An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

This book is a history of the United States that follows the indigenous peoples' that have been here for millennia. It discusses the political and socioeconomic ties indigenous peoples' have had with the United States government and how much of that history is unknown to the general populace. I learned so much in this book that I have never been taught or heard about. I had a baseline knowledge about the genocide and erasure that the US government enacted on the indigenous peoples', but learning the details was truly harrowing. Dunbar-Ortiz walks the reader through many major people in American history who were very anti-Native American and who worked very hard to eradicate their very existence. Some of the people I already knew about, like Andrew Jackson, but many of them I wasn't aware of and it was extremely disheartening, although sadly, not surprising. She then walks us through the additional struggles Native American's still face today, which I knew absolutely nothing about. I'm very glad I now know these things so I can do what I can moving forward to speak out about these injustices and help where I'm able.

This book is an important read for anyone living in the US because it is very important for us to come to terms with our violent, racist background and start to work towards reparations for these groups of people that we have systematically abused for our entire history.