Native Nations

A true look at the current state of Native nations in the United States and how their culture has remained alive, relevant, and unwavering. Kathleen Duval rejects all European/US/White interpretation and allows for the reader to prioritize the politics and history of native nations prior to contact with Europeans and how that informed the modern era. If you have previously read 1491 I would encourage you to pick this book up immediately and relearn what you thought you knew.

From the very beginning of the book she addresses the other history books that have attempted to cover this topic. Acknowledges their strenghts and weaknesses as they delved into the diverse topic. What I liked about this book is that she stuck to one area of the Americas. She knew what she wanted to talk specifically on nations affected by the United States. That set the book in the right direction as every country that has developed in the Americas has a unique relationship to the native nations that existed.

I had never read about Cahokia and all the larger nations that were in North America. There was so much in this section that felt refreshing to read about. I have recently been pondering on the fact that society is getting too big to serve its purpose and the answer is really to grow stronger smaller communities. The fact that Europeans showed up and saw smaller groups of people was not due to a lack of society not reaching that point but a pointed decision by native nations that they didn't want concentration of power.

Something that has been populating more and more as I read books that involve the indigenous/native nations is that Europeans weren't actually all that bad. Definitely grimy, disease ridden, and greedy but also equally stupid, dependent, and lost. Native people across all the Americas didn't really fear them all that much and learned to work together. The relationship that most Europeans had was aimed at trying to control things and look like they aren't asking for help, which most natives knew was the case. What really destroyed most native nations across was the birth of new independence from European countries. When America decided to become a nation it decided that it wanted more and more and no longer respected any treaties that were signed to European countries.

Its kinda crazy to think that a bunch of white dudes just decide, boom, we have a nation. We have sovereignty and we can do whatever we want, and completely disregard the generations of history and sovereignty that you had clearly demonstrated. There is more to discuss here and what kept surfacing in my mind is how we are witnessing the same trend with Palestine. Negating sovereignty. Negating personhood. Declaring that to be a nation you must fit a certain box. I just kept thinking what does it take to become a nation??? How does it actually stick?? And why have we locked ourselves into the ones that exist?

Biggest take away is the current state of native nationhood. There is so much work to be done and so much work that has been happening in recent history. Native nations are not gone. They will never be. They are in courts using the same words and papers that kept them from growing and flipping them around to hold us accountable. Native nations need allies. They need their stories to not appear like history books and appear like the real oppresion that we allow to continue to systematically exist towards them.

Overall, I would recommend this book to someone who is looking to understand native history more and who wants to be an ally to the nations that we have heavily besieged as a modern United States.