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The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America Editorial Review:
Now available in paperback, The Earth Shall Weep is a groundbreaking, critically acclaimed history of the Native American peoples. Combining traditional historical sources with new insights from ethnography, archaeology, Indian oral tradition, and years of his original research, James Wilson weaves a historical narrative that puts Native Americans at the center of their struggle for survival against the tide of invading European peoples and cultures. The Earth Shall Weep charts the collision course between Euro-Americans and the indigenous people of the continent, from the early interactions at English settlements on the Atlantic coast, through successive centuries of encroachment and outright warfare, to the new political force of the Native American activists of today. It is a clash that would ultimately result in the reduction of the Native American population from an estimated seven to ten million to 250,000 over a span of four hundred years, and change the face of the continent forever. A tour de force of narrative history, The Earth Shall Weep is a powerful, moving telling of the story of Native Americans that has become the new standard for future work in the field.
Customer Reviews:
Revisionist whitewash
Native Americans did suffer tremendous injustices at the hands of EuroAmericans - no student of history could deny that. Mr. Wilson, however, makes his case by continually trivializing any hint of violence or savagery on the part of Indian raiders in order to paint his simplified portrait of white/Native relations. There are two sides to any story, and while the Native side was woefully slighted in the nineteenth and early 20th century histories, the solution is not to whitewash the story in the other direction. Mr. Wilson frequently makes sweeping assertions (claiming that Pequot warriors never tortured prisoners or even killed when it was unnecessary) without the slightest citation to back up his refutation of documented facts.
Brilliantly written book about a tragic era in American history
It's not the earth shall weep, it's everyone who should weep for the awful treatment of Native Americans by Euro American colonists. After the prologue, which read like an academic paper that almost sent me to sleep, the remaining book was very engaging.
The book explained in horrific detail what happened to the tribes of each region. While brilliantly written, with every turn of the page, I kept hoping the story would get better, but it never did; Native Americans were often massacred without provocation, were lied to and betrayed multiple times by colonists and the American government, and had their land taken from them.
I felt despair and sadness for them just reading their history, I hate to imagine how the Native Americans, who survived, must have felt as all these injustices were being committed against them.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the relationship between Native Americans and colonists.
Book of Lies
For anyone considering buying this book--save your money; for anyone considering reading this book--don't waste your time. If you have ever met a Cherokee in your life, a real Cherokee, not merely someone who lives on the rez or is eligible for government handouts, but I mean if you have ever met a real Cherokee then you will know that if you read this book you will not be reading about Cherokee people. Instead you will read information that was published to toy with your mind, it was published out of an attempt to fool you and lead you away from the truth.
*The Cherokee are truly fascinating people, beautiful, intelligent, and wise, in fact they are very special.
Tells it like it is
The book is honest and should be used in every classroom. Why isn't this information in textbooks? American history in current text books fail to decribe what really happened to Native Americans.
Columbus to Collier
Helen Hunt Jackson's "A Century of Dishonor," [1881] initiated a string of books by white writers attempting to impart the disaster imposed on North America's native peoples by invaders from Europe. James Wilson has taken a place in that queue with this sweeping study of how native peoples were displaced, deceived, diseased and nearly destroyed. It isn't pleasant reading, but conquest never is when told from the view of the conquered. Wilson attempts to provide a whisper of that voice with as many native peoples' accounts as he could obtain. The result vividly demonstrates the disparity of outlook between the Europeans and those they overran over the course of five centuries.
Although no attempt is made to preface the arrival of Columbus with some account of the previous life of North American native peoples, the text recounts their legends and mythology as they are encountered. Only a smattering of paleoanthropology is offered, and the "consensus" version of Native American origins is dismissed out of hand. Wilson's regional approach is a refreshing departure from the usual chronological format. However, since the focus is on the 48 contiguous States, region and chronology aren't all that distinct.
The issues are land and culture, with a seasoning of racism. The native American "used" the land while the Europeans "owned" it. Native American culture was disparate, often locked into local conditions. Europeans imported a hierarchical society and imposed it wherever they went. Since they went all across the continent, continual clashes were inevitable - and the Europeans won nearly all of them. By the end of the 19th Century, the "Indian", if not extinct, had lost the continent and nearly all culture. According to Wilson, that was precisely what the invaders intended. Where slaughter failed, assimilation could still force disappearance of the "native" from society.
Attempts to rectify, or at least ameliorate what had occurred over the years, were doomed to failure. The variety of cultures among the Indian nations made consistent policy by the federal government impossible. State government attempts, feeble at best, were worse. The closest to a rational policy for dealing with the remaining Indians in the 20th Century were due to one man - John Collier. Starting in the 1920s, Collier struggled to restore some form of the original culture of Native Americans. His programme, now referred to as the "Native New Deal," was based on his own search for a solution to world problems of the era. Years of effort were rewarded by his appointment as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The onset of the Great Depression gave Collier ample opportunity to propagandize his cause as an alternative to the failure of the dominant culture. His efforts to achieve a form of "home rule" for the Indian population is reflected in many programmes still under consideration today. He has left a long, and generally unrecognized, legacy.
Those bemoaning the "lack of balance" in this book overlook the fact that Europeans were the invaders and despoilers. The spectrum of philosophies regarding the "Noble Savage" uniformly fail to address precisely what Wilson does here. An alien culture displaced another, native one, using whatever means necessary. It's a sad, but true, chronicle. Wilson's depiction of it makes dreary reading, but that's due to events, not his style. A fine introduction to the past relationship of conquerors and conquered, this book concludes with a realistic account of the present situation. With increasing demand for resources by the planet's most avaricious society, sustaining or restoring Indian culture is a remote ambition. The clash of cultures remains an issue, which this book clearly outlines. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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