operates outside of US or Canadian control, and it was a result of them occupying their own unceded land.
The recent additions from 2010 onwards are especially inspiring, and it’s well worth picking up this new version even if you read the older one. It shows a growing coalition and network of support, especially across Canada, which has mobilized huge acts of resistance and solidarity. I think if you’re living on occupied land, it’s your responsibility to at the very least know its history, and this is a great place to start or supplement your education.
September 29, 2010
Pout. I wanted to read about 500 years of Indigenous resistance, but what I got instead was another 500 years of Indigenous people having damn good reason to resist-- and finding themselves largely unable to for 480 of them. Most of each chapter is spent outlining the methods and motives of European (and, as history "progresses", European-American and European-Canadian) enslavements, massacres, thieveries, relocation, removal, sterilisation, assimilation, and scorched-earth policy-makings, with only very brief mention of resistance efforts, often single sentences going something like this: "Such-and-Such Nation fought back, but were squashed"; "Such-and-Such Nation, led by So-and-So, resisted for a little while, but were eventually squashed"; "Such-and-Such Nation submitted a petition, so petitions were made illegal"; "Such-and-Such Nation tried to assert their treaty rights, but were completely ignored". Yes, well, as someone instinctively suspicious since childhood of American public school history textbooks, as well as not having spent my life hiding in white suburbia insulated by a pillowy cushion of middle-class ethos, there wasn't much here that was news to me. Am I saying if someone doesn't already know this stuff it's because they haven't cared enough to discover it? Yes, I am. Therefore:
This book has great value as an overview of the treatment of Indigenous people in North and South America from the 15th to the 20th century, should be used in schools to supplement or replace the mythologising chapter or two given by typical American history textbooks to early European and Native American relations, and would make great starter material in educational environments which allow for freer ability to further investigate the subject matter (homeschools, un-schools, etc). It should also be read by anyone who hasn't yet developed a puking response to Columbus Day celebrations and oil paintings of noble explorers/traders/colonisers doing innocent, honest business with exotic, half-naked men with tanned skin, hot, chiseled bods, and a feather in their hair.
I guess I'm just frustrated that this material is still not common knowledge. I wanted more (way more) exposition of Indigenous resistance, and less cataloging of colonialist, capitalist European hegemony-- a subject with which I am already thoroughly (and despairingly) familiar. I do wonder if the lack of information and detail (especially prior to the 1970's) is the result of historical accounts of resistance movements being both unrecorded by those doing the resisting, and obscured, physically destroyed, revised (destroyed), ignored (destroyed) by those--from early conquerers to present-day journalists and authors of school history textbooks-- doing the squashing. If this is the case, I wish the author would have said a little something about that.
This book has great value as an overview of the treatment of Indigenous people in North and South America from the 15th to the 20th century, should be used in schools to supplement or replace the mythologising chapter or two given by typical American history textbooks to early European and Native American relations, and would make great starter material in educational environments which allow for freer ability to further investigate the subject matter (homeschools, un-schools, etc). It should also be read by anyone who hasn't yet developed a puking response to Columbus Day celebrations and oil paintings of noble explorers/traders/colonisers doing innocent, honest business with exotic, half-naked men with tanned skin, hot, chiseled bods, and a feather in their hair.
I guess I'm just frustrated that this material is still not common knowledge. I wanted more (way more) exposition of Indigenous resistance, and less cataloging of colonialist, capitalist European hegemony-- a subject with which I am already thoroughly (and despairingly) familiar. I do wonder if the lack of information and detail (especially prior to the 1970's) is the result of historical accounts of resistance movements being both unrecorded by those doing the resisting, and obscured, physically destroyed, revised (destroyed), ignored (destroyed) by those--from early conquerers to present-day journalists and authors of school history textbooks-- doing the squashing. If this is the case, I wish the author would have said a little something about that.
November 24, 2016
I’ve always thought that Thanksgiving, at least the idea of it, was a good idea. Stop, take stock, realize how lucky you’ve been, first in the womb lottery, then in (probably, if you’re reading this) most everything else. But TG’s spin as the origin myth of the States, sucks. It’s the Ready? Set? Go! for the North American part of the world’s most horrific and ongoing genocide.
So i thought i should read about it. North & South America were chock full of myriad nations, cultures at all levels of development - some way beyond Europe (see Mayan math, calendar and astronomy), some contented with the plethora of life, to gather, fish or live on buffalo and travel, (maybe beyond Europe, too) and a gillion more. That was 1491 and a half. There were roughly 110 million people on the 2 continents. By the end of the 17th century - yes a mere 200 years later, there were roughly 12 million indigenous remaining. A loss of 100 million humans. Kinda makes last centuries’ holocausts - Jewish, Armenian, Cambodian and Rwandan... look like Friendly Fire - not to minimize the horrors of any loss at any time but how to put the loss of the First Nations of the Americas in perspective?
We all know that ugly little Italian guy Columbus was responsible for the elimination of the Arawak who so kindly welcomed him when he first put his accursed foot on this continent, but did you know that the French not only rid us of another nation, but gave us scalping? In Newfoundland the French “allied” w the Micmacs against the Beothuks offering bounties for scalps - this (1620) is the first SCALPING. Yes, French in origin. No Beothuks remain. Reminds me of learning that the first hands chopped off in Africa were by the Belgians in the Congo to prove they hadn’t “wasted” ammunition.
In Canada the abuses against First Nations peoples- from removal and abuse of their children and the illegalizing of all their culture - until very recently is heartbreaking. Canadian Indians got the vote in 1950. woo-hoo.
In the 60s Brazil’s campaign of extermination against rain forest natives used diseased blankets, air war, death squads, injections, and they completely eliminated the Tapaiunas with a gift of sugar laced with arsenic. 1960s. You know, because we need less rain forest (oxygen being SO overrated) and more profits from beef (yay Burger King!) and oil (yay CO2!). Now the opposition to land clearing is fought with bullets, with impunity.
And i’m always b*tching about the genocide campaigns 100 years earlier in Uruguay and Argentina. I was alive (albeit useless) during this cruel slaughter of innocents done with US tax dollars in Brazil. And i’m alive, now, during the ongoing usurpations of freedom uprisings (the US backed coup in Honduras, Haiti, Brazil and repeated attempts in the collapsing Venezuela).
That it continues now - is saddest of all; the ongoing, corporate supported murder-by-government, or their hit squads is reality. Berta Cáceres, the Honduran indigenous and environmental rights campaigner, recently murdered, barely a week after she was threatened for opposing a hydroelectric project, is just a well known example but these courageous people are killed daily. The genocide never ended. Eat your turkey while the militarized police attack the Standing Rock Sioux water protectors who are unarmed.
But author Gord Hill wants to finish on a note of resistance and successes against the ongoing inequities, “in total resistance”. He gives examples of successful actions in the early 90s (book originally published in 92) wherein Indians stopped the odious machine from working at all.
So i thought i should read about it. North & South America were chock full of myriad nations, cultures at all levels of development - some way beyond Europe (see Mayan math, calendar and astronomy), some contented with the plethora of life, to gather, fish or live on buffalo and travel, (maybe beyond Europe, too) and a gillion more. That was 1491 and a half. There were roughly 110 million people on the 2 continents. By the end of the 17th century - yes a mere 200 years later, there were roughly 12 million indigenous remaining. A loss of 100 million humans. Kinda makes last centuries’ holocausts - Jewish, Armenian, Cambodian and Rwandan... look like Friendly Fire - not to minimize the horrors of any loss at any time but how to put the loss of the First Nations of the Americas in perspective?
We all know that ugly little Italian guy Columbus was responsible for the elimination of the Arawak who so kindly welcomed him when he first put his accursed foot on this continent, but did you know that the French not only rid us of another nation, but gave us scalping? In Newfoundland the French “allied” w the Micmacs against the Beothuks offering bounties for scalps - this (1620) is the first SCALPING. Yes, French in origin. No Beothuks remain. Reminds me of learning that the first hands chopped off in Africa were by the Belgians in the Congo to prove they hadn’t “wasted” ammunition.
In Canada the abuses against First Nations peoples- from removal and abuse of their children and the illegalizing of all their culture - until very recently is heartbreaking. Canadian Indians got the vote in 1950. woo-hoo.
In the 60s Brazil’s campaign of extermination against rain forest natives used diseased blankets, air war, death squads, injections, and they completely eliminated the Tapaiunas with a gift of sugar laced with arsenic. 1960s. You know, because we need less rain forest (oxygen being SO overrated) and more profits from beef (yay Burger King!) and oil (yay CO2!). Now the opposition to land clearing is fought with bullets, with impunity.
And i’m always b*tching about the genocide campaigns 100 years earlier in Uruguay and Argentina. I was alive (albeit useless) during this cruel slaughter of innocents done with US tax dollars in Brazil. And i’m alive, now, during the ongoing usurpations of freedom uprisings (the US backed coup in Honduras, Haiti, Brazil and repeated attempts in the collapsing Venezuela).
That it continues now - is saddest of all; the ongoing, corporate supported murder-by-government, or their hit squads is reality. Berta Cáceres, the Honduran indigenous and environmental rights campaigner, recently murdered, barely a week after she was threatened for opposing a hydroelectric project, is just a well known example but these courageous people are killed daily. The genocide never ended. Eat your turkey while the militarized police attack the Standing Rock Sioux water protectors who are unarmed.
But author Gord Hill wants to finish on a note of resistance and successes against the ongoing inequities, “in total resistance”. He gives examples of successful actions in the early 90s (book originally published in 92) wherein Indians stopped the odious machine from working at all.
May 6, 2024
If you want a quick history of the horrible things everyone did to the Indigenious populations of the Americas, this book is for you. If you wanted, like me to learn about resistances that took place other than Sitting Bull and Geronimo, I would put this down. You will not get it. I give this book 3 stars only because two chapters at the end actually talked about resistance in full. The writing is also really good, and I did learn some new things.
However, I expected more resistance with 65 pages, and less of the full history. I read Brooding over Bloody Revenge (loved and highly recommend) of slave women's revolts against their masters. Each chapter was a particular story. This book was all over the place with time and dates and locations. And again, less resistance.
As an example of what you usually got in a chapter, Extermination and Assimilation: Two Methods, One Goal was about seven pages. This was the one resistance listed out of two and the second one was even shorter. "During the same period in Colombia, the Indian leader Quintin Lame helped initiate struggles for land and developed an Indigenous phiolsophy of resistance; in the early 1980s, his legacy would live on in the Indian guerrilla group, "Commando Quintin Lame." That's it. There was nothing else.
However, I expected more resistance with 65 pages, and less of the full history. I read Brooding over Bloody Revenge (loved and highly recommend) of slave women's revolts against their masters. Each chapter was a particular story. This book was all over the place with time and dates and locations. And again, less resistance.
As an example of what you usually got in a chapter, Extermination and Assimilation: Two Methods, One Goal was about seven pages. This was the one resistance listed out of two and the second one was even shorter. "During the same period in Colombia, the Indian leader Quintin Lame helped initiate struggles for land and developed an Indigenous phiolsophy of resistance; in the early 1980s, his legacy would live on in the Indian guerrilla group, "Commando Quintin Lame." That's it. There was nothing else.
December 31, 2022
I picked this up at the bookstore because it has Aztec warriors on the cover. It's definitely an amazing graphic novel, and one I will be recommending to others. I love the concept of this graphic novel as it covers a vast amount of time and space. I've seen some similar graphic novels before but never one that covered both North and South America and started with Columbus, going all the way to modern resistance movements like Unist'ot'en. This was such an ambitious and important project. I really admire the amount of detail and labour that went into this. I know how hard graphic novels can be to produce, like if you have 5 panels on a page it's 5 separate works of art. For this reason, sometimes the storytelling moves too fast. Sometimes there is a lot of violation of "show don't tell," and a historical event will be mentioned but not depicted in the drawings. There wasn't any dialogue or character development, but this was meant to be nonfiction so I understand why there wasn't. Overall though, this book is amazing and something to treasure.
January 31, 2022
500 Years of Indigenous Resistance by Gord Hill was first published in the revolutionary indigenous newspaper OH-TOH-KIN, as a response to the celebrations of the "500 year anniversary of the discovery of America" in 1992. In it, Hill outlines acts of resistance against the tide of genocide and colonialism that has been the main relationship between Europeans and the peoples already here when the hemisphere was "discovered".
A short but powerful book, it is a good starting place for anyone interested in the subject.
A short but powerful book, it is a good starting place for anyone interested in the subject.
June 19, 2024
C’est un ouvrage impressionnant qui m'a beaucoup appris.
Le travail historique est colossal, donc il demande du temps pour être bien assimilé.
Les informations sont denses et nécessitent une lecture attentive pour bien les digérer.
Les illustrations sont magnifiques.
Le travail historique est colossal, donc il demande du temps pour être bien assimilé.
Les informations sont denses et nécessitent une lecture attentive pour bien les digérer.
Les illustrations sont magnifiques.
June 3, 2010
We are all familiar with the smiling happy portrayals of pilgrims sitting down to dinner with Native Americans, or perhaps the slightly more critical viewpoint from many of our high school history books of the Indigenous people being simply helpless victims to European colonization. However, neither of these views is, in reality, very accurate.
500 Years of Indigenous Resistance was originally published in 1992 by Gord Hill, the native artist, activist, and at the time, member of the revolutionary Indigenous newspaper, OH-TOH-KIN. The book is in a pamphlet style with artwork throughout its pages. It starts with the arrival of Columbus in the Americas and goes up through history to chronicle native resistance in North and South America until after WWII, even up through the 1960s. It was originally published just before the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico in 1994, and so was extremely relevant and insightful both then and now.
Even though I was aware that the history of the Americas many of us were taught growing up was very skewed towards celebrating white European colonialism, I hadn’t read anything, until this, that so clearly shows all the various Native American resistance movements that have existed. Lacking from most of written American history of the past 500 years is a detailed exploration of the resistance of native peoples and how they influenced and limited the colonialism to which they struggled against. 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance fills in this gap in an extensive way. It also records all the horrendous and calculating strategies of colonization employed to destroy native people, wipe out whole cultures, and steal land.
While many people, including myself, could probably not give names of more than a few tribes, this book speaks of all the millions of indigenous people there were 500 years ago, an estimated 70 to 100 million people. Even now after hundreds of years of colonization there are still an estimated forty million indigenous people. The book chronicles the various resistance strategies that native peoples utilized: demonstrations, festivals, violent uprisings, the creation of alliances with other tribes or nations, protests, occupations, road blocks, forming organizations to oppose governmental policies, and most recently, organizing around international bodies.
In a country that still has offensive caricatures of Native Americans on display for sports team mascots, it is easy to get discouraged that there will be any real recognition of the magnitude of the American Indian Holocaust, the mass genocide of Native peoples that has run rampant the past 500 years and continues on today. But books such as 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance which don't glorify, romanticize, or just plain omit all the horrors that abound throughout this history of colonization, stand to give us some hope. For they just give us the facts, but, more importantly, the ones we most likely have never heard before.
It would be an amazing thing to make copies of this work and slip into every school in America and slide it into every history book for children to read. Well, it is no less crucial and eye-opening a book for existing simply on its own. It is a rare event to read books that really have the potential to change the way that you think about things, that help you unlearn many lies and find yourself faced with honest truths. It always gives me the chills to read something from a new perspective and to know that this information is being let loose in the world, seeking to help us to open our eyes, to learn from the past, and to ultimately change for the better.
Review by Lesley Kartali
500 Years of Indigenous Resistance was originally published in 1992 by Gord Hill, the native artist, activist, and at the time, member of the revolutionary Indigenous newspaper, OH-TOH-KIN. The book is in a pamphlet style with artwork throughout its pages. It starts with the arrival of Columbus in the Americas and goes up through history to chronicle native resistance in North and South America until after WWII, even up through the 1960s. It was originally published just before the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico in 1994, and so was extremely relevant and insightful both then and now.
Even though I was aware that the history of the Americas many of us were taught growing up was very skewed towards celebrating white European colonialism, I hadn’t read anything, until this, that so clearly shows all the various Native American resistance movements that have existed. Lacking from most of written American history of the past 500 years is a detailed exploration of the resistance of native peoples and how they influenced and limited the colonialism to which they struggled against. 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance fills in this gap in an extensive way. It also records all the horrendous and calculating strategies of colonization employed to destroy native people, wipe out whole cultures, and steal land.
While many people, including myself, could probably not give names of more than a few tribes, this book speaks of all the millions of indigenous people there were 500 years ago, an estimated 70 to 100 million people. Even now after hundreds of years of colonization there are still an estimated forty million indigenous people. The book chronicles the various resistance strategies that native peoples utilized: demonstrations, festivals, violent uprisings, the creation of alliances with other tribes or nations, protests, occupations, road blocks, forming organizations to oppose governmental policies, and most recently, organizing around international bodies.
In a country that still has offensive caricatures of Native Americans on display for sports team mascots, it is easy to get discouraged that there will be any real recognition of the magnitude of the American Indian Holocaust, the mass genocide of Native peoples that has run rampant the past 500 years and continues on today. But books such as 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance which don't glorify, romanticize, or just plain omit all the horrors that abound throughout this history of colonization, stand to give us some hope. For they just give us the facts, but, more importantly, the ones we most likely have never heard before.
It would be an amazing thing to make copies of this work and slip into every school in America and slide it into every history book for children to read. Well, it is no less crucial and eye-opening a book for existing simply on its own. It is a rare event to read books that really have the potential to change the way that you think about things, that help you unlearn many lies and find yourself faced with honest truths. It always gives me the chills to read something from a new perspective and to know that this information is being let loose in the world, seeking to help us to open our eyes, to learn from the past, and to ultimately change for the better.
Review by Lesley Kartali
January 1, 2015
This was a great intro until Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz came out with her amazing opus on this subject. However, it brilliantly shows how capitalism needed giant armies of settlers (provided by feudalism) to subdue the oppressed and carry out its genocide – the American Indian Holocaust. It discusses “killing guerrillas in the womb” – the notion of reducing or removing people who don’t play an active role in the economy. It’s a very interesting short book; but if you are interested in this subject, I’d recommend any day that you rush to read Roxanne’s amazing book first instead.
May 30, 2015
i'd give this maybe 4 stars if i was reading it in 1992 (and id give myself 5 stars, because i'd be 7 and reading this) but there's a lot of stuff that's better out there. it's a great intro/jumping off point but it's a.) not a very exciting read and b.) been outshone (outshined?) by a lot of stuff. i'm especially disappointed to note the lack of mentioning of gendered resistance anywhere, as stuff like trade relations (which hill mentions several times) were pretty explicitly gendered things. idk. good but lacking.
Read
January 17, 2022A rousing call to action in the fight for Indigenous sovereignty, land repatriation, and reparations. Damning evidence presented against colonial forces in the Americas from 1492 to present.
Felt evenly balanced between the continents and under different colonial occupations ("USA", "Mexico", "Canada", "Peru" for example).
Highly recommend for home, classroom, and public libraries. Undoing the harm perpetuated by manipulative, biased, and purely untrue history lessons and contemporary media reports on these ongoing genocides.
Felt evenly balanced between the continents and under different colonial occupations ("USA", "Mexico", "Canada", "Peru" for example).
Highly recommend for home, classroom, and public libraries. Undoing the harm perpetuated by manipulative, biased, and purely untrue history lessons and contemporary media reports on these ongoing genocides.
Read
January 13, 2019If you could find a complimentary text to cover the past 30 years, I think this would make a great read for a high school history or even government/civics/current events course.
December 9, 2017
Gord Hill's 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance was originally published in 1992 in the first issue of the revolutionary Indigenous newspaper OH-TOH-KIN. The publication date is significant - it was the 500 anniversary of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, and hence of the beginning of the genocidal colonial project that was the conquest and settling of the lands of the First Nations and indigenous peoples. Celebrated by most white descendants of the settler colonists, it was a time of mourning and of renewal of resistance for indigenous peoples. As the Foreword to the current edition (published in 2008) states,
"Sixteen years after it was originally published ... 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance remains an important and relevent history of the colonization of the Americas and the resistance to it. It begins with the arrival of Columbus and finishes with the resistance struggles that defined the early nineties; the Lubicons, the Mohawks, and the Campaign For 500 Years Of Resistance that occurred all over the Americas, and was a historical precurser to the well-known Zapatista uprising of 1994."
Hill begins his history of indigenous resistance with a summary of the many nations that inhabited the Americas before the arrival of European colonisers.
"The First Peoples inhabited every region of the Americas, living within the diversity of the land and developing cultural lifeways dependent on the land. Their numbers approached 70-100 million peoples prior to the European colonization.
Generally, the hundreds of different nations can be summarized within the various geographical regions they lived in. The commonality of cultures within these regions is in fact a natural development of people building lifeways dependent on the land. As well, there was extensive interaction and interrelation between the people in these regions, and they all knew each other as nations."
Hill summarises the initial contacts between Europeans and the First Nations of the Americas, characterised by kidnapping, theft and murder. They claimed Indigenous land as their own, took slaves, tried to enforce Christianity and European social mores, and issued endless demands for gold and other natural resources. Hill comments: "The formulative years of the colonization process were directed towards exploiting the lands and peoples to the fullest. To the Europeans, the Americas were a vast, unspoiled area suitable for economic expansion and exploitation."
Hill's book is concise and tells the story of white exploitation and genocide in broad strokes (leaving other scholars to fill in details in other works) but part of the value of this narrative lies in its breadth of scope. By relating the projects engaged in by all the European colonial nations - England, Spain, France, Portugal, Holland - that embarked on the exploitation of the Americas, Hill explores both the similarities in the European assaults on Indigenous peoples from Labrador to Chile, and the differences in patterns of colonisation and exploitation that resulted from differences in indigenous populations and resources.
"While the Atlantic coast area of North America was becoming quickly littered with British, French and Dutch settlements, substantial differences in the lands and resources forced the focus of exploitation to differ from the colonization process underway in Meso- and South America.
In the South, the large-scale expropriation of gold and silver financed much of the invasion. As well, the dense populations of the Indigenous peoples provided a large slave-labour force to work in the first mines and plantations.
In contrast, the Europeans who began colonizing North America found a lower population density and the lands, though fertile for crops and abundant in fur-bearing animals, contained little in precious metals accessible to 17th century European technology. The exploitation of North America was to require long-term activities which could not rely on Indigenous or Afrikan slavery but which in fact which required Indigenous participation. Maintaining colonies thousands of miles away from Europe and lacking the gold which financed the Spanish armada, the colonial forces in North America would have to rely on the gradual accumulation of agricultural products and the fur trade."
The other key element of the narrative is that, along with his discussion of the actions of the colonisers in their quest to exploit the land and enslave or eliminate its inhabitants - a discussion informed by socialist insights into the role of capitalism in the colonial project - Hill also focuses on Indigenous peoples' resistance to colonialism - both the colonialism of European nations in the Americas, and the colonialism of the new national elites following the achievement of independence among the various former colonies.
From forced labour in gold mines and forced removals in the 17th and 18th centuries, through to extinguishment of land title and forced assimilation in the 20th century, the various forms of exploitation and genocide are catalogued, along with the efforts of Indigenous peoples along the length of two continents to survive and preserve their way of life.
Of particular importance are Hill's closing chapters, which discuss the modern Indigenous resistance movements, beginning in the 1960s: "Along with an explosion of international struggles in the 1960s, including national liberation movements in Afrika, Asia, and in the Americas, there was an upsurge in Native people’s resistance. This upsurge found its background in the continued struggles of Native peoples and the development of the struggle against continued resource extraction throughout the Americas."
As Hill notes, "A primary focus of these Indigenous movements was recuperating stolen lands" and to this end, occupations, blockades and other protests were organised, from Chile to Canada, to protest the loss of land rights. Global alliances of Indigenous peoples were organised around the world to share knowledge and advocate at an international level. The resistance continues.
Presenting as it does an overview of the actions of both settler colonists and Indigenous resistance in all areas of the Western Hemisphere, Hill's book serves as an excellent introduction to the post-Columbian history of Indigenous peoples in the America.
September 27, 2022
The is the most impactful and important book I have read in some time. A history of indigenous resistance in the Americas is covers the history of colonization and resistance throughout South and North America. It is a fascinating read. Some of the more famous people and situations I was already aware of accurately; really went down with Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn. Others were a revelation like the facts on Christopher Columbus, yikes. Mr. Hill does a good job of being balanced well clearly telling a specific history. When there is violence by both sides he states it and he doesn’t try to justify. In some cases right or wrong it was clearly an action of war in many other cases primarily by colonist and settlers against natives it is injustice and murder. The art is good and this form provides a perfect medium to sketch such a broad history. It is a great jumping off point for anyone interested in learning a more accurate history then they taught in my school days and probably in many places still continue to teach version of history. I consider this a must read for any citizen of the Americas.
October 10, 2023
Very good!!! Timeline based and pretty linear so even though it was info heavy & dense, it flowed easily and smoothly. I learned a lot!! It was written in an engaging way that made a lot of sense. There wasn’t really much “theory” or sociology in this either. Just a clear statement of what happened and how that impacted indigenous communities and how they’re still fighting to this day.
I liked the idea of the information of different communities around the world, but selfishly found myself much more interested in the parts about US occupation and colonialism and wished there was more of that. Maybe a separate book for Canada and separate for US? Idk.
Happy Indigenous People’s Day! I highly recommend this!!
I liked the idea of the information of different communities around the world, but selfishly found myself much more interested in the parts about US occupation and colonialism and wished there was more of that. Maybe a separate book for Canada and separate for US? Idk.
Happy Indigenous People’s Day! I highly recommend this!!
January 22, 2020
Gord Hill does an excellent job of summarizing the history of so many Indigenous peoples in a short format, however it ends up being dry and feeling more like the introduction to something bigger. I plan to move on to reading a couple more in depth books that I hope will elaborate on lots of the topics brought up in this book. I think this book provides a great framework to start from but you need to continue beyond. This was also published in 1992 so the last 3 decades are not covered and a lot of important events have happened in that time.
January 24, 2023
More of an introduction to settler colonialism and indigenous resilience in the past 500+ years in the so-called americas than an account of specific indigenous means of resistance against colonial powers. Even if we could say that surviving genocide is in itself resistance.
Only read the version published 30 years ago, apparently the new edition contains additional details about post-Oka conflicts, idle no more, etc.
Only read the version published 30 years ago, apparently the new edition contains additional details about post-Oka conflicts, idle no more, etc.
August 30, 2025
yes. the illustration was beautiful and there was so much i learned throughout this book. gord hill all the way, being inspired and moved by Indigenous resistance all the way. thinking about my own ancestry and the resistance and community care created out of necessity throughout colonization and slavery. beautiful and hard to read and thought provoking all at once.
June 18, 2023
Much like the original, this is an extended timeline of dates and facts illustrated by Gord Hill. It’s a great resource for seeing the constancy of Indigenous resistance to colonialism, Capitalism and white supremacy.
February 21, 2025
this took me like 3.5 HOURS to read bc the text was so dry and not engaging at all 😭 the actual content and illustrations were super important, but i had a really hard time reading this (this being required reading probs added to my negative experience)
February 4, 2023
A powerful reminder of the damage colonialism has done, and continues to do. An even more powerful reminder of the strength of Indigenous resistance.
July 17, 2022
Solidarity with Indigenous People ✊🏾
February 27, 2019
I think this is one of those topics where the book needs to be either 750 pgs long or, as in this case, as concise as humanly possible. This is like a bullet point version of an introductory university course for example. It behooves the reader to take note of certain leaders mentioned and read up on them further, which I can see many people not doing which is unfortunate, but at least it is a start. I was really interested in how Hill took a very broad view, though, to track the movements of colonizers from South to North America simultaneously! I have never seen that done before from either a course or workshop or book or documentary!
January 18, 2023
(☆☆☆½)
October 8, 2023
Excellent read. Everyone should read this book.
July 24, 2011
This was originally published in (I think) 1992 in the North American First Nations activist paper Oh-Toh-Kin and is a decidedly nationalist/indigenist sketch of the colonisation of the Americas and resistance to that invasion. The only change, as far as I can see, is the addition of some explanatory footnotes. The booklet (expensive for what we get) is of some historical value, and a useful outline of a First Nations' based view of the histories of the Americas. However, at 70 pages it skims over too much – admittedly it was simply a long newspaper article/essay in its previous form – and therefore provides an inadequate sense of what the case might be. It is useful for the converted/sympathetic but unlikely to appeal to anyone else. As one of the converted/sympathetic, I would have liked a guide to further reading or something similar, and suspect that Gord Hill and PM Press have done themselves and the cause a disservice by not giving us advice on activist and analytical resources/movements. Alas, an opportunity wasted.....
January 9, 2015
I learned some new things. It was well-written but not exciting or pleasurable to read in terms of craft. I'm glad it's out there. It reads like a punk zine--there's a place for that, a niche, an audience, a need. I guess I was expecting something more dynamic, not something that could pass as a bullet-ed list of events. I wanted narrative. I wanted a conclusion. It's a good introductory text--much more concise/shorter than other histories; this one would be good to use in an intro AIS course because of the title and because it doesn't mince words. I wish I had found it in high school. But from a Native scholar's perspective...it just didn't come across as scholarly.
April 6, 2021
500 Years of Indigenous Resistance by Gord Hill
This book wasn’t bad or even poorly written, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s basically just an overview of the timeline of colonization. It was interesting to read about all the different spots of imperialism - not just contained in what is now the United States. But again, it didn’t live up to the title. In the last few pages get we get a bit more detailed look into resistance efforts and I wish it’s what the whole book was like.
2.5/5⭐️
January 27, 2011
Not much new here if you read this kind of stuff.
Still, two things make it a bit unusual. First, it has a two continent focus -- N and S America. Second, the effort to show the Amerindian resistance to the conquest is key theme. There really isn't enough evidence of that resistance here, that is, I needed much more detail. But the author has tried.
Still, two things make it a bit unusual. First, it has a two continent focus -- N and S America. Second, the effort to show the Amerindian resistance to the conquest is key theme. There really isn't enough evidence of that resistance here, that is, I needed much more detail. But the author has tried.
January 15, 2012
I remember reading this as a pamphlet six or seven years ago and thinking it was mediocre. I'm enjoying it more now, but it makes me wonder if that's because I've read more. And then that makes me hesitate to recommend it to other people because I can't tell if it's only enjoyable if you've read other things related to it.
I'm reading the MESSINGAROUND edition of the book.
I'm reading the MESSINGAROUND edition of the book.
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