Native American History: A History from Beginning to End

by Hourly History

Native American HistoryUntil surprisingly recently, most history books noted that America was discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. The truth was that by the time that Columbus arrived in America, people had been living there for more than 12,000 years. During this time, the indigenous people of North America lived without contact with other continents. Different groups developed separate and distinct ways of life, cultures, and societies but all shared one common characteristic: they relied on the land to provide them with food, and they developed a series of religions that, while separate, shared a respect for nature and imbued many animals and natural features with spiritual characteristics. These beliefs, combined with the fact that most of these societies were relatively primitive compared to those emerging in other parts of the world, meant that the Native Americans were able to live in harmony with the natural world. These people had sophisticated and complex belief systems, but they built no cities, no wheeled vehicles, and developed nothing beyond the most basic written language. Although many millions of people lived in North America, their impact on the landscape and the natural systems was minimal.
Then, abruptly, white settlers arrived, bringing with them new technologies and weapons, new religions, and an indifference towards nature. They also brought with them diseases to which the Native Americans had never before been exposed. Within two hundred years, the Native American population dwindled to a fraction of what it had been; the survivors were herded onto reservations on which they could not follow their traditional ways of life and where they were denied the most basic human rights.

Inside you will read about...✓ The Emergence of Native American Peoples and Cultures
✓ Life before the White Men
✓ European Settlers Arrive
✓ Early Wars in America
✓ American Expansion
✓ Ghost Dancing and the Wounded Knee Massacre
And much more!

Only in the twentieth century did the population of Native American people begin to recover, and only then did the general population of America begin to regard these cultured and sophisticated people as anything but savages. This is the story of the gradual rise, sudden destruction, and slow recovery of the native people of North America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ebooks, American History, Native American

48 pages, Paperback

Published August 5, 2019

About the author

At Hourly History, we focus on publishing history books that are concise, straightforward and take no longer than one hour to read.

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Reviews

[Patricia S Winchel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some Truth, Some Fictitious Theory

After reading chapter 1, I almost didn’t finish the book. The chapter on "Origins" makes some claims that are not scientific but are based on evolution theory. History is based on facts, not theory, which is why I gave this book only 3 stars. Much of the rest of the book was interesting and true as far as I know. It is sad how the Native Americans were treated by the new settlers, many of whom were Christians. But not all Indians were friendly and many were frightening. It was impossible to homogenize the different cultures. That was not an excuse for our treatment of them. Although it is very little and very late, it’s good that treatment of Native Americans is improving.

[michael king · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trail of Tears truly

A truly sad story of the first settlers in North America. Not much new things were given in this short books that one may not already know accept the names of the many battles and what occurred in them. I can truly say I learned some new things. I would have also wished the book would have covered how the Indians were able to own African American slaves around the 1830's but only so much can be covered I understand.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few times worst than the holocaust…

[Vince Pillig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting summary .

Reading many books about Indian culture and working with Indian tribes over the last 30 years. The author failed to mention stealing constant warfare killing their enemies within tribes . Also the lack of written word had a lot to do with the misconceptions the Indians had about white people . Group hunters were coming to make a treaty then two years later a different group with command and a course second group would be ignorant of the first treaty . This created many problems in the Indian nations . If they had a written document it would've helped clarify these things .

[Leroy B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The politically correct view of Native Americans

Author fails to mention American diseases killed thousands of immigrants and these diseases spread back to Europe. General tenor is 'white man bad '. Makes it feel that living in a stone age culture in the face of advanced technology is somehow a viable option.

[Opu Hossain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tiny book briefly reveals the story of the Native American who had been living for thousands years in the tow continents north and south America and did not have contact with the other parts of the world until probably last 500 years. Their footsteps were all over from Latin America to Mexico,United states and Canada. Then the nightmare, the age of darkness begin with the arrival of the so called civilized Spanish, French, British for instance later joined by American. It is astonishing that millions of indigenous tribes were brutally massacred, hunted like animals, inflicted by human made diseases like smallpox, typhus, measles and a host of other diseases to which the local people had no immunity. The brutality went so far that, by 15th century 80 to 90 percent of the native inhabitants were perished in different locations give us the picture how barbaric the expansion campaign of the whites in this region. The chapter four of the book described this white supremacy as this:

"How smooth must bee the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right"

We would've seen a different majority nation today in the American societies if native Americans were not destroyed from flourishing. These days they're minority and yet have less access they deserve to have like others.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some things that stood out:

(1) A lot of popular stereotypes of Native Americans such as Teepees and headdress are based on the culture of the Plains Indians. But other regions had totally different cultures.

(2) Native Americans only became US citizens in 1924. In general US policy towards Native Americans seems to have softened a lot after 1890 when they stopped being a military threat to US dominance.

(3) The "Ghost Dance" movement - this was a very widespread spiritual movement among native Americans in the late 1800s which was based on the belief that if enough Native Americans performed a particular type of traditional dance then all the white people would magically disappear and the original Native American way of life would be restored. It's heartbreaking, desperate and poignant but it's also interesting that many other cultures facing colonialism developed similar "magical" movements. Here is a somewhat similar movement in Tanzania in 1905 where people believed that traditional medicine would turn German colonialist bullets into water:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maji_Ma...

(4) The Navajo Reservation has an area of 71,000 square kilometers.
That's HUGE! That's bigger than a lot of US states and sovereign countries.

[William C. Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I think the idea of an "Hourly History" is an excellent one. It provides a compact overview of the subject matter with the understanding that, if one is interested, one can find sources that go into greater depth on the subject. The volume under review does exactly that. When I was in public grade school, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the 1940s and 50s we spent considerable time studying Native Americans, but in a kind of romanticized way and certainly without the history of how terribly we European Americans treated them. Since then, I have filled in the blanks in my earlier education so that I am certainly more aware now of this history. The wonderful thing about this volume is that it provides a basic history that is a fully and easily accessible overview of the basic facts. I have since purchased several eBooks on Native American history and culture for further investigation.

[Marcia Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Native American Tragedy

What was done to the Native Americans from the time the white man landed on the shores of what is now America is tragic and disgusting! It makes me, a white person, ashamed. It isn't the first time I've heard these things as I was raised in Arizona and saw discrimination even then. From when I was a small child I have loved these wonderful people.
I do appreciate the history of how the Native Americans got here in the beginning. May their Great Spirit bless them.

[Timothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously, limited information exists about pre- Columbian Native Americans due to the lack of written languages in their cultures. However, there is a lot more that is known than is even hinted at in this book. About all the information provided about those millennia is a list of some of the tribes and their geographic area.

I normally like the information provided in the Hourly History books. But, this seems a rather weak effort on their part. Maybe the subject is too big to present in such a short book.

[Mickey Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book on the Native American History is overall a good book on the general history of the vast number of the Native Americans that lived on the North American Continent before & after we became the United States. I wish it would have been more specific on the cultures itself. Instead of giving a general overview. Easy to read & to understand.

[Br1cht · Rating 1 out of 5]

Follows modern pseudo-scientific/religious dogma to a T, the "Noble savage" meets the evil Huwhithe devil and their Utopia shatters...

Just the book for the uneducated to read(48 p) and then go out in the world preaching about what they learned to other easily manipulated people and excuse any and all actions taken against "evil" people.

[Robert Cullinan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lost American heritage

The history of the American Indians to largely unknown. This dark part of America’s history should not be buried, it needs more visibility. There are many lessons to be learned from their culture, beliefs, diversity and their love and respect for the land.

[Vicky Peplow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick overview!

I feel like I have a kindred connection and love to learn more regarding Native American. I was hoping to learn something new but it turns out that I already knew 99% of what's in this book.
This would be a useful addition for schools and American history so the future generations are reminded what happened to the Native Americans.

[Neil Brunton · Rating 4 out of 5]

US genocide

The American revolution along with western expansion nearly out an end to the real American peoples , the US constitution says everyone is born equal but that is only if you were white Anglo Saxon everyone one else was considered less human , the land of the free is a false and joke of a statement.

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this on a whim and didn't pay attention to the fact that it's called 'hourly history'. It really does take less than an hour to read, so it can only serve as a brief introduction or a quick refresher. If you've previously studied the subject, there won't be a lot of new information. Then again, that's clearly not what this book set out to do.

[mel townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise telling of the blight of our True North Americans

Best insight into the tragic demise of indigenous peoples in the new world.
It also points out the bigotry, savage try , greed and blood lust of European
peoples.

[josette ringuette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Change the title.

Overall an ok read but a history from beginning to end it is not. It is a very brief overview of Native American history. Since these books are meant to be read in an hour it was well written and still very interesting. Thanks

[John Jackse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend to anyone who is unaware of the poor treatment of native Americans

Fantastic summary of the treatment of native Americans So much information that I had no idea about. More facts that barely have knowledge of

[Victor Raul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Espeluznante historia de un genocidio sistematico y apoyado por la ley. "Like many indigenous people abruptly and involuntarily introduced to civilization, the native americans fared badly. After the arrival of white settlers in North America, their story became a trail of tears".

[Rubin Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating yet sad history

This brief intro to Native American culture is eye opening to the rich culture and also heart breaking to read
this is not just a history but object lesson for humanity

[Karen Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievably Sad ! I've always thought that the People (Native Americans) had the same rights as any

I've always thought the people (Native Americans) had the same rights as any other American. The book was truly an eye opener.

[Kasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to the series dedicated to Native American history.
This part contains a synthetic, comprehensive and highly interesting view on this subject.
It's the most heartbreaking and sad subject but should be compulsory for all educated people.

[Shabana Parrish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written

This book is well written and gives a succinct history on Native Americans in North America. It provided a wealth of information, especially for someone who is just beginning to learn about Native American history and the struggles they have faced.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

some good history

The history of Indigenous Americans is not one of all happy times. This short history does a decent job of telling the facts, but it is not a "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." Still it is well balanced in presentation.

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers north America.

[PJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

To brief

I enjoyed reading this short history of native Americans, but it makes me want more. Not a bad thing. Enjoy

[derick prentice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very imformative.

[GHASSAN NACHAWI · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shallow

Very shallow and most of not all information were widely known.
It was not worth the money or my time.

[J.M. Sommers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet

Short, but too short. Clearly has an agenda although it is not far off the mark. Worth the short while it took to read.