American Indian Studies

NATIVE MESSENGERS OF GOD IN CANADA?:
A TEST CASE FOR BAHA’I UNIVERSALISM (1996)

*** Christopher Buck, “Native Messengers of God in Canada?: A Test Case for Baha’i Universalism.” Baha’i Studies Review 6 (1996): 97–133.

*** Award for Excellence in Baha’i Studies. Association for Baha’i Studies, 1994.

EPILOGUE

Thereupon Tekanawitaˀ [Deganawida, the Peacemaker] stood up in the center of the gathering place, and then he said, “First I will answer what it means to say, ‘Now it is arriving, the Good Message.’ This indeed, is what it means: When it stops, the slaughter of your own people who live here on earth, then everywhere peace will come about, by day and also by night, and it will come about that as one travels around, everyone will be related. …

Now again, secondly, I say, ‘Now it is arriving, the power,’ and this means that the different nations, all the nations, will become just a single one, and the Great Law will come into being, so that now all will be related to each other, and there will come to be just a single family, and in the future, in days to come, this family will continue on.

Now in turn, the other, my third saying, ‘Now it is arriving, the Peace,’ this means that everyone will become related, men and also women, and also the young people and the children, and when all are relatives, every nation, then there will be peace as they roam about by day and also by night. …

Then there will be truthfulness, and they will uphold hope and charity, so that it is peace that will unite all the people, indeed, it will be as though they have but one mind, and they are a single person with only one body and one head and one life, which means that there will be unity.” …

When they are functioning, the Good Message and also the Power and the Peace, moreover, these will be the principal things everybody will live by; these will be the great values among the people.”

– Chief John Arthur Gibson, Concerning the League: The Iroquois League as Dictated in Onondaga, newly elicited, edited and translated by Hanni Woodbury in Collaboration with Reg Henry and Harry Webster on the Basis of A.A. Goldenweiser’s Manuscript. Memoir 9 (Winnipeg: Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics, 1992): 36–41. 

ABSTRACT

Academic and popular interest has lent prestige to native spirituality and has brought it into prominence. The United Nations proclamation of 1993 as the International Year of Indigenous People gave native peoples international recognition. A corresponding interest in native culture has “valorised” (brought respect to) native spirituality.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada took a position of advocacy on behalf of First Nations Canadians in its formal submission to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in the fall of 1993. The strong native presence in Canadian Bahá’í community life raises the question of the place of native spirituality within a Bahá’í worldview.

Homefront “pioneers” have extended Bahá’í universalism to a recognition of the richness and authenticity of native cultural values. Such recognition has been supported by local Bahá’í policy, as attested in teaching pamphlets addressed to native peoples, in which the concept of First World messengers of God has been validated. Although theoretically acknowledged, explicit recognition of native messengers of God has yet to be formalised in Bahá’í doctrine.

This study discusses the possibilities of incorporating the principle of “Messengers of God to Indigenous Peoples” within formal Bahá’í doctrine, reflecting a development that has already taken place in popular Bahá’í belief in the North American context. A hitherto under-studied Persian text of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá establishes the principle in such a way that its explicit enunciation is now possible.

The problem of historical attestation remains. The prophetic credentials of Iroquois culture hero and statesman Deganawida are critically examined as a test case. The legend of Deganawida has a kernel of historicity overlaid by hagiography, with admitted Christian influence. Nonetheless, if the Bahá’í principle of “Progressive Revelation” can assimilate the Amerindian spiritual legacy as distinct from and developmentally asynchronous with Irano-Semitic and Sino-Indic religious histories, then it might be possible to accord Deganawida a provisional status with Bahá’í prophetology, and still affirm Bahá’u’lláh’s unific role in world history, as oral cultures take their place alongside the more familiar “literate” traditions.

https://www.academia.edu/36294314/_Native_Messengers_of_God_in_Canada_1996_

Not-guilty verdicts, mistrials, and impunity for the Bundy family and many of their supporters in the armed confrontations over public land use in Nevada and Oregon. Expanded access for private oil, gas, mining, and logging industries and the downsizing of national monuments such as Bears Ears lead by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. A number of highly contentious debates and sensationalized events have again focused attention on land held in the public domain by the United States. This essay argues that federal land policy as a form of colonial administration has been constitutive for the logic of expectation as property in what is now the United States. From the state land cessions negotiated on behalf of the Articles of Confederation to the preemption acts (1830–1841) to the homestead acts (1862–1916) to present-day demands for land transfer, the acquisition and disposal of the so-called public domain have been central to westward colonization, the consolidation of the nation-state, and the promise of land ownership as the ostensible foundation of individual liberty. These dynamics are evident in contemporary conflicts over public lands and arguments for the transfer of public lands to either state or private ownership. Approaching the Bundy occupations as flashpoints that illuminate competing interpretations and claims to land within the history of westward colonization, this essay seeks to demonstrate the ways in which expectation emerges from particular economies of dispossession of indigenous peoples that have historically worked through and across the division of public and private property.

"Encounters at the Heart of the World" is a portrayal of Mandan survivance, in the face of Christian missionaries, proto-capitalist traders, Old World plagues, colonial usurpers, new technologies, and American military force. In Fenn's hands, the interwoven episodes of trade, war, and pestilence force the Mandan more than once to their last resources and yet fail to eradicate them as a People. Again and again, the Mandan suffer; but even as they reel with the various onslaughts, interventions, and devastations, they learn and improvise and carry forward their unique ways in new circumstances.  Fenn's energy and deep attachment to the Mandan as a living People inform the book from the first page to the last. She tells us in the first paragraph of the Preface that the Mandan "have lived here...for centuries." Not once does she slip into the past tense so often used by writers about Indians. In the Acknowledgements section at the end, she refers to "my little sisters in the Goose Society" and gives thanks "for gifts at once physical, spiritual, and intellectual." The reader of "Encounters at the Heart of the World" encounters the heart of the Mandan, and through their iconic history as a people of the plains learns something of the history of the world.

Under the Ottawa and Chippewa Treaty of March 28, 1836, a provision was made to pay certain sums to members of the mixed-blood individuals of the two tribes.  A commissioner was appointed to create a census register of these mixed-bloods and determine who was eligible to receive payment under this provision.  His census of 584 individuals is transcribed in this report along with his instructions from, and his report to, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

A transcription of the 1861 annual annuity payment roll for the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan under the treaty of July 31, 1855.  This roll includes bands from Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac, Little Traverse, Grand Traverse and Grand River.

This document contains a copy of the original 1877 genealogical roll for the Red Cliff band of Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin. This roll was created by Isaac L. Mahan of the La Pointe Indian Agency. An index of names is included at the end of the roll.

This document contains a copy of the original 1870 annuity payment rolls for the Lake Superior Chippewa bands along with a transcription of the roll and an index of the names on the transcribed roll. The following bands are included on this roll:  Lac Courte Oreilles, Bad River, Red Cliff, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, L’Anse, Lac Vieux Desert, Lac du Flambeau, Ontonagon and Bois Forte.

Horace Durant completed a census roll in 1909 of the descendants of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan who were parties to the 1836 and 1855 treaties.  This census was made for the purpose of determining who was eligible for payment of a U.S. Court of Claims judgment.  This second document is an index of the names contained in Durant’s Field Notes.

American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) experience significant cancer disparities. To inform future public health efforts, a web-based needs assessment survey collected quantitative and qualitative data from AI/AN community health workers and cancer survivors in the northwestern United States. Content analysis of qualitative responses identified themes to contextualize quantitative results. Seventy-six AI/AN respondents (93% female) described substantial unmet needs for education and resources to assist cancer survivors, including a shortage of patient navigators, support groups, and home health care workers. Fear of negative outcomes, a culturally rooted avoidance of discussing illness, and transportation difficulties were cited as major barriers to participation in cancer education and receipt of health services. Face-to-face contact was overwhelmingly preferred for community education and support, but many respondents were receptive to other communication channels, including e-mail, social media, and webinars. Survey results highlight the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to overcome barriers to cancer screening and education in AI/AN communities. Qualitative analysis revealed a widespread perception among respondents that available financial and human resources were insufficient to support AI/AN cancer patients’ needs.

En el Archivo Histórico Nacional, en la sección de Papeles de Estado, encontramos un Expediente sobre la Amistad de varias naciones de Indios de Luisiana, entre los años 1778 y 1788. En el mismo se contiene la documentación relativa al acopio de efectos para regalos a los indios Uchizes-Creeks bajos-y Falapuches, así como la fabricación en la Casa de Moneda de México de medallas de plata según las muestras enviadas por el Gobernador, cuyo diseño fue encargado a Tomás Francisco Prieto.

Randall Trapp, et al. v. Commissioner DuBois, et al. was filed in 1995 on behalf of a group of inmates who were part of a Native American Spiritual Awareness Council in a Massachusetts prison. The Council maintained a weekly Circle and other practices associated with American Indian spirituality. At the time of filing, the Circle had already been in existence at the prison for more than five years.

The case proceeded to trial in 1999. In 2002, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ordered the Defendants to settle the controversy by negotiations with the Plaintiffs. In 2003, the first Purification Lodges were held inside three Massachusetts prisons, where named Plaintiffs were incarcerated (several having been transferred from the original prison). By 2003, Native Circles were meeting regularly in many prisons in the state.

http://people.umass.edu/derrico/trapp/

Background: Among individuals experiencing homelessness, the prevalence of alcohol use disorder is extremely high. Alcohol-related harms are compounded by the use of non-beverage alcohol (NBA; e.g. rubbing alcohol, cooking wine). The dangers of NBA consumption pose significant risks to the individual and to others when consumed in large quantities and when mixed with other substances. The objectives of this paper are to describe the alcohol consumption patterns of individuals experiencing homelessness, identify substance use patterns, psychological stressors, and related harms associated with NBA consumption, and compare NBA consumers to non-NBA consumers in relation to their use of services and perceived barriers to care.; Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey, 150 individuals experiencing homelessness were recruited from Edmonton's inner city and adjoining areas. Frequency, quantity, and volume of alcohol consumption were used to assess patterns of alcohol use in the last 6 months. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were used to compare participants reporting NBA consumption and non-NBA consumption (p ≤ 0.05).; Results: The majority of participants were male (71.3%) and self-identified as Indigenous (74.0%). Overall, 24% (n = 36) reported NBA consumption within the last six months. NBA consumers were older than non-NBA consumers (p = 0.005), reported different perceived living stability (p = 0.022), and had higher psychological distress (p = 0.038). The majority of NBA consumers reported not receiving harm reduction services while also not needing such services (n = 18, 51.4%), which differed from non-NBA consumers (p = 0.003). Structural barriers (e.g. availability, location, cost) were most frequently reported as reasons for unmet harm reduction (60.9%) and hospital care (58.3%) needs, while barriers to skills training (58.5%) and counselling services (53.6%) were mostly motivational (e.g. personal beliefs).; Conclusions: Within such an already marginalized population experiencing homelessness, individuals who consume NBA represent a vulnerable subpopulation who require adapted and distinct health and social services to stabilize and recover. Current harm reduction services are not prepared to effectively assist this group of individuals, and specific treatment programs are rare. Managed alcohol programs are a feasible approach but must be tailored to the specific needs of those who consume NBA, which is especially important for Indigenous people. More comprehensive assessments of NBA consumption are needed for program development and policy recommendations. (

Following a previous investigation of religio-spiritual beliefs in American Indians, this article examined prevalence and correlates of religio-spiritual participation in two tribes in the Southwest and Northern Plains (N = 3,084). Analysis suggested a "religious profile" characterized by strong participation across three traditions: aboriginal, Christian, and Native American Church. However,

In the current study, we propose an integrative approach, which will incorporate elements from the social learning and self-control theories of delinquency and crime to examine violence in an understudied, marginalized, and often discriminated subpopulation group—American Indian youth. The analysis is based on survey data collected between 2009 and 2013 from a sample of American Indian adolescents ( N = 3,380) enrolled in 27 school districts located in five regions of the United States (Northern Plains, Southwest, Upper Great Lakes, Southeast/Texas, and the Northeast). The main objective of the analysis is to identify the factors more likely to predict violent offending among American Indian adolescents, a vulnerable group that has an elevated risk of violent victimization. Results of the Tobit regression analysis indicate that in both gender groups a low level of self-control, association with delinquent friends, poor school performance, and underage alcohol consumption significant...

Аннотация. В статье исследуется современное американское законодательство в части регулирования отно-шений с коренными жителями континента. Автор выделяет несколько основных принципов федерального зако-нодательства в отношениях с индейцами. В заключение делается вывод о том, что современное регулирование прав и основных свобод коренных народов в США происходит на федеральном уровне посредством конститу-ции, федерального законодательства, заключенных ранее договоров, имевших место судебных прецедентов и частично обычным правом. Все это находит свое выражение в таком понятии, как «федеральное индейское право», которое является совокупностью юридически обязательных норм, регулирующих правовой статус ин-дейских племен и их особые отношения с федеральным центром.
This paper is in Russian. The modern American legislation regarding relations with indigenous peoples of the continent is examined in the article. The author emphasizes some main principles of the federal legislation regarding to American Indians. In the end the conclusion is made that contemporary regulation of the US Indigenous peoples’ rights and basic freedoms occurs at the federal level by virtue of the constitution, federal legislation, signed treaties, judicial precedents, and in part, by a customary law. There is a concept of “Federal Indian Law” which is a set of legally obligatory norms regulating the legal status of the American Indian tribes and their special relations with the federal center.

“Unlawful acts, performed long enough and with sufficient vigor, are never enough to amend the law.” So reads McGirt v. Oklahoma, the most important reservation boundary case in the history of the Supreme Court. But before McGirt, courts often rewarded unlawful acts with reservation diminishment.  This Article first places McGirt in the context of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s century long fight to restore sovereign rights illegally denied after allotment, and the even longer fight by the Muscogee Nation and others to survive a trail of broken treaty promises.  It then corrects the false assumptions about the past and present of reservation boundaries that led the Court to turn lawbreaking into law.
As to the past, I show that the allotment-era Congress knew that reservations did not depend on land tenure, and that its statutes distinguished between allotment acts that diminished reservations and those that did not.  States, however, regularly broke the law, asserting jurisdiction in violation of federal Indian law rules.  Before McGirt, however, the Court falsely assumed that “[t]he notion that reservation status of Indian lands might not be coextensive with tribal ownership was unfamiliar at the turn of the century,” and so justified relying on state violations of tribal sovereignty as “evidence” of congressional intent.
As to the present, I show that reservation status is not disruptive for non-Indian communities, and often benefits tribal and non-tribal citizens alike. In high-profile cases in Tacoma, Washington and Pender, Oklahoma, life in those communities began to improve at the same time reservation boundaries were affirmed.  Throughout the country tribal governments contribute to the economies and social welfare of their surrounding communities. The Muscogee Nation, whose sophisticated law enforcement, health care, governance, and economic development arms already partner with non-tribal governments throughout its territory, exemplifies the benefits that strengthening tribal self-governance can provide.

The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians has been a part of Chicago since its founding. In very public expressions of indigeneity, they have refused to hide in plain sight or assimilate. Instead, throughout the city’s history, the Pokagon Potawatomi Indians have openly and aggressively expressed their refusal to be marginalized or forgotten—and in doing so, they have contributed to the fabric and history of the city.

Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago examines the ways some Pokagon Potawatomi tribal members have maintained a distinct Native identity, their rejection of assimilation into the mainstream, and their desire for inclusion in the larger contemporary society without forfeiting their “Indianness.” Mindful that contact is never a one-way street, Low also examines the ways in which experiences in Chicago have influenced the Pokagon Potawatomi. Imprints continues the recent scholarship on the urban Indian experience before as well as after World War II.

A merican Indian tribal engagement in the various activities championed by the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA; 54 USC 300101 et seq.) has come about primarily as a result of the consultation first required by the Act's implementing regulations in 1986, reaffirmed by amendments to the Act in 1992 (54 USC 302706). 1 In this chapter, I choose to focus on issues with which tribes are concerned day-to-day when participating in the cultural resources management process for which Section 106 (54 USC 306108) of the Act, and associated implementing regulations (36 CFR 800), provide a framework. For tribes, our entanglement with Section 106 usually comes via the process that consultation provides us to influence how historic properties are searched for, how they are evaluated, and how adverse effects on them can be avoided or mitigated.

In 1924 Congress passed legislation giving blanket citizenship to all Native Americans who had not received citizenship before under other processes. This article discusses the reasoning behind the act and how Progressives in Congress urged the legislation forward.

Feminist and Indigenous philosophies of science have much to dialogue about regarding the relationship between science and consent. Some Indigenous scientific traditions emphasize consent as a significant characteristic of empirical inquiry. Consent means that responsibilities are acted out in ways that are accountable to the animacy of diverse beings and entities of the world. Responsibility and consent are significant to the role of science in governance systems, or its governance value. Consent is not a restriction or regulation on science, nor is consent a characteristic that merely increases the objectivity of empirical inquiry. By focusing on Indigenous accounts of knowledge and science, the essay builds concepts for understanding science and consent.

"I am here. You will never be alone. We are dancing for you." So begins Cutcha Risling Baldy's deeply personal account of the revitalization of the women's coming-of-age ceremony for the Hoopa Valley Tribe. At the end of the twentieth century, the tribe's Flower Dance had not been fully practiced for decades. The women of the tribe, recognizing the critical importance of the tradition, undertook its revitalization using the memories of elders and medicine women and details found in museum archives, anthropological records, and oral histories.

Deeply rooted in Indigenous knowledge, Risling Baldy brings us the voices of people transformed by cultural revitalization, including the accounts of young women who have participated in the Flower Dance. Using a framework of Native feminisms, she locates this revival within a broad context of decolonizing praxis and considers how this renaissance of women's coming-of-age ceremonies confounds ethnographic depictions of Native women; challenges anthropological theories about menstruation, gender, and coming-of-age; and addresses gender inequality and gender violence within Native communities.

T his is not a textbook. Rather, it is a supply of information, primary documents, and suggestions for how to incorporate Native history into the US social science curriculum. We believe that this book will transform not only your lessons but also how you think about the history of American Indians. The approach here is unabashedly critical. Given the subject matter, I feel that this is a good pedagogical and ethical choice. Focusing on the period from the French and Indian War to the 1930s, this teaching guide explores themes essential to a twenty-first-century understanding of the American Indian experience. These include:

In this article we introduce a “head and heart” approach to community-engaged scholarship. Through the literatures of Aboriginal scholarship and engaged scholarship we reflect on a community-university research and program development project undertaken in response to health and education concerns of Aboriginal people in Canada. We suggest that the head and heart approach was crucial to the program’s success and provides access to an ethical space where multiple worldviews are recognized and where the importance of relational accountability becomes evident. We then examine the implications of this approach for engaged scholarship and higher education practices.

Louis Owens: Writing Land and Legacy explores the wide-ranging oeuvre of this seminal author, examining Owens’s work and his importance in literature and Native studies. Of Choctaw, Cherokee, and Irish American descent, Owens’s work includes mysteries, novels, literary scholarship, and autobiographical essays. Louis Owens offers a critical introduction and thirteen essays arranged into three sections: “Owens and the World,” “Owens and California,” and “The Novels.” The essays present an excellent assessment of Owens’s literary legacy, noting his contributions to American literature, ethnic literature, and Native American literature and highlighting his contributions to a variety of theories and genres. The collection concludes with a coda of personal poetic reflections on Owens by Diane Glancy and Kimberly Blaeser. Libraries, students, scholars, and the general public interested in Native American literature and the landscape of contemporary US literature will welcome this reflective volume that analyzes a vast range of Louis Owens’s imaginative fictions, personal accounts, and critical work.

A family caregiver provides unpaid assistance to a family member/friend with a chronic disease, illness or disability. The caregiving process can affect a caregiver's quality of life by reducing time for themselves, for other family members and for work. The 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey estimates that 16 % of adult American Indians (AIs) are caregivers. A 2012 survey collected knowledge and personal experience data from a random sample of Hopi men and women (248 men and 252 women). Self-identified caregivers answered questions on time spent caregiving, caregiver difficulties and services requested. Approximately 20 % of the 500 Hopi participants self-identified as caregivers (N = 98), with 56 % female. Caregivers in contrast to non-caregivers had a lower percentage of ever having a mammogram (86, 89 %), a higher percentage of ever having had a Pap smear test (89.1, 85.6 %), a prostate specific antigen test (35, 30.6 %) and ever having had a colonoscopy (51.2, 44 %). Almost 21 % of caregivers reported difficulty with stress and 49 % reported it as their greatest caregiver difficulty. More males (28.6 %) identified financial burden as the greatest difficulty than females (p = 0.01). Training on patient care was the service that caregivers would like to receive most (18.2 %). The percentage of Hopi's providing caregiving was similar to national averages, although among men, was somewhat higher than national data (44 vs. 34 %). Stress was identified as a difficulty, similar to national studies.

Visual elements in Native American literature, when controlled by the author, form a critical part of the meaning of the text as a whole. However, non-Native readers have a difficult time acknowledging, much less understanding, these elements.  This paper takes a preliminary look at several works of Native American literature in an attempt to develop a system for understanding the semiotics of these graphical features.

In this paper, we offer an organisational analysis of the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC), aiming especially at achieving nation-building and selfdetermination for indigenised higher education efforts. We use a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges approach to examine WINHEC's organisational contributions, effectiveness, unique aspects, and challenges. Our findings carry some important implications to further the indigenous engagement and governance within indigenous higher education worldwide.

The article examines the representation of Native American urban identity in Theodore Van Alst's Sacred Smokes (2018) and Tommy Orange's There There (2018). Drawing upon Stuart Hall's and James Clifford's theories of identity and diaspora and Robert Young's distinction between the "organic" and the "diasporizing" modes of hybridity, it analyzes hybrid strategies through which these texts define their characters' complex diasporic experience and extend the literary tradition of "survivance." The paper argues that by exploring the concepts of history, community, and home and by emphasizing the narrative, imaginative, and relational aspects of their characters' traveling identities, Van Alst's and Orange's texts remain strongly rooted in Native cultural perspective, in particular the "synecdochic" sense of self and the literary trope of "homing." It also maintains that these characters' precarious diasporic situation, albeit confining, allows them the freedom to (re)imagine themselves and thereby transcend their unstable deterritorialized and transcultural position and the realities of dispersal and alienation by inventing new modes of self-coherence and cultural continuity.

The essays in this volume cover a range of sociopolitical aspects of Indian language planning (i.e., the politics of dialect, the role of the linguist, and the historical foundations of contemporary language problems), problems faced by the actual experiences of Indian language renewal efforts, and the relationship of Indian language renewal and Indian English proficiency.

Sovereignty is classically defined as supreme legal authority. The concept was formulated by sixteenth century legal philosopher Jean Bodin and elaborated by many theorists since then. One basic controversy has been whether to trace supreme authority to the people or to a "divine right" of rulers. Another has been about the relation between legal authority and political-economic power which may influence or dominate law. The definition of sovereignty in federal Indian law partakes of both ancient controversies. An ambiguous concept from the start, surrounded by disagreement, sovereignty is perhaps most cryptic in federal Indian law.

iii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my family, friends, professors, and mentors who have been there for me each time I asked "why," and then returned to ask it again. It is dedicated to those who were forced to attend a boarding school so far away from everything they knew that they lost part of who they were along the way. It is for the students who are today going through a public or community school that refuses to acknowledge their rightful heritage and honor it. But most of all, it is dedicated to the children and grandchildren who will be students tomorrow with the hopes that they will be the beneficiaries of a more intelligent, more culturally responsive, and more meaningful art education. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take a moment to give thanks to all those who had a part in making this heartfelt quest for knowledge not only a challenge, but a step in the right direction.

"All the Real Indians Died Off," a new book by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker, takes aim at what the authors call "myths about Native Americans."  The Authors' Note makes clear they are using the word in its negative sense. They refer to "myths and stereotypes," saying the "narratives behind those myths" are "lies" and "misperceptions." On the other hand, the antidote they offer to the false narratives involves "reclaiming stolen pasts through scholarship, storytelling, relationship building, and acknowledging our ancestry."  "All the Real Indians Died Off" thus posits countering stories with other stories, with one set of stories said to be "a more accurate history." This leaves us with a second definitional question: What do we mean by "history"? "All the Real Indians Died Off" will hit the market in time for this year's debates about celebrating or mourning the arrival of Columbus and his boat people from their ocean-crossing journey to this continent.