Did Native Americans suffer genocide? This controversial question lies at the heart of Native America and the Question of Genocide. After reviewing the various meanings of the word "genocide," author Alex Alvarez examines a range of well-known examples, such as the Sand Creek Massacre and the Long Walk of the Navajo, to determine where genocide occurred and where it did not. The book explores the destructive beliefs of the European settlers and then looks at topics including disease, war, and education through the lens of genocide. Native America and the Question of Genocide shows the diversity of Native American experiences postcontact and illustrates how tribes relied on ever-evolving and changing strategies of confrontation and accommodation, depending on their location, the time period, and individuals involved, and how these often resulted in very different experiences. Alvarez treats this difficult subject with sensitivity and uncovers the complex realities of this troubling period in American history.

Does the proliferation of post-atrocity remedies over the past 25-plus years-the human rights movement, reparations and other justice schemes, and memorials and counter-memorials-suggest promising alternatives to retributive criminal proceedings? Or does it mean that very little so far is working? This collection of essays, written by scholars with ties to Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, Ghana, Indonesia, Iraq, and the United States, argues that a new post-atrocity framework is taking root. In search for a more reliably favorable post-atrocity succession, the volume's contributors weigh the merits of practices circumventing the state, whose anemic performance has failed to manage large-scale violence and restore confidence in social stability and security. This ascendant phase includes citizen activism, historical dialogues, and witnesses' accounts. Into the breach where state actors prevailed, citizens "from below" are seizing opportunities for independent intervention. While all transitional frameworks are vulnerable, this volume provides a thoughtful, requisite evaluation of citizen activism for scholars, non-governmental organization practitioners, government and think-tank policymakers, and teachers at all levels.