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Native America: A History
This history of Native Americans, from the period of first contact to the present day, offers an important variation to existing studies by placing the lives and experiences of Native American communities at the center of the narrative.
393 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2010
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July 17, 2019
Dr. Michael Leroy Orberg, Ph. D. has produced an invaluable introductory, college-level overview of Native American history. To give the book focus, Dr. Orberg focuses upon the stories of 12 distinct Indian nations, whose experiences fairly typify the experiences and cultures of Native Americans. His purpose was to avoid an endless piling up of fact upon fact that make many textbooks both overwhelming to adsorb and yet so broad as to lack any coherent narrative.
This technique of following what may be fairly described as micro-histories proves rather effective. The only caveat is that trying to in mind the various Native nation's histories and regional variations took me quite a number of pages to my mind around.
In my view, Orberg does a fine job of helping me re-center my understanding of the past as a self-described student of American history. To paraphrase Dr. Daniel Richeter's marvelous book, Michael Orberg will help the reader look right from Indian Country, in tracing the histories of Native Americans from the period prior to European's arrival through the very recent past.
If I might add a brief remark, I would have enjoyed a longer discussion of Native American history before colonization. After Europeans arrive on the scene, with time, it becomes more of a challenge to discuss this history other than a reaction and, with time, a rear gourd action in terms of resisting the colonizers and then an expanding, one might fairly say colonizer, United States which has a great thirst for Native land, even more its aggressive white colonizers.
In truth, when the entire history is laid out, front to back, I had to come back around to the fundamental moral question behind the history: how should we react to this past whose hand remains heavy upon the American present? Surely, I would never suggest that I would have seen the moral wrongness of the course of events if I had been among those who moved into Indian Country, as indeed did my forebearers. One does not have to decry the United States to somberly understand how this nation arose and took, in many, many cases unfairly and unjustly, land from people who were unable to stop the advance of colonization and land seizure due to technological advantages.
This technique of following what may be fairly described as micro-histories proves rather effective. The only caveat is that trying to in mind the various Native nation's histories and regional variations took me quite a number of pages to my mind around.
In my view, Orberg does a fine job of helping me re-center my understanding of the past as a self-described student of American history. To paraphrase Dr. Daniel Richeter's marvelous book, Michael Orberg will help the reader look right from Indian Country, in tracing the histories of Native Americans from the period prior to European's arrival through the very recent past.
If I might add a brief remark, I would have enjoyed a longer discussion of Native American history before colonization. After Europeans arrive on the scene, with time, it becomes more of a challenge to discuss this history other than a reaction and, with time, a rear gourd action in terms of resisting the colonizers and then an expanding, one might fairly say colonizer, United States which has a great thirst for Native land, even more its aggressive white colonizers.
In truth, when the entire history is laid out, front to back, I had to come back around to the fundamental moral question behind the history: how should we react to this past whose hand remains heavy upon the American present? Surely, I would never suggest that I would have seen the moral wrongness of the course of events if I had been among those who moved into Indian Country, as indeed did my forebearers. One does not have to decry the United States to somberly understand how this nation arose and took, in many, many cases unfairly and unjustly, land from people who were unable to stop the advance of colonization and land seizure due to technological advantages.
Displaying 1 of 1 review