Host Paul Roland welcomes scholar and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz back to KBOO for her third appearance on Wednesday Talk Radio (http://kboo.fm/media/36958-roxanne-dunbar-ortiz-indigenous-peoples-history-united-states; http://kboo.fm/media/38188-conversation-roxanne-dunbar-ortiz-five-decades-activism-and-scholarship).
Coming off her powerful and acclaimed An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (2014), Ortiz has teamed up with award-winning Native journalist Dina Gilio-Whitaker to unmask the pervasive myths that have accompanied European colonization of indigenous "America." In "All the Real Indians Died Off" and 20 Other Myths about Native Americans, each of the 21 chapters tackles a different aspect of the false narrative that has misinformed and misled generations. From the title chapter through "Indians Should Move On and Forget the Past" to the final chapter, "Indians are Victims and Deserve Our Sympathy," the authors trace how these ideas evolved and do their best to disrupt the tenacious and pernicious hold they have on the American psyche.
The book comes at a remarkable moment, as the uprising against the Dakota Access Bakken oil pipeline itself gives the lie to many of the myths the book discusses, and is educating new generations about Indigenous realities. The synchronicities are several: Dunbar-Ortiz made her mark in Native American scholarship with The Great Sioux Nation: Sitting in Judgment of America (1977), a book that became a fundamental text in Indigenous Studies. It is that same Great Sioux Nation, or Oceti Sakowin ("Seven Fires Council") that many say is being reborn in the crucible of struggle going on in the Dakotas.
- KBOO