We are, of course, already familiar with the epic confrontations of
the nineteenth century, the genocide (intentional or otherwise)
committed by the white man, and the heroic, sometimes brutal
resistance of the Plains Indians. Jon E Lewis places these
struggles within a wider timeframe, one which embraces the Indians'
creation myths, pre-Colombian civilizations such as the Anasazi and
Huichol, the sophisticated democracy of the Iroquois (a major
influence on the American constitution) and the relatively late
introduction of the horse by the Spanish. It also serves to remind
us that the tragic tale of the "Noble Savage" didn't end, as Dee
Brown would have it, with the massacre at Wounded Knee, but
continues to this day. Native Americans may make up less than 1 per
cent of the US population but they still represent half the
languages and cultures in the nation. Theirs is a tale of survival
and hard-won victories as much as defeat and disenfranchisement.
Lewis has, where possible, "let these individuals speak for
themselves." But he is too modest. This is a fine and skilfully
orchestrated history. (Kirkus UK)
Native Americans make up less than one per cent of the total US
population but represent half the nation's languages and cultures.
Here, in one grand sweep, is the full story of Native American
society, culture and religion. Here is everything from the
land-based spirituality of their early creation myths and the late
rise of Indian Pride, to the 88 uses to which the Sioux put the
flesh and bones of the buffalo and the practice of berdache (men
adopted as women). The book offers a chronological history of
America's indigenous peoples. It covers their dramatic early entry
into North America, out of the now submerged continent of Beringia,
then in more recent times the 'forgotten wars' of the 16th and 17th
centuries, which wiped many tribes from the face of the East Coast,
and finally describes to the last struggles of the Cheyenne and the
Comanche. Celebrating these peoples' way of life rather than
focusing narrowly on the manner of their genocide, it does not
ignore uncomfortable facts of the Amerindian past - including the
cannibalism believed to have been practised by some tribes and the
Native Americans' part in the decimation of North America's buffalo
herds.
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