The defeat of George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn was big news in 1876. Newspaper coverage of the battle initiated hot debates about whether the U.S. government should change its policy toward American Indians and who was to blame for the army's loss--the latter, an argument that ignites passion to this day. In "Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud, "James E. Mueller draws on exhaustive research of period newspapers to explore press coverage of the famous battle. As he analyzes a wide range of accounts--some grim, some circumspect, some even laced with humor--Mueller offers a unique take on the dramatic events that so shook the American public.
Among the many myths surrounding the Little Bighorn is that journalists of that time were incompetent hacks who, in response to the stunning news of Custer's defeat, called for bloodthirsty revenge against the Indians and portrayed the "boy general" as a glamorous hero who had suffered a martyr's death. Mueller argues otherwise, explaining that the journalists of 1876 were not uniformly biased against the Indians, and they did a credible job of describing the battle. They reported facts as they knew them, wrote thoughtful editorials, and asked important questions.
Although not without their biases, journalists reporting on the Battle of the Little Bighorn cannot be credited--or faulted--for creating the legend of Custer's Last Stand. Indeed, as Mueller reveals, after the initial burst of attention, these journalists quickly moved on to other stories of their day. It would be art and popular culture--biographies, paintings, Wild West shows, novels, and movies--that would forever embed the Last Stand in the American psyche.

Helen Hunt Jackson's famous expos chronicles the oppression and murder the Native American peoples suffered throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. This book was published in 1885, at a time when the final conflicts between the United States and the Native American populations were being fought. The concept of allotted reservations as a means of settling land disputes had by then been underway for decades. At this point in time, the colonial settlers from Europe had spent over a century driving back the native inhabitants of North America. Jackson casts her examination over the preceding century, cataloging the systematic process through which the Native American populace was suppressed, killed and robbed of their lands and heritage. Each separate tribe is considered, such as the Cherokees, Sioux and the Delawares: for each we are given a cultural profile, before Jackson details the interactions - peaceful and hostile - each respective tribe had with the incipient European settlers.

This wide-ranging survey of the environmental damage to Native American lands and peoples in North America-in recent times as well as previous decades-documents the continuing impact on the health, wellness, land, and communities of indigenous peoples. Beginning in the early 1950s, Native peoples were recruited to mine "yellow dust"-uranium-and then, over decades, died in large numbers of torturous cancers. Uranium-induced cancers have become the deadliest plague unleashed upon Native peoples of North America-one with grave consequences impacting generations of American Indian families. Today, resource-driven projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline continue to put the health and safety of American Indians at risk. Authored by an expert with 40 years of experience in the subject, this book documents the environmental provocations afflicting Native American peoples in the United States: from the toll of uranium mining on the Navajos to the devastation wrought by dioxin, PCBs, and other pollutants on the agricultural economy of the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation in northernmost New York. The detailed personal stories of human suffering will enable readers to grasp the seriousness of the injustices levied against Native peoples as a result of corporations' and governments' greed for natural resources. Exposes readers to complete and current information about the severe environmental and health concerns that American Indians living on reservations experience due to environmental degradation Encourages awareness of the issues tribal governments and Indian communities commonly face in balancing economic rewards and environmental and health consequences Provides important historical context to support readers' understanding of the present-day situation of American Indians and reservation life

During the colonial period, thousands of North American Native peoples travelled to Cuba independently as traders, diplomats, missionary candidates, immigrants, or refugees; others were forcibly transported as captives, slaves, indentured labourers, or prisoners of war. Over the half millennium after Spanish contact, Cuba served as the principal destination and residence of peoples as diverse as the Yucatec Mayas of Mexico; the Calusa, Timucua, Creek, and Seminole peoples of Florida; and the Apache and Puebloan cultures of the northern provinces of New Spain. In this first history of the significant and diverse Amerindian presence in Cuba during and well beyond the early colonial period, Yaremko demonstrates the diverse, multifaceted, and dynamic nature of the indigenous diaspora in colonial Cuba. Acknowledging these groups' role in geopolitical, diplomatic, economic, and diasporic processes, Yaremko argues that these migrants played an essential role in the historical development of Cuba. With case studies and documentation from various sites, Yaremko's narrative presents a fuller history of Amerindian migration and diaspora in Cuba and the rest of Latin America.

Aboriginal Maritime Landscapes in South Australia reveals the maritime landscape of a coastal Aboriginal mission, Burgiyana (Point Pearce), in South Australia, based on the experiences of the Narungga community. A collaborative initiative with Narungga peoples and a cross-disciplinary approach have resulted in new understandings of the maritime history of Australia. Analysis of the long-term participation of Narungga peoples in Australia's maritime past, informed by Narungga oral histories, primary archival research and archaeological fieldwork, delivers insights into the world of Aboriginal peoples in the post-contact maritime landscape. This demonstrates that multiple interpretations of Australia's maritime past exist and provokes a reconsideration of how the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology is seen. This book describes the balance ground shaped through the collaboration, collision and reconciliation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Australia. It considers community-based practices, cohesively recording such areas of importance to Aboriginal communities as beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences through a maritime lens, highlighting the presence of Narungga and Burgiyana peoples in a heretofore Western-dominated maritime literature. Through its consideration of such themes as maritime archaeology and Aboriginal history, the book is of value to scholars in a broad range of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, history and Indigenous studies.

The literature on Australian Aborigines is vast, but much of it is strangely silent about the experiences and activities of women. This collection of stories of the eventful lives and strong characters of a number of Aboriginal women offers a more intimate and personal view. Their lives span a century of history in fifteen communities scattered from Cape York Peninsula, Arnhem Land and East Kimberley to the Western Desert, the Centre, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. One of these stories is an autobiography and each of the others contains transcriptions or translations of a woman's own reminiscences, with additional details given by the author. Some women recall the first time they saw a European in their land, others tell how Europeans had influenced their communities generations before they were born. While the authors lived in Aboriginal communities in order to study some particular aspect of the society, the women they describe here became their close friends, companions and helpers, and this book is a record of friendships formed against differences of background, experiences and age. Allegiance to family and familiar territory shapes the personal histories of Aborigines in ways scarcely appreciated by people reared in nuclear family households in cities. The strength of family and community ties can be better understood through reading about the women who contribute so much to the maintenance of these communities.

Society is continually moving towards global interaction, and nations often contain citizens of numerous cultures and backgrounds. Bi-culturalism incorporates a higher degree of social inclusion in an effort to bring about social justice and change, and it may prove to be an alternative to the existing dogma of mainstream Europe-based hegemonic bodies of knowledge. The Handbook of Research on Indigenous Knowledge and Bi-Culturalism in a Global Context is a collection of innovative studies on the nature of indigenous bodies' knowledge that incorporates the sacred or spiritual influence across various countries following World War II, while exploring the difficulties faced as society immerses itself in bi-culturalism. While highlighting topics including bi-cultural teaching, Africology, and education empowerment, this book is ideally designed for academicians, urban planners, sociologists, anthropologists, researchers, and professionals seeking current research on validating the growth of indigenous thinking and ideas.