“Of a thousand Red Stick and allied insurgents, eight hundred were killed. [Andrew] Jackson lost forty-nine men.” GenocideAmerican HistoryUs HistoryNative AmericansNative American GenocideAndrew Jackson Book:An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Source: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
“How then can the US society come to terms with its past? How can it acknowledge responsibility? The late Native historian Jack Forbes always stressed that while living persons are not responsible for what their ancestors did, they are responsible for the society they live in, which is a product of that past. Assuming this responsibility provides a means of survival and liberation. Everyone and everything in the world is affected, for the most part negatively, by US dominance and intervention, often violently through direct military means or through proxies.” Human RightsGenocideUs HistoryColonizationEmpireIndigenous Peoples Author:Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“Under the crust of that portion of Earth called the United States of America—"from California . . . to the Gulf Stream waters"—are interred the bones, villages, fields, and sacred objects of American Indians. They cry out for their stories to be heard through their descendants who carry the memories of how the country was founded and how it came to be as it is today. [opening lines of the Introduction; ellipsis sic].” HistoryGenocideErasureNative American Genocide Book:An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Source: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
“The importance of the term "genocide" for many Indigenous Peoples is that it is more than a term or an accusation; it is a word created in the wake of the Shoah in Europe to describe what happens when a people are targeted by a government for extermination, as were the Jews of Europe, and which is the term used in the most important international law related to concerned Indigenous Peoples, as the only international human rights law that pertains specifically to collectivities of people rather than individuals.” PeopleHumansImportantGovernmentHappensLawUsedIndividualTermRightsEuropeConcernedImportanceInternationalHuman RightsJewRelatedGenocideIndigenousAccusationInternational LawIndigenous PeopleExterminationCollectivity Author:Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“The objective of US authorities was to terminate their existence as peoples - not as random individuals. This is the very definition of modern genocide.” IndividualExistenceModernAuthorityDefinitionsObjectivesGenocide Author:Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“The term "genocide" is often incorrectly assumed to mean extreme examples of mass murder associated with war, with the death of millions of individuals, as, for instance in Cambodia. Although clearly the Holocaust was the most extreme of all genocides, the bar set by the Nazis is not the bar required to be considered genocide. Most importantly, genocide does not have to be complete to be considered genocide.” MeanDoeWarIndividualTermMillionsExampleMassMurderExtremesBarsInstanceGenocideHolocaustNaziCambodia Author:Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“Cases of genocide carried out as policy may be found in historical documents as well as in the oral histories of Indigenous communities.” WellsMayFoundCommunityCasesPolicyHistoricalGenocideDocumentsIndigenousOral History Author:Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
