James Wilson - The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America

Critical Acclaim for James Wilsons The Earth Shall Weep

Carefully researched and a wide-ranging narrative... both a survey of the disastrous impact of white conquest on indigenous cultures and a dissection of the stubborn and contradictory myths ... generated by the conquerors.

Richard E. Nicholls, The New York Times Book Review

The long history of Native America ... is overwhelmingly complex, elusive, and hugely misunderstood, as James Wilson reminds us. Untangling it and giving it coherence on a broad scale is the considerable accomplishment of Wilsons absorbing and powerful synthetic history.

William R. Handley, Boston Review of Books

A wonderful new history of the Indians of the United Statesthoroughly informed, thoughtful, and compellingly written.

Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., author of 500 Nations

Wilson chronicles the past five centuries with an unflinching narrative.... Even when brutal and honest, The Earth Shall Weep is not a tragedy. It carries the story of Native Americans forward toward the future.

Mark Trahant, The Seattle Times

Employing elegiac prose and steady narrative momentum, Wilson has written a richly informative history that places Native Americans at the center of the historical stage.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Wilsons book draws on traditional historical texts, on archaeology, ethnography, and written and oral accounts from the Indians themselves. The result is an unusually rich, credible and readable history.

Kristen Lillegard, Chicago Tribune

Wilson includes many Indian voicesdefiant, betrayed, frustrated, resilientthat reveal what it felt like to be on the receiving end of countless lies and of an often brutal regime of cultural subordination. These eyewitness accounts, often missing from the standard work in the field, heighten the emotional punch of an intrinsically powerful narrative.

Edward Lazarus, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Wilson has grasped the core issues in developing an understanding of the Native American experience. All books about Native peoples should start with stories of how each tribe was created.

Mace J. Delorme, Paiute/Pit River/Cree/Dakota Nations

Perhaps writing of this nature will allow the start of a healing, the Indigenous soul.

Loren Bommelyn, Tolowa Nation

The most balanced account of the taking of the American continent Ive ever seen.... Wilsons words are riveting.

David Pego, The Austin American-Statesman

Wilsons clear and convincing account not only gives the sweep of events from the past, but allows us to put the present in a larger perspective. The Earth Shall Weep is a history that allows for a future, and for that reason alone it is a story worth reading.

Steven Harvey, The Atlanta Journal Constitution

[Wilson] presents a comprehensive, imaginative overview of Native American history that is exceptional in its concept: Wilson has gathered information not only from historical sources but from ethnographic and archaeological works as well as oral histories.... Because it encompasses so many facets of the Native American situation, this volume will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.

Library Journal

A sweeping, well-written, long-view history of American Indian societies ... a trustworthy telling of a sad epic of misunderstanding, mayhem, and massacre.

Kirkus Reviews

The Earth Shall Weep is a very different history of Native America. James Wilson has written a fresh and lively account of Native American relations with Europeans and settlers. By placing Native American ideas of the world at the forefront and using native testimony and writings as well as conventional history, Wilson avoids the sense of tragic victimhood and academic ponderousness that so much of the writing on the subject is mired in. Taking us through the very diverse experiences of Native Americans in New England, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Southwest, the Great Plains, and the Far West, the book is a wonderfully sympathetic introduction to native predicaments from the first encounters to the casinos.

Colin Samson, director of Native American Studies, University of Essex

Wilson is constantly seeking fresh insights.... First-rate history... intellectually sophisticated, lucid, nuanced, fair and judicious, this is an outstanding addition to the literature on the subject.

Frank McLynn, The Independent Saturday Magazine (London)

A History of Native America

JAMES WILSON

Copyright 1998 by James Wilson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

First published in 1998 by Picador, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., London

Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

The maps entitled Culture Areas and Approximate Locations of Native American Groups at Time of Contact and Land Losses were created by Sanderson Associates and are reproduced by permission from Encyclopedia of North American Indians, copyright 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilson, James, 1949

The earth shall weep : the history of Native Americans / James
Wilson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9746-7

1. Indians of North AmericaHistory. 2.
Indians, Treatment ofNorth America. 3. Indians of North AmericaGovernment policy.

I. Title.

E77.W54 1999

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West
www.groveatlantic.com

For Paula
and for Tom, Kit and my Mother
with love and gratitude

Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die.

John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota, 1932