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.