Native American History: Accurate & Comprehensive History, Origins, Culture, Tribes, Legends, Mythology, Wars, Stories & More of The Native Indigenous Americans

by History Brought Alive

Discover The Soul, Spirit & History of The Great Native American Heritage

The mysterious beginnings of Indigenous communities began in North America over 15,000 years ago.

Tragically, and for far too long, the various Indigenous cultures in North America have been systematically mistreated, misrepresented, and misunderstood.

This book is a compelling, but difficult read. It tells the story of Native American History which many have books left out, and the moviemakers wouldn't touch. Reading this book will be an eye opener.

In this book, we will educate you about the history of Indigenous Peoples in North America. In the pages that follow, you’ll find well written, concise and accurate information without bias.

Inside this book you will discover:

Explore The Mysteries & Theories of Indigenous Arrivals in North America
Fascinating Tales Passed On From Generations (that you should know)
We are the Land: Native American Views of Nature, Spirits, Mythology & More
The European Arrival - Conflict, Disease & Clashes of Culture
Tobacco & it’s Sacred Secrets to Connect Indigenous People & Their Spirits
Ceremonies, Rituals & Practises– including Birth Ceremonies, Reincarnation, Grieving Practises & More
Gitchi Manitou - Legendary Tales & Knowledge from “The Great Spirit”
Cultures & Tribes - including Inuit, Haida, Choctaw and many more
The American Revolution and The Decline of Indigenous Nations
Current Issues - Environment, Racism, Landfills & The Fight for The Indigenous
And much, much more…

Whether you're a history enthusiast or a curious reader..inside you will discover all you need to know about the true story of Native American History.

So if you want to find out more about Native American History then this is The Book for You.

Genres: Nonfiction

139 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2022

Reviews

[Carol Kean · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Native American History,” written by various authors in the History Brought Alive team, is indeed a “compelling, but difficult read.”Spanning thousands of years and almost as many ideas, this is a sweeping, illuminating, and broad history of the people who first found their way to North America. It celebrates the sustainable lifestyle of one vast continent's first human occupants, in stark contrast to the destructive attitudes and practices of invading Europeans who had long occupied another continent on the opposite side of the globe. Public awareness is increasing to the point that "more and more people are showing respect by acknowledging the heritage of the land and of the people who lived on it for thousands of years. This new practice is called Land Acknowledgment. It is now common to hear or read a Land Acknowledgment" at the outset of a public event, "recognizing the historical fact that European colonizers stole Indigenous Peoples' land in North America."

Multiculturalism and Land Acknowledgments may be new, but most of the history in this book has been told before, and not just in "dry," academic encyclopedias. Some new material is offered in the opening chapters on how the first humans set foot in North America 15,000 (if not 25,000!) years ago. Scientists keep finding more evidence about humans who lived before the written record and whose fossil record is mostly underwater. If you’ve never heard of the Kelp Highway, this book does offer a swift summary of this new theory of prehistoric maritime travel.

"Whether you're a history enthusiast or a curious reader," the publisher of this book promises, "inside you will discover all you need to know about the true story of Native American History."
I will let slide the assertion that the book offers "all you need to know" (no 139-page book can do that), but I do feel a need to challenge the claim that "In the pages that follow, you’ll find well written, concise and accurate information without bias." I respectfully disagree that there is no bias here. This is not the most "concise" and "accurate" account I've read, nor does it go where books and movies have never dared to go before. This is a sweeping assertion: “It tells the story of Native American History which many have books left out, and the moviemakers wouldn't touch. Reading this book will be an eye opener.”

Yes, this book is "eye opening," but it would be misleading to think there has been a paucity of literature on the horrors of Western Civilization encroaching from the Old World and despoiling the New World. Yes, a lot of the books “tend to be dry and dull like an old-fashioned encyclopedia,” and most Americans seem to be pathetically misinformed, uninformed, and unaware of the history of the great people who lived here first.

Even this book neglects the contributions of free-spirited native tribes who inspired the U.S. Constitution of 1776, but Ian Frazier does in “On the Rez” – and I wonder how many of us know that “Iroquois Indians attended meetings of the colonists in the years before the American Revolution and advised them to unite in a scheme for self-government based on the confederacy that ruled six Iroquois nations.” Frazier’s book is more than 20 years old now but still timely, relevant, compelling, illuminating, and “eye opening” in ways that this 139-page history is not. In leaving the Old World, U.S. colonists embraced many values they witnessed among inhabitants of the “New” World. “In colonial times,” Frazier writes, “Indians were known for their disregard of titles and for a deep egalitarianism that made them not necessarily defer even to the leading men of their tribes. The route this trait took as it passed from Indian to white was invisible….However the transfer happened, in a few generations it was complete; the American character had become thoroughly Indian in its outspokenness and all-around skepticism on the subject of who was and was not great.”

I wish this “Native American History” had included such a quintessential part of the story. I also feel that the team of unnamed authors seems to disregard the large body of literature that illuminates the dark history of our nation. I.e., this book is not as new as it purports to be, and not nearly as exhaustive and detailed as older books. In 1881, Helen Hunt Jackson published "A Century of Dishonor," a hefty book detailing a sordid history of injustices against Native Americans. She exposed many wrongs perpetrated by her fellow Americans. More than a hundred years ago, she spoke up (using the terminology of her time):

"There are within the limits of the United States between two hundred and fifty and three hundred thousand Indians, exclusive of those in Alaska … There is not among these three hundred bands of Indians one which has not suffered cruelly at the hands either of the Government or of white settlers. The poorer, the more insignificant, the more helpless the band, the more certain the cruelty and outrage to which they have been subjected.”

Sadly, not enough people listened. Helen Hunt Jackson also wrote:

"President after president has appointed commission after commission to inquire into and report upon Indian affairs, and to make suggestions as to the best methods of managing them. The reports are filled with eloquent statements of wrongs done to the Indians, of perfidies on the part of the Government; they counsel, as earnestly as words can, a trial of the simple and unperplexing expedients of telling truth, keeping promises, making fair bargains, dealing justly in all ways and all things. These reports are bound up with the Government’s Annual Reports, and that is the end of them. It would probably be no exaggeration to say that not one American citizen out of ten thousand ever sees them or knows that they exist, and yet any one of them, circulated throughout the country, read by the right-thinking, right-feeling men and women of this land, would be of itself a 'campaign document' that would initiate a revolution which would not subside until the Indians’ wrongs were, so far as is now left possible, righted."

In short, having read a lot of history books since my 1970s childhood, my eyes have long been "open" to the tragic and terrible saga of native North Americans being displaced and even exterminated by invading Europeans. If you've never read much, you might believe this is the most authoritative and definitive book to tell the story of the first inhabitants of North America.
Not a single good deed, accomplishment, or moral value is attributed to Western Civ, and not a single negative trait is associated with Indigenous tribes. It seems disingenuous to portray one culture as entirely evil, rapacious, and destructive, with no redeeming virtues whatsoever, and the other side as entirely good and right, seemingly innocent of doing any kind of harm to their fellow humans.

No bias toward any Indigeneous tribe shows up in these pages, but I saw a lot of generalizations and assertions about Western Civ, e.g.,

"In Western cultures, value and actions often revolve around the idea of capitalism so that each person should try to get as much as possible for themselves, regardless of the outcome it might have on other people or the land and environment. It is generally considred valid, understandable, and even admirable for an individual in Western culture to hoard wealth and resources away from others."

The message gets repeated throughout the book. "Europeans had a long history of property and resource ownership" (true). "In their culture, it was considered morally correct to hoard food and shelter and then to let people die because they could not access those basic necessities, even though the necessities did exist plentifully" (not so true). That is an extraordinary claim to make about the prevailing, defining characteristics of Western Civ. In no way do I mean to diminish the horror of human history, the sins of our fathers, the harm done by one people to another. However, I cannot award five stars to an agenda that presents one side as entirely evil and the other as all good. Yes, the Indigenous people were wise and good stewards of the earth, but to ascribe no moral virtues to Westerners and no human evil to the Indigenous is… disingenuous. Yes, within each tribe, people took care of each other, and they lived sustainably, not destroying and polluting the environment, but slavery, torture, war, pillaging, and conquest were not unique to Westerners. To pick just one tribe depicted in this book, Tthe Haida people of the Pacific Northwest, we see a “complex social structure based on hierarchy groupings, including enslaving people from conflicts with mainland tribes; other tribes knew them to be warriors, with a culture not unlike the Vikings.”

Acquisition, power, property, wealth, status: these are not uniquely Western traits. In some tribes, “Potlatches were used to demonstrate to others how wealthy and powerful a family was,” the authors narrate with apparent admiration vs judgment. “The chief of the family hosting the Potlatch would offer gifts to all who came, including art, tools, boats, food, enslaved laborers, or territory rights for hunting and fishing.”

Wait. What? Gifts of one enslaved human to another? This is ok?
“The guests would be expected to remember and recount this generosity and wealth to continue to build up the host family’s reputation of high social status and history.”

All of this is good and admirable? Because it was practiced on a smaller scale on a vast continent that was sparsely populated and settled, compared to Europe?

Dare I trot out the term “double standards”--?

That’s only one part of the story. I know, I know. Please don’t think I’m dismissing this book as not worth your time reading. It’s just that so many, many great books are already out there, but largely forgotten. E.g., John Upton Terrell, in the 1970s, wrote a great series which included Indian Women of the Western Morning: Their Life in Early America, “The Navajos: The Past and Present of a Great People,” “Apache Chronicle,” and more. In his Author’s Note in “The Navajos,” he said in 1970:

“Of all the pernicious pressures upon the Navajos (indeed, upon all Indians) the most difficult to combat is a product of American society that is as old as American sovereignty itself, yet is seldom publicly acknowledged and never officially specified. It is a conglomerate of greed, bias, religious humbug, intellectual snobbishness, and self-righteousness held together by the morar of racial prejudice.”

So, the things I read and agree with in “Native American History” are not news to me. If this book is eye-opening, it is not for lack of 50 to 100 years of other books telling the same sad story. The problem is not that such books are movies aren’t made; it’s that they’re not widely read. I believe the faces of Geronimo, Pontiac, Red Cloud, Black Hawk, and countless others should be as familiar to American school kids as the faces of our Founding Fathers. Their exploits, too, should be well known to us. The trueu story of Sequoyah writing the first alphabet of the Cherokee is neglected while the urban legend of Washington chopping down the cherry tree ("Father, I cannot tell a lie") lives on.

The way Indigenous children were taken from their families and “schooled” by white Americans is a blight in our history, horrific and unconscionable, with repercussions that keep going from generation to generation. (Facebook groups are filled with historical photos showing these children in stiff button-up shirts and pants, seated at desks, when they should be with their parents in the great outdoors, learning life skills and living free.) The trauma of stripping children of their loving families, their language, their traditions, their lifestyles, and imposing on them the white man’s language and values, is certainly addressed here, and sadly, this may be the most accurate and true part of the book. Again, see Helen Hunt Jackson for a great deal more detail. This book offers only a swift summation.

It is right to acknowledge validity to the Indigenous “ways of knowing” and the outrage of trying to replace them with entirely Western ways. However, the authors continue to make sweeping generalizations that insinuate nothing good can be said for the West. E.g., “Unlike the Western view that knowledge must be tested and ‘proven’ to be validated, Indigenous ways of knowing encompass a broader affirmation and validity of knowledge from many sources.” Each Indigenous nation has its own creation story, their ways of knowing “should be regarded as sacred and an equally valid way of learning and sharing information.” Replacing their stories with Judeo-Christian-Islam versions of how the world came to be is not defensible. I take a more scientific (Western) view of earth history and the mystery of humanity, and all the creation stories strike me as charming but inaccurate and incomplete, mostly conjecture or someone else’s personal vision of how things work, not to be confused with “knowledge.” I also respect the beliefs of other cultures and what they consider “sacred.” Ironically, the religious freedom on which America was founded failed to include freedom of Indigenous tribes to practice their own beliefs. Again, this is unconscionable.

The authors make many valid points but not with total accuracy and lack of bias.E.g.,
“The colonizers lacked an understanding of the relationship between the Indigenous Nations and the land. This lack of knowledge led colonizers to make poor and arrogant choices regarding the treatment of the humans and the land they encountered in the Americas, decisions which have led to the extinction of countless species of plants and animals, and ultimately even to climate change.”


Am I wrong to withhold the coveted five stars in reviewing this book? I’ve read more comprehensive books, half a century before this one, so it’s not (for me) the long awaited, much needed “eye opener” it may be for others. Also, I’m not an advocate of demonizing all things Western Civ and idealizing all things Indigenous. (They had slaves too! They raided and pillaged too! Colonialism and slavery are universal evils – not uniquely limited to Westerners.) In the 15,000+ years that Indigenous people occupied North America, they created many great things, and we would do well to emulate their lifestyle of sustainability and ecology, without giving up the technological wonders that made the writing, publication, and reading of this book possible. North America’s hunters, gatherers and warriors left no lasting harm to the landscape (aside from the extinction of large mammals such as mastodons herded over cliff edges), but on the other side of the globe, tremendous upheavals (which, yes, impacted the environment) gave us libraries, paved roads, the wheel, forged steel weapons, rifles, glass, silverware, musical instruments, orchestral compositions. Mozart, Michaelangelo, mathematicians, architecture, running water, bridges, mills, merchants, stores, and large-scale production of food, clothing, shelter, and all basic needs. Westerners are not ALL bad, all evil, all rapacious, greedy, conquering, self-serving, and detrimental to the planet.

I would caution readers that this is not so much a “history” book as it is a political statement, accurate in many ways, but not entirely so.

NOTE: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond excellent.
I picked up this book on kindle a few days ago and could not wait to read it. I have always been proud of the tiny bit of Native American DNA I have. I love reading the stories and myths that surround them. This book gives the reader some wonderful insight and knowledge into these people who were the First Nation. I learned so much and I am so glad I have this book to add to my collection of Native American goodies.

[CarlosBadias · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first (and hopefully last) encounter with a Woke who thinks is a historian (??)
This person should read some world history to learn that what happened to native Americans, both north & south has happened to most civilizations, they develop until somebody with better arms, more people or discipline destroys them. Ask Egyptians, Assyrians, Romans, Ottomans, Zulus, Spaniards, Soviets...
Get it? Neither life, nor History is fair. Too bad.
Also, Native Americans were far from saints. Just remember human sacrifice among Aztecs, Mayans,
wars between Comanches, Apaches, Sioux... it was a warrior culture.
A last thought. Imagine an America divided in several little countries, like the south, with dominant indian populations roaming everywhere. They are more or less poor, corrupt, weak countries.
By now we would speak German or Russian, the indians to the gas chamber & europeans to the Gulag. Not to mention Africans, if they crossed the ocean... Get it Mr. Woke?

[Space Cowgirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Woke View of Our Native American History
I was extremely disappointed in this book because I thought it was supposed to be a book reciting the wonderful myths, stories and legends of the various native tribes across North America.

Instead the book is mostly a woke rant on all The terrible things that the white explorers, trappers, and settlers did to the poor indigenous native peoples and how we should make restitution to them for destroying their ways of life and heir lands. This stuff should be the subject of another book, not interspersed throughout this one.

There is very little about the actual traditional stories of the native American peoples.

I won't go into the slanted opinions of the authors of this book, but suffice to say that they don't belong in this book.
Not as Advertised!

ARC Provided by Booksprout 🌱
I also got this ebook from Amazon 📚with KU.

[Sarah Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been interested in Native American history since I was a little girl. Many books I have read of the subject try to fantasize the interactions between indigenous peoples and non-natives. This books is a comprehension representation of Native Americans and their stories.
*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Debbie Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. I found it being very informative covering topics that I was not even aware of. Unfortunately there was sad periods of time for the Native American people in their history.

[Catherine Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This works fine as an introduction to or overview of the different native communities in America, but I would not agree with the word "comprehensive" in the title. It's a good starting point, though. This is said in the book itself.

[Rowan Creech · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a Native American, I enjoy reading books that regale our history. I find it interesting and engrossing and this book was very educational in that respect.

[Jackson Ciccarello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good info, weird style.