Our Way: A Parallel History: An Anthology of Native History, Reflection, and Story - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1682753328 ISBN 13: 9781682753323

Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing, 2023

Synopsis

Indigenous History Is American History 
Our Way: A Parallel History dispels the myths, stereotypes, and absence of information about American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian people in the master narrative of US history. For most of American history, stories of the country’s Indigenous Peoples were either ignored or told by outsiders. This book corrects these errors, exploring the ways in which Indigenous cultures from every corner of the nation have influenced American society from the past into the present, reminding the reader that they have both shaped the US and continue to play a vital role in its story.  
  
Significantly, Our Way: A Parallel History is a collaboration of Native scholars representing more than ten Indigenous nations, sharing their histories and their cultures. Each contributor, either an affiliate of an institution of higher education or a prominent Native leader, provides the reader with an inside account of tribal culture and heritage. The result is a comprehensive resource restoring the histories of Indigenous Peoples and their nations to their rightful place in the story of America.   
  
The book covers topics such as: 
-The Doctrine of Discovery 
-Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 
-US American Indian Policy and Civil rights 
-Blood Quantum 
-Selling Hawaii 
-Lots More 
  
As Julie Cajune (Salish) notes in the preface, “I believe this collection of history, story, and reflection provokes and invites us to think and feel deeply about what it means for all of us to be human in our communities, nations, and beyond. After all, that is what a good story does. 

About this title

About the Author

Julie holds a master’s degree in education from Montana State University–Billings. After several years of classroom teaching on her home reservation, Julie began developing tribal history materials and curriculum and served as her Tribe’s Education Director. Julie has collaborated with Indigenous scholars, knowledge keepers, artists, and musicians, as well as elders and poets to produce materials in a variety of media including DVDs—Stories from a Nation Within, Art and Identity, Remembering the Songs, and Inside Anna’s Classroom— and children’s books—Gift of the Bitterroot and Huckleberries, Buttercups and Celebrations, and a variety of other publications Julie is a recipient of the national Milken Educator Award, the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award, and two Lifetime Achievement Awards. She continues her work to add Native voices to the master narrative of American history.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PREFACE  
I have some distinct memories of middle school social studies. I was in the seventh grade when US History was taught, and I recall an anticipation of sorts—almost an excitement for what was to come. Surely the beginning of the class would explore American Indian tribes, and I expected more Native content throughout the class. I’ll admit it, I was naively optimistic, and I’ll also confess—I was hopeful.
Middle school social studies turned out to be the beginning of my provocative discourse with public school teachers. My expectations went unmet, although there was some Native content in the class—the first being the infamous Bering Land Bridge. If I close my eyes, I can see the map with the arrows depicting a route from Siberia to North America. The next Indian encounter was the ever-popular “Indian Wars.” This chapter of study began my animated disagreement with both the teacher and the textbook publishers. I was willing to provide the correct information that I was privy to by virtue of who I was and growing up in an Indian family. We knew our history.
I recall being placed outside the classroom in a chair, waiting for my mother to arrive. She was at work, so they had to wait until she could leave the office to come to the school. I sat in the hallway pondering my fate. My mother showed up and had a private discussion with the teacher. I was allowed back in the class and nothing more was said about the matter.

I did not read a poem, a short story, or a book by a Native author until I was a mature adult. My older sister, Luana, gave me a book of Native-authored short stories she was using for a university course she was teaching. I probably wore that book out. Over the next few years I discovered writing from Vine Deloria, Jr., Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Joy Harjo, N. Scott Momaday, Ella Cara Deloria, and Simon J. Ortiz. Their works were life changing for me. It is actually difficult to measure or describe the contribution of such work in my life. Language and stories are so powerful; they describe the world and our place in it. Family stories carried me through my turbulent teen and young adult years.

Upon receiving a grant to produce Native history materials, my first thought was to produce a book of narratives that I had sought out as an individual Native person, as a Native educator, and as a human being. I set out to do that by gathering a core group of Native scholars over the course of three years here on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. For a week each summer we gathered, prayed, shared meals, sang, and talked story. We collectively imagined what this book could be. We decided to contribute narratives that told stories of people and place rather than dates and events, providing a glimpse into the very human side of history. These are the stories through which we make meaning. Paramount to the writing was the intention to create accessible narratives of interest to a broad audience. We thought and talked about our own communities, with the particular objective of telling the stories of our people’s agency and brilliance. Finally, we embraced one another across geographic and political boundaries to offer the fullness of stories from Indigenous America.
People brought stories from their relatives, from their homelands, from their history, their activism, their language, and their nations. I believe this collection of history, story, and reflection provokes and invites us to think and feel deeply about what it means for all of us to be human in our communities, nations, and beyond. After all, that is what a good story does.

Note: The terms “American Indian,” “Indian,” “Native American,” “Native,” “Indigenous,” “Tribal,” and “Alaska Native” are used throughout this book, sometimes interchangeably. Understand that general terms are used for including large, diverse groups and are in no way preferred to the beautiful names of the many nations that make up Indigenous America.
 
  INTRODUCTION Treasure includes stories and narratives that are the foundation of every nation. Explanations of how people came to be in their homelands, worldviews, traditional knowledge, ways of relating within and outside the human community, and relationship with place offer a beginning.

The remarkable ability of Native communities to continue with their songs, languages, histories, and lifeways is in large part due to oral tradition. The generational passing on of story and knowledge was dramatically disrupted, but individuals and communities held collective memory, at times having to guard, protect, and keep secret what was once known and shared by all.

The ideas and emotions contained within oral tradition shape the idea of who a given people are, what these people have experienced, and why they see the world the way they do. In sum, the important cultural knowledge contained within oral traditions not only serves as a guide for understanding the past, but also helps us to live in the present and to frame possible futures…. Respect for the teachings empowers us all to hope for deeper understanding of what makes us human, of our interconnectedness with all of creation, and of how peoples keep hope alive.
- Kathryn Shanley (Nakoda)
 
 

Edition details

• Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1682753328
• ISBN 13: 9781682753323
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 441
• Editor: Cajune Julie