Memories come back from history lessons in elementary school about the intrepid European explorers visiting exotic lands to claim them for their kings. Sailors from Holland, Spain, Portugal, England, France vying to claim new territories. Never once was it mentioned that indigenous peoples had an rights to the land they occupied when the explorers arrived.
Reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz turns all that history on its head.
"Thanks to the nutritious triad of corn, beans and squash...which provide complete protein...the Americas were densely populated when the European monarchies began sponsoring colonization projects there.
The total population of the hemisphere as about one hundred million at the end of the fifteenth century, with about two-fifths in North America, including Mexico." p. 17
This history recounts the roots of colonization in Europe and in detail its effect on the indigenous peoples in America. Its difficult reading because being confronted with the brutal reality is not easy. However, it is such an important book that I wish every American...north and south would read it.
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