This book is the same old story told in classrooms across the country that teaches a sanitized version of this time period. It makes it sound almost like an adventure, while barely taking into account the reality of what western expansion meant to Native Americans. It continues the standard manifest destiny story of progress and prosperity for “pioneers” and makes it into “fun” crafts. It tends to lump Native Americans under a broad banner and implies we are all the same.
The first project mentions the Homestead Act of 1862 and how it “gave free land” to white Americans without mentioning who that land actually belonged to and what was done to get it. It wasn’t “free.” It perpetuates the land bridge theory on the next page as well as calling us the first “Americans.” Many Native peoples do not like that descriptor. It says European “explorers” came, but does not mention the harm done to Native nations by these so called “explorers.” The book later states “To the west lay uncharted miles of forested wilderness and vast tracts of land waiting to be tamed.” Uncharted to who? Certainly not to the nations living there. This wasn’t a wilderness at all, but a well kept land of many nations intentionally shaping the land for their needs. Saying this land needed to be “tamed” makes stereotypical implications about the people living there as well as perpetuating the idea that we weren’t using it properly. The next activities are all about land purchases with no mention of Native nations, treaties, or how that happened.
It moves on to the next section and talks about “claiming the new frontier.” At this point it talks about the “dangers” of the frontier and then focuses on how dangerous Native Americans were because we were “angry.” So beyond a small mention of us existing here in the beginning, now we’re angry, but there is no explanation as to why or what this invasion did to us (starting with the first colonies). We are simply called “angry.” Next there is a glorified story about Daniel Boone. The next section is called “Exploring the Wilderness.” Again with the “wilderness” myth. Now we get an entire project about this myth. We start out with the Lewis and Clark story. It only says that “Sacagawea helped smooth relations between the expedition and the Native Americans.” It does not talk about the tragic realities of her life and experiences of being forced on this expedition. We also get the “unfriendly Native Americans” trope that is used to perpetuate the good Indian/bad Indian dichotomy in American mythology (history). This part ends with “The brave explorers and wild mountain men gave life to some of the most exciting stories in American history.” I can’t eye roll hard enough. Next we encounter the “friendly indian” that completes the previously mentioned dichotomy. It calls the east coast settlements “civilization,” talks about “adventures” of “wild mountain men,” and credits white Americans with “discoveries” throughout the west.
“Missionaries at Work” is the title of the next series of projects. This entire section glorifies the force assimilation of Native Americans that the white American church participated in. This is not a positive part of history, but this book makes it sound like a great adventure. These “missionaries” engaged in practices that were extremely harmful to Natives and our communities. They were often violent and forced “conversions” to their faiths. This section also claims that these “missionaries” taught Native Americans how to farm (despite the history of Natives teaching Europeans how to farm because they couldn’t survive here) and how to sew (um….did we not sew already? Clearly we did). If I completely analyzed this section, this post would turn into a book. It’s pretty awful. So let’s move on to “The Oregon Trail.” This continues the wilderness myth. “Weren’t they afraid of lightening and rattlesnakes, of bears and hunger and Indians?” it states in the opening project. So we’re compared to dangerous animals and lightening, apparently? This is a pretty gross way to talk about the fact that we defended ourselves and our nations from invasion. Western expansion was an invasion.
Next is “The Native American Struggle.” This is where it talks about us as a sad and defeated people relegated to a mythological noble past. It gets the number of nations and population in North American very wrong in the introduction. It uses the incorrect term “shamans” when talking about medicine men and women. It reduces the “struggle” to a clash of cultures rather than what it was – invasion and theft. It makes a brief mention of modern Natives. The activities are incorrect comparisons and a set of supposed “Native American wisdom” with probably made up sayings being attributed to certain nations. This entire section is about tragedy.
Now we come to the “far west” where we get to the pacific states and the southwest. It glorifies Jedidiah Smith and the Alamo. Then we get a sanitized story of the Gold Rush. The Gold Rush, in reality, was a massive genocide of California Natives. This is not talked about, even in simple terms for children to understand. It is just the same old story about finding gold and how white people either got rich or struggled. It is possible to explain the reality to children, but this book does not attempt to do so. It even states “Sutter made the local Native Americans work for him.” Hmm, this sounds a lot like slavery, but that is all it says about it. The section about homesteaders on the plains has zero mention of Native Americans. The last section is about the railroads. This, of course, is a glorification of the transcontinental railroad and what it took to build it. It only mentions Natives in that some helped build it. No mention of any of the actual issues faced by Natives during this time. But it does talk about how “fabulously wealthy” the owners of the railroads became.
I very much do not recommend this book. I will be posting reviews of other Evan Moor books as well, but as it stands I do not recommend any of their History Pockets.
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