An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“A New Timeline”

In this activity, students will choose an event in American history and place it within the context of Indigenous history to create a new class-generated timeline.

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States explains how Native American history differs from the traditional narratives of American history. Choose an event or period from Dunbar-Ortiz’s book. Some examples could include the French and Indian War, the Civil War, the occupation of Alcatraz, World War I, or World War II. As a class, you will make a list of events on the board in chronological order.

Part A

Individually, answer the following questions:

• What event or period did you choose?
• In what year or years did this event take place?
• What did you know about this event before you read An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States? How has your understanding of this event changed?
• What did you learn from Dunbar-Ortiz’s book?
• Research additional information about the event. What tribes were involved? How do they tell this history?

Part B

With the earliest event going first, each student should take three to four minutes to share about their event or period. Then, as a class, consider the following questions:

• How is this narrative of history different from what you had learned before?
• How does this change your view of the United States?

Teaching Suggestion: To avoid potential confusion and overlapping information, it may be helpful to create a list of relevant events in advance and assign each event to a specific group for additional research and consideration. In this instance, the questions in Part A and Part B could serve as a guide for group discussion.

Differentiation Suggestion: If students are concerned about presenting in front of the class, each student could instead turn in an individual slide in advance with a recorded narration, and then the class could watch and take notes on the whole slide show together. This would also benefit technologically inclined students and strengthen the class’s video-editing skills. Alternatively, this Activity could be amended in the form of a research paper in which students evaluate the content and message in Dunbar-Ortiz’s text, as well as its overall impact since its publication in 2014.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Sovereignty is defined as supreme power or authority and is considered a key element in Indigenous survival.

• How have Indigenous people maintained their sovereignty over time? How has it helped them to survive? (topic sentence)
• What are three examples of Indigenous nations exerting their sovereignty from the text, and what effect did these efforts ultimately have?
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, consider what point the author is making about theme of Perseverance of Indigenous Resistance and Sovereignty as Survival.

2. The United States has used a variety of strategies to force Indigenous people to assimilate.

• How is assimilation a part of the United States’ way of waging war? (topic sentence)
• What are three strategies of assimilation that the United States government used, and what were the long-term effects?
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, consider how this assimilation connects to the theme of The US Way of War From the Past to the Present.

3. Manifest destiny is the vision of the United States expanding across the North American continent.

• What is the relationship between manifest destiny and American exceptionalism? (topic sentence)
• Choose and analyze three examples from the text that support your argument, and make sure to discuss the relevant context of each example.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate the text in relation to the theme of The Falsehood of the US Origin Myth and US Exceptionalism.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. What is Dunbar-Ortiz trying to teach readers about the telling of history? Is this book meant to be an end point—in which reading it means that one has enough information about Indigenous peoples—or is it a starting point? Write an essay in which you evaluate Dunbar-Ortiz’s approach to history and the expectations she has of her audience. Provide at least three examples from the text to support your argument. In your concluding sentence or sentences, connect your essay back to the theme of Perseverance of Indigenous Resistance and Sovereignty as Survival.

2. The story of the United States has not been historically about the wars that the country has waged. However, Dunbar-Ortiz sees war as a critical element in both Indigenous history and in the ways that the United States wages war abroad today. Write an essay in which you analyze the role of war in this text, considering what has remained the same and what has changed over time. Provide several examples from the text to support your thesis and connect your essay back to the theme of The US Way of War From the Past to the Present.

3. What argument does Dunbar-Ortiz make against American exceptionalism? How does she place America as a nation within a global context? Consider these questions as you analyze her use of the US origin myth and its impact on Indigenous communities. Include a strong central thesis in your essay and connect it back to the theme of The Falsehood of the US Origin Myth and US Exceptionalism.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What does Dunbar-Ortiz argue is the effect of the US origin myth?

A) That the myth makes people too proud to be American

B) That the myth causes people to accept genocide and settler colonialism within US society

C) That the myth can be written to be inclusive of Indigenous peoples

D) That the myth ignores large parts of American history

2. What does “firsting and lasting” mean as a way of telling history?

A) Indigenous peoples were the “first” Americans; European settlers were the “last” to arrive.

B) Indigenous peoples were the “first” Americans but only the “last” of them remain.

C) Indigenous peoples were the “first” to explore the world; European settlers were the “last” to come to the United States.

D) Indigenous peoples today are the “last” of their kin; European settlers were the “first” to discover America.

3. Why does Dunbar-Ortiz use quotation marks around terms?

A) She uses quotation marks to highlight bias in traditional tellings of US history.

B) She uses quotation marks to quote prominent historical figures, both Native and settler.

C) She uses quotation marks to show how some words thought to have positive associations actually have negative associations.

D) She uses quotation marks to introduce new terms in Indigenous history.

4. Why does Dunbar-Ortiz incorporate European history in this history of Indigenous peoples?

A) To show how Native history is not confined to what is now the United States

B) To show how a “culture of conquest” was confined to Great Britain’s treatment of Ireland

C) To show how a “culture of conquest” developed, which was later brought to the Americas

D) To show how European settlers viewed themselves and defined their strategy of colonization

5. What resource does Dunbar-Ortiz see as the center of her narrative?

A) Food

B) Water

C) Land

D) Capitalism

6. Which of the following images does Dunbar-Ortiz challenge by illustrating the violence enacted by settlers on Indigenous peoples?

A) Lying officials

B) Violent settlers

C) Corrupt leaders

D) Peaceful pilgrims

7. Whose early strategy would become a model for future 20th-century, pan-Indigenous movements?

A) Jackson’s

B) Tecumseh’s

C) Lincoln’s

D) Dunbar-Ortiz’s

8. Which of the following best describes how Dunbar-Ortiz wants readers to react when they encounter her book?

A) She hopes that readers will be less accepting of traditional narratives of history and that they will be challenged by this history.

B) She hopes that readers will become more aware of history, even though it has no effect on the present.

C) She hopes that readers will understand that understanding history is about finding the middle ground between two truths.

D) She hopes that readers will engage in conversations with her to tell additional stories about Indigenous peoples in the United States.

9. Which of the following is an example of the problems colonialism created within Indigenous communities?

A) The relationship between the Cherokee and Spanish settlers regarding squatters

B) The alliance between the Miami and the Shawnee in Ohio Country

C) The problems with the Cherokee and the British during the American Revolution

D) The division of the Muskogee who relied on colonialists for personal wealth and the rest of their community

10. Which of the following best describes why Dunbar-Ortiz mentions works by Walt Whitman and James Fenimore Cooper?

A) She mentions these authors to highlight their importance in American history.

B) She mentions these authors to show how the US origin myth was spread through popular culture.

C) She mentions these authors to give examples of American literature read by Indigenous peoples in the United States.

D) She mentions these authors to suggest that they tried pointing out the United States’ approach to colonization.

11. Which of the following best describes Dunbar-Ortiz’s argument about “Indian wars” from Chapters 7-10?

A) “Indian wars” refer to only those conflicts before the reservation system started.

B) “Indian wars” are complicated and always have more than two sides to each conflict.

C) “Indian wars” provided a template for US military tactics abroad.

D) “Indian wars” are still going on today.

12. What word summarizes the importance of maintaining Indigenous traditions and culture?

A) Allotment

B) Assimilation

C) Religion

D) Sovereignty

13. Which of the following elements are part of nation building for Indigenous peoples?

A) Self-determination and autonomy

B) Self-determination and assimilation

C) Citizenship and autonomy

D) Citizenship and assimilation

14. Who, according to Dunbar-Ortiz, is responsible for reckoning with the harms of the past?

A) Indigenous communities

B) Past presidents

C) Everyone

D) The United States government

15. What assumption does Dunbar-Ortiz combat by pointing to 21st-century efforts by Indigenous nations to regain their land, traditions, and sovereignty?

A) That the United States government is unwilling to compromise with other nations

B) That historians don’t want to tell the stories of Indigenous communities

C) That Indigenous history must be passed down in an oral tradition

D) That Indigenous people no longer exist

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What is one of the ways in which Dunbar-Ortiz sees “the colonial condition” at work, and how does it inform today’s society? (Chapter 10)

2. How is this book a story of Indigenous survival? In your response, discuss one example of Indigenous activism or resistance and explain its relevance.