About this ebook
Most Americans learn a sanitized version of Native American history that begins in 1492 and ends at Wounded Knee. The truth is far more complex and compelling.
First Nations, Lasting Legacy tells the complete story, from migrations across Beringia 16,000 years ago to the Standing Rock protests of 2016. This is the real history: Cahokia's 15,000 residents in 1250 CE. The Iroquois Confederacy that influenced the U.S. Constitution. The Trail of Tears that killed 4,000 Cherokee in 1838. The Carlisle Indian School's motto: "Kill the Indian, save the man."
You will meet Metacom, who nearly drove out the Puritans in 1675. Tecumseh, who forged a pan-Indian alliance in 1811. Chief Joseph, who led the Nez Perce on a 1,300-mile fighting retreat in 1877. Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary in 2021.
This book answers questions your history teacher never addressed: How did sophisticated civilizations disappear from textbooks? Why did Andrew Jackson ignore the Supreme Court's 1832 ruling on Cherokee sovereignty? How did Indigenous peoples survive cultural genocide? What are tribes fighting for today?
Written with rigorous scholarship and compelling narrative, this account covers twelve thousand years of history that textbooks reduce to a footnote. From the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 to contemporary battles over pipelines and missing Indigenous women, every treaty violation is documented, every act of resistance honored.
Five hundred seventy-four federally recognized tribes still exist. More than 9.7 million Americans identify as Native American. Their languages are being revived. Their sovereignty is being asserted. They are not relics - they are living peoples with futures as important as their histories.
You cannot understand America without understanding the peoples who were here first and who are still here now.
