Native America from 1890 to Present

Description

This SDG seeks to examine the history of Native America after the massacre at Wounded Knee to the present. The core book is The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present written by David Treuer. The book has been widely praised and was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award. It tells a comprehensive story of Indian survival, resilience, adaptability and pride. It does so in a readable manner combining reportage, memoir and historical scholarship. The book shatters one myth after another and moves seamlessly from the big story to the tales of Native American lives. A beautifully written book telling a story that must be read, studied and understood.

Weekly Topics

  1. Prologue; Part 1 Narrating the Apocalypse; Early Tribes and Homelands; The Southeast; The Seminole Wars; The Northeast; The Northwest; The Great Lakes and the Ohio River Valley.

  2. The Southwest; California; The Pacific Northwest; The Great Basin; The Southern Great Plains; The Northern Plains; 1890.

  3. Part 2 Purgatory 1891-1934; The End of the Treaty Era; Chief Joseph and Chief Standing Bear; The Beginning of the Indian Rights Movement; The Indian Boarding Schools; Allotment.

  4. Indian Offenses; The Seeds of Tribal Resistance; Part 3 Fighting Life 1914-1945; The Meriam Report.

  5. Emergence of Tribal Governments; John Collier and the Indian Reorganization; War and Migration; Entering the Cage; Part 4 Moving On Up; Migration; The Kansas Act.

  6. Termination; The Indian Claims Commission; Relocation; Part 5 Becoming Indian 1970-1990; The Rise of Red Power; National Indian Youth Council; Panthers and Red Power.

  7. The Rise of the American Indian Movement; AIM at  Pine Ridge; War on Poverty; The Indian Education Act; Jumping Bull.

  8. Anna Mae Aquash; Part 6 Boom City-Tribal Capitalism; Blood Quantum and Disenrollment.

  9. Part 7 Digital Indians 1990-2018; Epilogue. 

Bibliography

David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, New York, Riverhead Books, 2019.