Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

Nov 30

About the book

Author: Kathleen DuVal
Publisher: Random House

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My review

Kathleen DuVal’s Native Nations, winner of the Pulitzer for history, has joined Stamped From the Beginning as the two books that have rewritten my understanding of history the most.

This is not an easy read — it is a book that challenges you to PAY ATTENTION. Closely. Read slowly. Listen carefully. And if you do, you will be rewarded with a book that truly rewrites what you thought you understood about colonialism and Indigenous people in North America — even if you thought you understood a lot.

I expected this book to teach me more about the events of history, but what I didn’t expect (naively) was for it to completely overturn my understanding of Indigenous Americans as peoples — peoples who were not caught unawares as victims of an imperial giant but rather active negotiators, politicians, and tacticians in a war that they lost. Even as someone who lives in Onondaga county in upstate NY, I realize now that knew almost nothing (nothing!) about the Mohawk or greater Haudenosaunee people.

Please read this book.