Allura Boyles

Professor Colvin

English 1201

17 March 2019

Alvarez, Alex. Native America and the Question of Genocide. Rowman & Littlefield,

2016.

The author of “Native America and the Question of Genocide” is Alex Alvarez. In this

book he goes into details about how many of the things that were done to natives does

not fall under the category of genocide but there are certain things, like giving the

natives contaminated blankets and kidnapping their children for acculturation that do fall

under the category of what genocide is. Alvarez stance on the topic is that intent is a

major factor in deciding if genocide occurred. He goes on to state that it must be

“planned and deliberate” behavior, which when looking at what the United States was

planning, it was not planned or deliberate.

His purpose when writing this book was to make you think about how the term genocide

is overused and often misused. To me this book was written towards those that are

college age as it is used in many classes. He is a professor at Northern Arizona

University and has written multiple books about the United States government and
genocide. I will use this source to answer the question I have about whether or not the

killing of indigenous peoples is considered genocide.

Anderson, Gary. “Ethnic Cleansing and the Indian: The Crime That Should Haunt

America.” Ethnohistory, vol. 62, no. 2, 2015, pp. 389–391.,

doi:10.1215/00141801-2

Gary Anderson wrote this book and had two main arguments. One of those was how

the American government tried to do an ethnic cleansing and the other is his stance on

how it was not a genocide. Anderson gets his facts from military documents and primary

sources. He gives details about how it was ethnic cleansing and how the term genocide

should not be used. When he says that genocide cannot be a term used he is taking it

as one definition when in fact there are other definitions of genocide that it does fall

under. He reviews multiple different occurrences that he has researched.

Gary Clayton Anderson is a professor at The University of Oklahoma. This is written for

those who are doing research or interested in the topic. This article gives the other side

to the argument about if the killing of indigenous peoples is considered a genocide.

Fixico, Donald L. “When Native Americans Were Slaughtered in the Name of

'Civilization'.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Mar. 2018,

www.history.com/news/native-americans-genocide-united-states.
This article “When Native Americans were Slaughtered in the Name of Civilization” was

written by Donald Fixico. He starts off by stating the number of indigenous peoples and

how after the Indian wars there were significantly less. He goes on to call it a racial

genocide and blames many of the reasons for the killings to be the color of their skin

and how they lived their lives, which was significantly different than those who were

moving to America. A few of the main things that he brings up are some of the attacks,

in including the Gnadenhutten Massacre, creek war, battle of Tippecanoe and a few

others. The rest gives details about other things that occurred including the removal of

thousands of natives who were forced west, along with other mass killings of innocent

people.

The purpose of this is to give information about a few different massacres and is written

for anyone with an interest. Donald Fixico is a professor at Arizona State University.

This would be useful when answering my question about what the indigenous people

had to go through.

Karlin, Mark. “The United States Has Still Not Acknowledged It Committed Genocide

Against Indigenous Peoples.” Truthout, Truthout, 23 Oct. 2016,

truthout.org/articles/the-united-states-has-still-not-acknowledged-it-committed-

genocide-against-indigenous-peoples/.

This is an interview by Mark Karlin discussing how the United States does not want to

acknowledge what it has done to indigenous people. He interviewed Dina Gilio-Whitaker

and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. It was mainly about the new book that they had written
called The Indigenous Peoples History of the United States. Questions that were asked

included how information was erased and a few about the genocide and if it truly was a

genocide. One main point that Gilio-Whitaker makes is when Karlin asks about the

Dakota Access pipeline. She explains that this is another way that they are having their

way of life tampered with.

This is an interview that is pointed towards anyone with an interest in their new book.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker is a senior research associate and the center for world indigenous

studies and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is an American historian who has written many

books. This article could come in handy when I want in-depth information about a few

specific questions.

Lewy, Guenter. “Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?” History News

Network, Sept. 2004, historynewsnetwork.org/article/7302.

Guenter Lewy wrote this article which has a follow up article titled “Yes, Native

Americans Were the Victims of Genocide” which was written by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

Within the first few paragraphs he references other authors and professors who give

facts about the number of killings and information about how the natives where forced to

leave. The term genocide is used multiple times to define what happened. He does

explain that some do not like that term while others think it is the correct one to use.

Reasons are given for why they were killed and ways that is occurred. Highly

contagious disease were one of the most important reasons along with massacres and

wars.
This was written by Guenter Lewy who is a political science professor at the University

of Massachusetts Amherst. He has written many things about genocides that are

considered controversial. This is a great article for facts pertaining to my questions

about what is considered genocide and if this topic is actually a genocide along with

information about things that happened.

Madley, Benjamin. “Reexamining the American Genocide Debate: Meaning,

Historiography, and New Methods.” The American Historical Review, vol. 120,

no. 1, 2015, pp. 98–139., doi:10.1093/ahr/120.1.98.

Benjamin Madley wrote this article that was included in the American Historical Review

in February 2015. This article is from a book he published of the same name from the

Yale University Press. Main points that Madley makes in this article is that some say

that disease was the main cause of most of the deaths while there are others that say

while disease is a main cause, there was also colonialism, war, and multiple killings that

were also just as much a main cause.

Madley is a historian of Native America and an associate professor at UCLA. This

article was manly written for those who are doing research as you cannot freely read the

article, you have to pay for it and many would not pay for just a fun or interesting read.

This article is useful for my question about if it was a genocide.

Ostler, Jeffrey. “Genocide and American Indian History.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia

of American History, 2015, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.3.855630.

Jeffrey Ostler wrote this article in March 2015. The first few main points that he makes

is about the depopulation, diseases, wars, and if it is considered a genocide. Multiple

paragraphs are provided for each and each has facts and information that goes in

depth. At the end of this article he gives the definition of genocide and tells that until a

certain time that word was not used to describe what occurred and it was not later that

people started calling it a genocide, but it also goes into details about how some do not

use the term. A few of which are well known in the academic fields.

Jeffrey Ostler is a professor that specializes in the history of the American west and has

a focus on the American Indian history. This is a perfect resource for information about

what occurred that includes statistics and facts, along with the argument on genocide

being a term to use.