The 2019-2020 UUA Common Read
Going beyond the story of America as a country “discovered” by a few brave men in the “New World,” Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity.
The original academic text is fully adapted by renowned curriculum experts Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include discussion topics, archival images, original maps, recommendations for further reading, and other materials to encourage students, teachers, and general readers to think critically about their own place in history. The concluding chapter is a case study on the Standing Rock resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) that was not included in the original academic text.
About the Series:
The ReVisioning American History for Young People series offers fresh perspectives on familiar narratives told from the viewpoint of marginalized communities with middle-grade and young adults in mind. Consisting of accessibly written history books written by notable scholars and adapted by education experts, the series reconstructs and reinterprets America’s past from pre–1492 to the present for a new generation of readers.
Gail Forsyth-Vail from the Faith Development office has created a discussion guide that helps groups and congregation delve together into the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual challenges of seeing their nation’s history through an unfamiliar and painful lens. It is hoped that discussion groups will find the capacity and the encouragement to take follow-on action afterward. The guide provides plans for a single session or a series of three.Click here for the discussion guide.
A Note to Readers
INTRODUCTION
This Land
CHAPTER ONE
Follow the Corn
CHAPTER TWO
Culture of Conquest
CHAPTER THREE
Cult of the Covenant
CHAPTER FOUR
Bloody Footprints
CHAPTER FIVE
The Birth of a Nation
CHAPTER SIX
Jefferson, Jackson, and the Pursuit of Indigenous Homelands
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sea to Shining Sea
CHAPTER EIGHT
Indigenous Lands Become “Indian Country”
CHAPTER NINE
The Persistence of Sovereignty
CHAPTER TEN
Indigenous Action, Indigenous Rights
CONCLUSION
“Water Is Life”: Indigenous Resistance in the Twenty-First Century
For Further Reading
Some Books We Recommend
Notes
Image Credits
Index
“An important corrective to conventional narratives of our nation’s history . . . . An accessible, engaging, and necessary addition to school libraries and classrooms. An excellent read, dismantling American mythologies and fostering critical reasoning about history and current events.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Revie<,/p>
“This adaptation of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014) should be required reading for all middle and high schoolers—and their teachers . . . . There is much to commend here: the lack of sugar-coating, the debunking of origin stories, the linking between ideology and actions, the well-placed connections between events past and present, the quotes from British colonizers and American presidents that leave no doubt as to their violent intentions . . . . The resistance continues, and this book urges all readers to consider their own roles, whether as bystanders or upstanders.” —Booklist, Starred Review
“Dunbar-Ortiz’s narrative history is clear, and the adapters give readers ample evidence and perspective to help them to engage with the text. A highly informative book for libraries serving high school students.” —School Library Journal, Starred Review
“Gripping, tightly written, and packed with facts traditional textbooks and historical accounts neglect to cover.” —Shelf Awareness
“This is the book I wish I’d had when I started teaching. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People represents a fundamental challenge to the textbooks that celebrate ‘liberty,’ ‘freedom,’ and the ‘rise of the American nation’ but fail to recognize the humanity—or often even the existence—of the Indigenous peoples who were here first, and are still here. Our students will see the history of this country much more clearly when we put Indigenous people’s lives at the center.” —Bill Bigelow, curriculum editor, Rethinking Schools, and codirector, Zinn Education Project
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