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Indigenous scholars, novelists, and poets, as well as unpublished dis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.