Research Guides: NYU Reads: Indigenous History

Settler Colonialism

Children, language, lands: almost everything was stripped away, stolen when you weren't looking because you were trying to stay alive

- Braiding Sweetgrass, The Council of Pecans (p.17).

Journal and News Articles

Indian tribes from European contact to the era of removal
A history of contact between European settlers and Native Americans in North Carolina, disease, war and removal policies.
For more information on North Carolina's Native American history, visit their webpage.
Sarah Winnemucca Devoted Her Life to Protecting Native Americans in the Face of an Expanding United States
A story about Sarah Winnemucca and her position between two cultures at a time when Native Americans were not considered citizens.
American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many
A brief history of boarding schools, personal accounts and today's effects.
Cherokee Adaptation to the Landscape of the West and Overcoming the Loss of Culturally Significant Plants by Alfred Vick
From the American Indian Quarterly, this article discusses how the arrival of settlers changed the landscape once occupied by the Cherokee resulting in the loss of native plants.

Three Sioux boys as they entered the Carlisle Indian Boarding School in 1883 on the left and three years after on the right. From the Carlisle Indian School Resource Center.

People of the Seventh Fire

Our elders say that we live in the time of the seventh fire. We are the ones the ancestors spoke of, the ones who will bend to the task of putting things back together to rekindle the flames of the sacred fire, to begin the rebirth of the nation.

-Braiding Sweetgrass, Shkitagen: People of the Seventh Fire (p.368).

News Articles

Introduction: Virtually Mapping Potawatomi Presences and Connections
Elan Pochedley has partnered with the Cultural Heritage Center of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation (CPN) to map ways in which decolonization can be achieved through the revitalization of Potawatomi presence.
How The U.S. has spent more money erasing Native languages than saving them
How the United States provided more funding for erasing Native languages, less funding for restoring it and the tribes aiming to reclaim their language.

Books

Print Books

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer
Publication Date: 2019
Beginning with the tribes' devastating loss of land and the forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools, he shows how the period of greatest adversity also helped to incubate a unifying Native identity. He traces how conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of their self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is an essential, intimate history - and counter-narrative - of a resilient people in a transformative era.
Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne
Publication Date: 2010
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined when the American West opened up. Gwynne's exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads.
All the Real Indians Died Off by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Publication Date: 2016
Scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations. Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths such as- "Columbus Discovered America" "Thanksgiving Proves the Indians Welcomed Pilgrims" "Indians Were Savage and Warlike" "Europeans Brought Civilization to Backward Indians" "The United States Did Not Have a Policy of Genocide" "Sports Mascots Honor Native Americans" "Most Indians Are on Government Welfare" "Indian Casinos Make Them All Rich" "Indians Are Naturally Predisposed to Alcohol" Each chapter deftly shows how these myths are rooted in the fears and prejudice of European settlers and in the larger political agendas of a settler state aimed at acquiring Indigenous land and tied to narratives of erasure and disappearance.
Words Have a Past: The English Language, Colonialism, and the Newspapers of Indian Boarding Schools by Jane Griffith
Publication Date: 2019
For nearly 100 years, Indian boarding schools in Canada and the US produced newspapers read by white settlers, government officials, and Indigenous parents. These newspapers were used as a settler colonial tool, yet within these tightly controlled narratives there also existed sites of resistance. This book traces colonial narratives of language, time, and place from the nineteenth-century to the present day, post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
*An ebook version is also available via NYU Proquest*

Ebooks

The Columbian Exchange by Alfred W. Crosby
Publication Date: 2003
The Columbian exchange, between the Old World and the New, changed the history of our planet drastically and forever. The book The Columbian Exchange changed the field of history drastically and forever as well. It has become one of the foundational works in the burgeoning field of environmental history, and it remains one of the canonical texts for the study of world history. The Columbian Exchange remains a vital book, a small work that contains within the inspiration for future examinations into what happens when two peoples, separated by time and space, finally meet.
*The physical copy is also available via NYU Libraries*
History of American Indians: Exploring Diverse Roots by Robert R. McCoy; Steven M. Fountain
Publication Date: 2017
History of American Indians: Exploring Diverse Roots provides a broad chronological overview of Native American history that enables a deeper understanding of the origins and early history of American Indians and presents new scholarship based on the latest research. Readers will learn a wealth of American Indian history as well as appreciate the key role American Indians played in certain significant stages of American history as a whole. The direct connections between the events in the past and many current hot-button topics--such as race, climate change, water use, and other issues--are clearly identified. Addresses topics that are often overlooked in other narratives, such as the American Indian's role in the Civil War Covers contemporary American Indian life and culture
Three Fires Unity by Philip C. Bellfy
Publication Date: 2011
Since their first contact with Europeans around 1600, the Anishnaabeg have interacted with--and struggled against--changing and shifting European empires and the emerging nation-states that have replaced them. Through their cultural strength, diplomatic acumen, and a remarkable knack for adapting to change, the Anishnaabeg of the Lake Huron Borderlands have reemerged as a strong and vital people, fully in charge of their destiny in the twenty-first century. Three Fires Unity examines how shifting European politics and, later, the imposition of the Canada-United States border running through their homeland, affected them and continue to do so today. In looking at the cultural, social, and political aspects of this borderland contact, Phil Bellfy sheds light on how the Anishnaabeg were able to survive and even thrive over the centuries in this intensely contested region.
*The physical copy is also available via NYU Libraries*
The Other Trail of Tears by Mary Stockwell
Publication Date: 2015
The Removal of the Ohio Indians tells the story of this region's historic tribes as they struggled following the death of Tecumseh and the unraveling of his tribal confederacy in 1813. The book chronicles the history of Ohio's Indians and their interactions with settlers and U.S. agents in the years leading up to their official removal, and sheds light on the complexities of the process, with both individual tribes and the United States taking advantage of opportunities at different times. It is also the story of how the native tribes tried to come to terms with the fast pace of change on America's western frontier and the inevitable loss of their traditional homelands. While the tribes often disagreed with one another, they attempted to move toward the best possible future for all their people against the relentless press of settlers and limited time.
*The physical copy is also available via NYU Libraries*

Organizations

Native Hope
Native Hope is a non-profit organization that seeks to address the injustices done to Native Americans through community outreach, scholarships and assistance.
The Cultural Conservancy
The Cultural Conservancy aims to restore Native American culture, food and art.

Additional Resources

Native Turtle Island (North America)
by NYU Libraries Last Updated Apr 5, 2024 188 views this year

Native American Historical Timeline by Native Voices
A timeline of Native American history from 100,000 BC to 2011. Learn about tribal origin stories, encounters with settlers and government policies.
Native American Heritage Month -PBS
Learn about Native American heritage month through documentaries and short clips via PBS.

Land Acknowledgement

A Land Acknowledgement is a statement recognizing the Indigenous communities that have been displaced from their land upon which an institution was built on. It pays respects to Indigenous communities and opens up the space for tribal sovereignty. By placing a Land Acknowledgement statement in institutions, we are acknowledging that the space it was built was on stolen land and allows these very same institutions to educate and dismantle the legacy of settler colonialism.

Guide to Indigenous Land and Territorial Acknowledgements for Cultural Institutions
NYU's Native Studies' Forum guide provides information on Land Acknowledgements including the definition, its importance and suggestions for creating your own land acknowledgement.
Native-Land.ca
Hello from Vancouver, as well as from the team at Native-Land.ca! Native Land is a tool that maps out Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages. We initially began in North America and have spread increasingly worldwide, and new areas are added
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This tool is not meant to be an official, legal, or archival resource. It is instead a broadly researched and crowdsourced body of information. It is meant to encourage education and engagement
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Native Land brings about discussions of colonization, land rights, language, and Indigenous history tied to our personal histories. We hope this guide makes you, the reader, want to know about the land you live on.
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