Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, I was told that the “Indians used to live here, but now they don’t. There was some fighting but not a lot.” I never serious questioned the history I was told until I went to the North Cascades. One of my cohort mates belonged to a federally recognized tribe and started to show me how lacking my education was.

I learned more from An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz than I learned throughout my 14 years in public education. While I think it is a great book for folks around the world to read, I fully believe this should be required reading for all American students in our Public School system.