232: Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee by Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Warrior

Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee

Book description:

"For a brief but brilliant season beginning in the late 1960s, American Indians seized national attention in a series of radical acts of resistance. Like a Hurricane is a gripping account of the dramatic, breathtaking events of this tumultuous period. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials, interviews, and the authors' own experiences of these events, Like a Hurricane offers a rare, unflinchingly honest assessment of the period's successes and failures."

Why this is progressive/liberal: Progressives are often not so progressive on Indian rights. For example, I've never known an Indian that referred to him or herself as a Native American. We've taken hundreds of nations and lumped them all together. This is akin to asserting that a citizen of Mexico, a citizen of the United States, and a citizen of Canada are all roughly the same because they're "Americans." Or, North Americans if you want to be more specific. This history of the American Indian protest movement in the early 1970s is a must read for anyone interested in Indian civil rights.

273: I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchu

I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (Second Edition)

From the Wikipedia page:

"Rigoberta Menchú Tum is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the K'iche' ethnic group. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and to promoting indigenous rights in the country. She received the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and Prince of Asturias Award in 1998. She is the subject of the testimonial biography I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983) and the author of the autobiographical work, Crossing Borders. Later, American anthropologist David Stoll visited Guatemala and uncovered evidence that some of the claims presented in Menchú's Nobel Prize-winning testimonial were inaccurate or false."

Later researchers showed that Stoll's claims were inaccurate. It's amazing how much vituperation and abuse the American right has leveled against Menchú. A few minor cases of poetic license has turned her into "one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century" according to US conservative David Horowitz. Unfortunately, Menchú did not make up the violence of the Guatemalan military against the indigenous K'iche'. For nearly fifty years the Guatemalan government and its soldiers slaughtered and tortured the natives of that region. Menchú tells the story of her people's struggle.

Why this is liberal/progressive: The United States supports horrendous, murderous governments. For some reason few US citizens seem to care. Books like this remind us that our tax dollars are being used to help murder and torture innocent people. Generally (though not exclusively) it is Progressives who protest the US government's barbaric foreign policy.

Buy the Kindle version: I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala



Some more books on indigenous movements: