Sharon Day (Ojibwe)

Today, as we read about the Russian war against the people of Ukraine, we are horrified at the atrocities committed especially against the women and children. People in the United States talk about the pride and courage of the Ukrainians taking up arms to defend their homelands and their form of democracy. It does not seem to be very different than the History of the United State or rather “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States For Young People.”

“On June 7, 1790, Secretary of War Henry Knox told an army commander that the frontier was so extensive it would be “altogether impossible” to defend.  The only solution he said, was to “extirpate, utterly, if possible”, the Indigenous peoples who pushed back against settlements. The army did not have enough professional soldiers to carry out Knox’s orders. They would need mercenaries, so officers recruited men from the militias made up of squatters from Kentucky. They were unaccustomed to army discipline but willing to exchange scalps for bounty or to kill Native people in exchange for a plot of land.” 

Definition of Extirpate: to exterminate or destroy a living entity or group so completely that it ceases to exist forever. 

It seems to me, history repeats itself, when we do not learn, reconcile or make reparations for the wrongs we have done to peoples not only here in the United States but around the world. This is one reason why this book, this history is so important for young readers. The truth is always true and no amount of whitewashing will ever make it untrue. Also healing cannot happen if we do not acknowledge the past so we can move forward. 

Pearl Walker-Swaney (Lakota/Dakota/Anishinaabe of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe/White Earth Nation)

Reading the first few pages of the book, the youth in me felt so seen. I first learned about the details of the violent acts and genocide against my people and all Indigenous people as a young adult in college. It was years after being a youth that I finally had the language and terms to describe everything I was experiencing. I finally learned about the stories that were left out of my school classrooms and understood the questions I had asked my history teacher that went unanswered. It was the brilliance and ability of my professors to hold space at the American Indian Resource Center at Bemidji State University for these difficult and necessary truths, that I gained a deeper understanding of my relationships, my family dynamics, the nuances of the world around me, and the healing that we collectively need to work towards.

What broke me into an ugly cry was reading about the harm that the Europeans and colonizers had done to Indigenous women, children, and elders. No matter how many times I hear about the brutality, or the assault and violence, it breaks me. As a birthworker holding space for the sacred and valuing each life born into this world, it makes me weep for those children, their parents, and their families, my ancestors, who had their lives taken because “it was the will of God”.  There is no greater lie or heinous acts than that of the Christians who created the Doctrine of Discovery to justify genocidal policies against Indigenous people.

It was necessary for me to take breaks. To put the book down and come back to it again. The pain that lives in the words and ink of every page also contains beauty, resilience, and thriving. As an Indigenous person, reading this history again, it was difficult. Yet, it made my young self feel so seen. As uncomfortable as it may be, I hope to see educators, parents, and youth alike, understanding that Indigenous history is US history. Anishinaabe and Dakota history is Minnesota history. In order for the narrative around Indigenous people to shift and our history to be told more accurately, our history needs to be at the forefront of all discussions about US history.