An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States Ortiz

xii Author's Note

Red Power. I was recruited to work on Native issues in 1970 by the

remarkable Tu scarora traditionalist organizer Mad Bear Anderson,

who insisted that I must embrace my Native heritage, however frag­

ile it might be. Although hesitant at first, following the Wounded

Knee siege of (^1973) I began to work-locally, around the country,
and internationally-with the American Indian Movement and the
International Indian Treaty Council. I also began serving as an ex­
pert witness in court cases, including that of the Wounded Knee de­
fendants, bringing me into discussions with Lakota Sioux elders and
activists. Based in San Francisco during that volatile and historic
period, I completed my doctorate in history in 1974 and then took
a position teaching in a new Native American studies program. My
dissertation was on the history of land tenure in New Mexico, and
during 197 8-19 81 I was visiting director of Native American stud­
ies at the University of New Mexico. There I worked collaboratively
with the All Indian Pueblo Council, Mescalero Apache Nation, Na­
vajo Nation, and the Dinebe'iina Nahiilna be Agha'diit'ahii (DNA)
People's Legal Services, as well as with Native students, faculty, and
communities, in developing a research institute and a seminar train­
ing program in economic development.
I have lived with this book for six years, starting over a dozen
times before I settled on a narrative thread. Invited to write this
ReVisioning American History series title, I was given parameters:
it was to be intellectually rigorous but relatively brief and written
accessibly so it would engage multiple audiences. I had grave misgiv­
ings after having agreed to this ambitious project. Although it was
to be a history of the United States as experienced by the Indigenous
inhabitants, how could I possibly do justice to that varied experience
over a span of two centuries? How could I make it comprehensible
to the general reader who would likely have little knowledge of Na­
tive American history on the one hand, but might consciously or
unconsciously have a set narrative of US history on the other? Since
I was convinced of the inherent importance of the project, I per­
sisted, reading or rereading books and articles by North American
Indigenous scholars, novelists, and poets, as well as unpublished dis­
sertations, speeches, and testimonies, truly an extraordinary body
of work.