The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America

From Library Journal Wilson has been actively involved with indigenous North Americans for almost 25 years. Here he presents a comprehensive, imaginative overview of Native American history that is exceptional in its concept: Wilson has gathered information not only from historical sources but from ethnographic and archaeological works as well as oral histories. He looks at social issues such as intermarriage and language loss in addition to the political and environmental issues faced by present-day Native American communities. Wilson begins with the first English settlements on the Atlantic coast in the 1500s and moves from century to century, focusing on various geographic areas through the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. He then addresses today's social, political, and economic issues while trying to examine the legacy of ignorance and misunderstanding that has reduced the Native American population from 7 to 10 million people to 250,000 in four centuries. Because it encompasses so many facets of the Native American situation, this volume will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.AVicki Leslie Toy Smith, Univ. of Nevada, RenoCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Kirkus Reviews A sweeping, well-written, long-view history of American Indian societies. Wilson, a British writer for television and radio documentaries, does a creditable job of interpreting the Native American past and present for his intended European readers, although he misses a few references that are familiar to Americans and has to explain a few others that we take for granted on these shores. But mostly, he gets it rightwhile also taking up some themes that American scholars have overlooked, especially European Enlightenment views of the ``noble savage'' and ideas that some unknown historical force propelled the European conquerors of America to ``subdue the wilderness and supplant the `Indian''' who, those views had it, was somehow stuck at a lower stage of cultural development than any enjoyed by the newcomers. Although he relies heavily on the work of revisionist historians, such as the Sioux scholar Vine Deloria, Wilson takes care to examine a wide range of scholarly materials (about which he offers some nicely barbed commentary); based on these sources, he reconsiders such matters as the Indian population of North America at the time of the European arrival, which he believes has been seriously underestimated in number by some millions of inhabitants. Wilson sometimes falls into confusion, as do many of his American counterparts, when dealing with such notoriously complex subjects as the fluid post-WWII status of Indian nations vis-...-vis the federal government; and he misses several important events in recent Indian news, such as the revival of the American Indian Movement in the mid-1990s. But in the main, his is a trustworthy telling of a sad epic of misunderstanding, mayhem, and massacre. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. The European "discovery" and conquest of America was one of the most cataclysmic events in history, leading to the wholesale destruction of millions of people and hundreds of flourishing societies. As far as history books are concerned, Native Americans have been secondary to an essentially Euro-American story. Now, James Wilson presents a rigorously authoritative, beautifully written, comprehensive history that-as Richard Gott wrote in the London Literary Review "places the 'Native Americans' at the center of the historical stage, abandoning the traditional version of the American past in which the 'Indians' had a subservient role on the periphery of someone else's epic." The Earth Shall Weep is a groundbreaking book with a pioneering approach that sets it apart from any history now on the market. Drawing not only on historical sources but also on ethnography, archaeology, Indian oral tradition, and his own extensive research in Native American communities, James Wilson sets out to make the Indian perspective on the past and the present accessible to a broad audience. He charts the collision course between indigenous cultures and European invaders, from the first English settlements on the Atlantic coast to the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890, explaining how Europeans justified a process that reduced the Native American population from an estimated seven to ten million to less than 250,000 in just four centuries. Finally, as The Independent on Sunday noted, "whereas most accounts of the North American Indian take the Wounded Knee massacre as constituting, in the words of Black Elk, an end to the Indian experience on the continent, James Wilson pursues the story further into the twentieth century and up to the present day." Wilson shows how old ideas about native people have continued to underpin government policy and popular perception in the twentieth century, leaving a painful legacy of ignorance and misunderstanding. The story of Native America is the invisible subtext to every American history book ever published. James Wilson's splendid tour de force of narrative history redresses the historical balance and sets the standard for work to come. "[Wilson] presents a comprehensive, imaginative overview of Native American history that is exceptional in its concept: Wilson has gathered information not only from historical sources but from ethnographic and archaeological works as well as oral histories. . . . Because it encompasses so many facets of the Native American situation, this volume will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers."-Library Journal "A sweeping, well-written, long-view history of American Indian societies . . . a trustworthy telling of a sad epic of misunderstanding, mayhem, and massacre."-Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Employing elegiac prose and steady narrative momentum, Wilson has written a richly informative history that places Native Americans 'at the center of the historical stage.' . . . The result is an impressive work of historical synthesis that relies heavily on Native American oral traditions."-Publishers Weekly (starred) "A wonderful new history of the Indians of the United States-thoroughly informed, thoughtful, and compellingly written."-Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., author of The Indian Heritage of America "The Earth Shall Weep is a very different history of Native America. James Wilson has written a fresh and lively account of Native American relations with Europeans and settlers. By placing Native American ideas of the world at the forefront and using native testimony and writings as well as conventional history, Wilson avoids the sense of tragic victimhood and academic ponderousness that so much of the writing on the subject is mired in. Taking us through the very diverse experiences of Native Americans in New England, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Southwest, the Great Plains, and the Far West, the book is a wonderfully sympathetic introduction to native predicaments from the first encounters to the casinos."-Colin Samson, director of Native American Studies, University of Essex "Wilson is constantly seeking fresh insights. . . . First-rate history . . . intellectually sophisticated, lucid, nuanced, fair and judicious, this is an outstanding addition to the literature on the subject."-Frank McLynn, The Independent Saturday Magazine (London) "Employing elegiac prose and steady narrative momentum, Wilson has written a richly informative history that places Native Americans 'at the center of the historical stage.' . . . In this account, Indians are neither a subplot in the grand story of American Manifest Destiny nor the poster children for all that is wrong and rapacious about Western Civilization: they are the protagonists of a vital, tumultuous history that continues to unfold today."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Wilson's concise but compendious new history of American Indians since the arrival of Europeans should be required reading for any student of American history. Painstakingly researched . . . engagingly written."-Thomas Vennum, Jr., Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies, the Smithsonian Institution James Wilson has been actively involved in working with indigenous North Americans for twenty-five years. He has written numerous articles as well as radio and television documentaries, including the award-winning two-part series, Savagery and the American Indian, which was broadcast on BBC2 in Great Britain and the Arts & Entertainment network in the United States. He is the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant and a member of the executive committee of Survival, an international organization campaigning for the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide. James Wilson lives in Bristol, England. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Booklist Wilson is not a Native American, yet he brings to life the history of indigenous North Americans from the prehistoric to the present as if he possessed the spirit of the ancestors, insisting that a broader truth be told. He starts with a worldview that differs from our Eurocentric, Christian view, eventually revealing parallel myths that are both common and in conflict with ours. Wilson doesn't try to portray an ideal, monolithic culture but shows that Native Americans were of different peoples, nations, regions, and histories that often overlapped. He examines the hunters and fur traders of the Northeast who, before the colonies' independence, formed alliances with the French, Dutch, and British. In the Southwest, the Five Civilized Nations identified with the region's newcomers, until they were driven from the territory through the Trail of Tears. And the West had a sophisticated Mesoamerican civilization. All of those are cultures about which we North Americans are woefully ignorant. Wilson further explores the conditions of contemporary Native Americans and reflects on the continued indifference to their plight. This is a must read for Americans, both indigenous and more recent immigrants. Vernon Ford --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Native Americans continue to hold a special place in the modern imagination. Images of the Native American as "noble savage," as grunting Hollywood brute, or even as nature lover reinforce what author James Wilson describes as "the principal role of Indians in US culture throughout the twentieth century: helping America imagine its own history." Wilson hopes to rescue them from this role and place Native Americans within their own context by attempting to view the Indian-European encounter through their eyes. The result is an engaging history of North America and its peoples--and a welcome addition to the already voluminous literature on the subject. Wilson weaves Native American oral traditions and archeological, ethnographical, and historical evidence into a compelling narrative. Chapters on regional groups and their histories--from the Algonquians of the Northeast to the Zuñi of the Southwest--emphasize both their differences and their similarities. Wilson also traces the shifting relationships between Indians and non-Indians and investigates the reasons behind their misunderstandings. As Wilson points out, the image of the Native American as spiritual guide and Green Party spokesperson, while more romantic, is no more realistic than the image of the ignorant savage. Frequent excerpts from personal interviews allow Native Americans to speak for themselves and remind us that, far from ending at Wounded Knee, the Native American experience continues to evolve. Wilson's clear prose, command of the subject, and detailed suggestions for further reading make this book valuable to scholars and general readers alike. --C.B. Delaney --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Read more