'Native Nations' by Kathleen DuVal

 Native Nations, Kathleen DuVal (4.0)

It’s a shame that it won’t happen, but this book should be required reading for all High School students. The author has done amazing research to accurately describe the history of the status and interactions of the native people of our continent with the incoming Europeans. She starts with the large ‘cities’ of the 11^th century (i.e. Cahokia) to illustrate how they had societies and a deep civilization prior to the arrival of others. She then spends a lot of time in the 15-19^th centuries as they start to interact, not quite realizing that the incoming people believe they ‘own’ this land that is new to them. I found most interesting the discussion of how the people here had to deal with 3 groups showing up to trade with them (Spanish, English, French) and how that changed after the Revolution when an actual country (US) turned their organized armies towards moving them out. The last few chapters are heart-breaking as you see the ignorance and bigotry wielded by people in power to try to squelch and frankly wipe out those here before them. My biggest complaint is the length of the book. The theme and wisdom sometimes got bogged down in lists of food, crafts, etc.