238 Acknowledgments
of my dissertation on the history of land tenure in New Mexico.
Of Powhatan-Renape and Lenape descent, Jack was an activist
historian who inspired me to follow that path once I received a
doctorate in history. He founded the Native American Studies De
partment and its doctoral program at the University of California,
Davis, and cofounded D-Q University; In addition to working to
gether on developing Native American studies programs, I joined him
in research with the Pit River (California) Nation's land struggle and
with the Western Shoshone Nation of Battle Mountain in Nevada.
In my own political and intellectual development studying colo
nialism and imperialism in Africa and the Americas and supporting
national liberation movements, I found a kindred soul in 1975 when
I met Howard Adams (1921-2001). Howard was a Meris political
leader from rural Saskatchewan, a Marxist, and professor of Native
American studies at UC Davis, recruited by Jack Forbes. Howard
was the first academic I had met who had grown up as poor as I had,
about which we had many conversations. His heartrending and el
egant 1975 memoir-history of the Meris and their great leader Louis
Riel, Prison of Grass: Canada fr om a Native Point of View, now a
classic, became a template for my own research and writing.
An overarching narrative of US history based on the historical
experience and perspective of Indigenous peoples, which I have at
tempted to synthesize in this book, would not have been possible
without the research, analysis, and perspectives that have emerged
from several generations of Indigenous intellectuals, historians,
writers, poets, filmmakers, musicians, and artists. Working singly
and collectively, they contribute to decolonizing the master narra
tives and politics that in the past have largely covered the finger
prints of centuries -of genocide and genocidal policies. Thereby, they
contribute to Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and na
tional liberation.
This book benefited also from conversations with Gerald Vize
nor and Jean Dennison about Native constitutional developments;
Andrew Curley on environmentalism and the Navajo Nation; Wazi
yatatawin on the catastrophe of climate change for all humanity, but
especially Indigenous peoples; Nick Estes, Daphne Taylor-Garcia,
Gloria Chacon, and Michael Trujillo on Indigenous identity; Susan