An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

INTRODUCTION-CHAPTER 3

Reading Check

1. What does Dunbar-Ortiz see as the explanation for what destroyed Indigenous communities?

2. What word or phrase did historians use in the 1960s to characterize the Indigenous experience with European settlers?

3. Who developed the idea of land as private property?

4. What is the “core ideology for modern colonialism”? (Chapter 2)

5. What is an example of covenant ideology?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the US origin myth based on?

2. What are the four major periods of the US government’s policy of genocide?

3. What is the name of one flourishing Indigenous society prior to European arrival in the US, and what does Dunbar-Ortiz highlight about their civilization?

4. What role did women play in Indigenous societies like that of the Haudenosaunee or Cherokee?

5. What is the myth of a “pristine wilderness,” as referenced in Chapter 3?

Paired Resource

“Colonial America Is a Myth”

• This TIME article by scholar Pekka Hämäläinen argues that Indigenous history is central to the background of the early United States.
• A shared theme is The Falsehood of the US Origin Myth and US Exceptionalism.
• What argument is this article making about how people should look at history? What similarities does Hämäläinen’s article share with Dunbar-Ortiz’s first few chapters?

“The Invention of Thanksgiving”

• This New Yorker article by scholar Philip Deloria explains how the myth of Thanksgiving developed.
• A shared theme is The Falsehood of the US Origin Myth and US Exceptionalism.
• How does Deloria expose the falseness of the traditional story of Thanksgiving? What is the aim of this myth, and how does it connect to Dunbar-Ortiz’s view of the US origin myth?

CHAPTERS 4-6

Reading Check

1. Which nation did the Cherokee side with during the French and Indian War?

2. Who ordered the Continental Army to destroy Indigenous settlements?

3. Who was the “architect” of the colonization of North America?

4. Which department housed the Office of Indian Affairs?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In what ways is the colonial period still reflected in current military practices?

2. What effect did the passing of the Second Amendment have on Native nations?

3. What did the United States government want to achieve by waging war against Indigenous nations after the Revolutionary War?

4. What does Dunbar-Ortiz use John Sevier as an example of?

5. What role did writers play in the cementing of the US origin myth?

CHAPTERS 7-9

Reading Check

1. Which 1862 acts transferred Indigenous lands to the estates of land-grant universities?

2. Who helped the Apache negotiate their sovereign status?

3. Which sacred practice did Indigenous peoples perform to resist US assimilation and bring the buffalo back?

4. When did Native Americans get citizenship status?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What was the Pike expedition?

2. Why did Texas secede from Mexico?

3. How did pursuits for statehood in the West affect Indigenous communities?

4. What did the Indian Relocation Act in 1956 do?

Paired Resource

“Land-Grab Universities”

• This High Country News article by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone describes the effect of the 1862 Morrill Act.
• A shared theme is The US Way of War From the Past to the Present.
• A shared topic is land dispossession.
• What is the legacy of the Morrill Act? How does this fit in with how the US has used war and violence to take land from Indigenous peoples?

“Gahé Dzíł / Mountain Spirits”

• This poem written by Crisosto Apache was inspired by the story of Geronimo’s family.
• Shared themes include The US Way of War From the Past to the Present and Perseverance of Indigenous Resistance and Sovereignty as Survival.
• A shared topic is Apache history.
• How does Apache’s poem add to the mention of Geronimo and Apache history that Dunbar-Ortiz relays?

CHAPTER 10-CONCLUSION

Reading Check

1. Who brought back the idea of the “frontier,” as referenced in Chapter 10?

2. Which island was occupied by the Indians of All Tribes in 1969?

3. What was given back to the Taos Pueblos in the first land restitution from the US government?

4. Which 15th-century policy was declared to be international law by Thomas Jefferson in 1792?

Short Answer

1. Why did law enforcement agencies lay siege on the Lakota and AIM protest at Wounded Knee?

2. What is one example of Indigenous rights and activism?

3. How are military bases connected to Indigenous peoples?

4. What does Dunbar-Ortiz suggest as the way forward?

Recommended Next Reads 

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• This piece of creative nonfiction discusses how we can learn about plants from Indigenous knowledge.
• A shared theme is Perseverance of Indigenous Resistance and Sovereignty as Survival.
• Shared topics include Indigenous traditions and knowledge.
• Braiding Sweetgrass on SuperSummary

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

• This novel tells the story of a Native-run bookstore in Minneapolis and an Indigenous woman who is haunted by a ghost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Shared themes include The Falsehood of the US Origin Myth and US Exceptionalism and The US Way of War From the Past to the Present.
• Shared topics include Native perseverance and Indigenous activism.
• The Sentence on SuperSummary