Welcome

Welcome to Native America: A History, published by Wiley-Blackwell in its third edition in August 2022, an introductory survey for courses in Native American History. The materials on this  website will be useful to students and teachers who want to stay current with developments across Native America, read about exciting new scholarship in the field, and learn more about the topics they are studying in the classroom.   Whatever your teaching or learning style, the materials here will complement the third edition of the book.

I have never been a fan of textbooks, which might seem like a strange thing for an author of one to write. I seldom used them in my classes, usually choosing instead to assign to my students collections of documents and monographs.   They are big, expensive, and tend to sacrifice narrative and argument in an effort to be comprehensive and non-controversial.  When the opportunity came along to write this book, I thought long and hard about whether I should undertake so massive a project.  We tend to specialize as historians. Most of my previous work focused upon the history of native peoples in Early America, and always in the eastern third of the continent.  The volume of scholarship in that chronological and geographic field alone is massive, and to broaden my reading and research to include the period after the Plains Wars and the rest of the United States seemed like a daunting task.   But I am grateful I wrote Native America, and I am happy that I have been given this opportunity to produce a second edition. I look forward to opportunities to update the textbook in future editions as more and more scholarship in this exciting field appears. To that end, I invited Dr. Peter Jakob Olsen-Harbich to join me as co-author on this third, and subsequent editions.

Our goal was to write a textbook that we would like to read, that students would find interesting, and that complements what we do in the classroom.  At Geneseo, I teach two general education courses in Native American history: The first is a survey course that follows the history from the earliest periods to the present, and the second a course that focuses on American Indian Law and current public policy debates in Indian Country.  For both of these courses, Native America and the resources I have placed on this website are highly useful.  I am happy to share with you what I do in the classroom.

If you click on the Manual for Instructors and Students tab, above, you will see materials keyed to each chapter of the text. Each contains a chapter overview, a set of recommended readings for students who wish to learn more about a given subject, a suggested list of online and other resources that can be assigned to supplement the text, a list of terms that students should be able to identify, and a list of suggested discussion and writing topics.  These materials can be used to reinforce the materials in Native America or to serve as the basis for writing and research projects.

I post regularly at Bluesky (@michaelleroyoberg@bsky.social), and I update the blog periodically with commentary on issues of relevance to students of Native American History.  Please consider following me on Bluesky and have your students check the Blog.

I want to provide students and teachers with materials that they can bring to their class discussions, and to use the web, in a fashion, to keep the Native America as up-to-date as possible between new editions. My hope is that this website will supplement the book by providing students and teachers with up-to-date information on the scholarship in the field, material for current-events discussions that point to the continuing relevance of the history they have been learning about in the classroom, and the perspectives of a college professor at a small, under-funded, liberal arts college located at what was once the Western Door of the Iroquois Longhouse, and who has been teaching this subject for more than a quarter of a century.

We hope you find this third edition of value to you in your courses.  We welcome any and all feedback and suggestions that you might have, as students or as instructors, for teaching Native American History.  You can reach me @MichaelLeroyOberg.bsky.social on Bluesky or at my Geneseo email address.   I would love to share your insights and your suggestions on this webpage.  And if there is anything we can do to make your use of the textbook easier, please feel free to get in touch. I love teaching this subject, and love discussing it with my colleagues and with students. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

12 thoughts on “Welcome”

  1. Greetings Mr Oberg , I find it very fascinating the interest that you are bringing into light of the on going situations that we face day to day . It is very honorable to have a knowledgeable person speak out nd let U.S. Citizens know the struggle that fight every day .

    1. My name is Michael Bland. My name at birth was Keefe, and my birth father’s name was Bear field . He was a full blooded Tuscarora. My birth mother was Cherokee. The State of NY took me away from my mother because she was 15-16 years old. I am now 73. I grew up in Niagara. My father never registered with the tribe at Niagara Weathfield because he was able to pass as a white and thus held a lifelong career as a NFPD motorcycle cop.
      The tribal people’s have always been cheated out of EVERY TREATY EVER MADE. Both my parents, Native American and White adopted parents have moved on to the Great Spirit but I pray along with Handsome Lake that our peoples would stand up and fight for what is right. We are not part of the New World Order. We are a part of the Native Bloodline and First Nation Tuscarora Iroquois and The old world Nations of this Land. We must stand and fight TOGETHER. ALL OF US.
      A’hoe 🫳🫴🫲 Michael Bland

  2. Professor Oberg,
    I taught Native American Studies for many years in a Connecticut boarding school. Recently retired, I am looking into teaching NAS in the Maine State Prison. Trying to select appropriate readings for that population has been a challenge. Might your book be a viable option? Over the years. I have use a wide range of resources, coupled with a close personal relationship with Zuni Pueblo, NM.

    1. David,
      Thanks for the note. I hope that the textbook works for you. If there is anything I can do to help persuade you to use it, please let me know. I have placed a lot of online readings for your easy access under the “Resources” tab on this website.
      All the best
      Michael

  3. Professor Oberg,
    I am currently a student in a Tribal Court Advocate class. I am in the process of during a term paper. I have picked the need for Prison Reform as my topic, and the rising population of Natives within our system. I look at these prisons as “The New Reservations.”
    I look forward to diving into your books and will be using them for quite a bit of my research.
    Thank-you for sharing your knowledge with us!

  4. Thanks for creating this blog.
    As someone who lives and grew up in the heart of American history; Virginia I will read your research.

  5. Just discovered your website – looks great. However, could you say a little more about the history of your interest in and commitment to Native American issues.

  6. Hi, I saw a statement on a criminal minds earlier today.
    The statement was ‘when Native American warriors couldn’t get information out of the people they captured/tortured, they would give them to the women’ implying that the Native American women were good at extracting information via torture etc.
    I’m fascinated to know if this is true? Are you able to shed any light?

    Rgds,
    Jake

  7. http://michaelleroyoberg.com/tag/sullivan-campaign/

    I let the Commonwealth know their revisionist road signs — one reads . “Gen. John Sullivan’s army camped just west Aug. 5-7, 1779, en route to attack the New York Iroquois. A major campaign, destroying 40 villages and ending the Indian-Tory frontier menace — must go and suggested they replace extant verbiage with your characterization, to wit:

    During the Revolution, Washington ordered invasions of the Iroquois that resulted, if we choose to believe Haudenosaunee voices, in the rape and murder of Onondaga non-combatants by New York militiamen following Colonel Goose Van Schaick. It resulted in what can justly be called war crimes against Senecas and Cayugas as well the destruction of their crops and orchards, and dozens of towns in 1779 as part of the infamous Sullivan campaign. Washington hoped that Sullivan’s men would “distract and terrify” the Indians and, in Washington’s own words, “extirpate them from the Country.” Sullivan’s soldiers drank a toast promising, among other things, “civilization or death to all American savages.”

  8. I am a registered Native American (3/4 Cherokee). I teach a lot of Cherokee crafts and art at parks and schools in the Southeast. I like your site and would like to register but I cannot find a place to do so. Can I register?

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A Discussion Forum for Teaching and Writing Native American History

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