Introduction
1.Beginnings
2.Genocide
3.Destructive Beliefs
4.Disease
5.War and Massacres
6.Exiles in Their Own Land
7.Education for Assimilation
8.What’s in a Name?
Alex Alvarez is professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northern Arizona University. He was the founding director of the Martin-Springer Institute for Teaching the Holocaust, Tolerance, and Humanitarian Values. He is author or coauthor of several books, including Murder American Style, Violence: The Enduring Problem, and Governments, Citizens, and Genocide, and Genocidal Crimes.
Many Native American activists have claimed that their peoples have
been subjected to genocide since the arrival of the first Europeans
to the Americas. In this work, Alvarez seeks to determine whether
the assertions are correct. He provides a detailed examination of
various definitions of genocide—which he defines as the
implementation of a strategy designed to exterminate a group of
people—how they are applied and why. According to the author,
planning and intent are the key aspects lacking in much of the
evidence put forth to support the accusations. It has been argued
that disease was used as a weapon, but Alvarez demonstrates that
this devastation was inadvertently transmitted. The author looks
for collusion among the colonial-era Dutch, English, French, and
Spanish, on a plan to eradicate the native peoples. To believe that
European powers enacted such an effort would have denied Native
Americans their own agency, yet they actively played European
powers against one another to advance their interests. Alvarez
acknowledges that many atrocities were committed by Euro-Americans
but sees those as distinct from massacre. VERDICT. . . This book is
essential reading for anyone interested in human rights as it is a
primer on what genocide is and is not.
*Library Journal, Starred Review*
Alvarez takes up a set of challenging questions. Unlike many before
him, he does not seek to advance a polemic, but instead reflects on
the complexities of history, atrocity, and interpretation. He
provides a useful introduction to Indian-white relations and the
concept of genocide while considering the applicability of the
latter to describe the former. Alvarez opens his discussion with a
set of framing chapters devoted to precontact history, definitions
of and debates about genocide, and the place of Indianness in
Western thought. These lay a foundation for his deeper, more
thematic chapters. In particular, Alvarez examines disease, wars
and massacres, displacement, and efforts at assimilation, exploring
the evidence and arguments over to what extent and in what ways
each might constitute genocide. The author concludes with a
meditation on the power of words, the limits of analysis, and the
necessity of complexity. Alvarez writes in an approachable style,
encouraging reflection on big questions and the competing answers
to them. As such, this book should appeal to students and
instructors alike in a wide range of fields, from American Indian
studies to political science. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All
levels/libraries.
*CHOICE*
Arguing the term genocide is too often used as a blanket
pronouncement based on 'a general sense of outrage and horror,'
Alvarez (Violence: The Enduring Problem) turns to Native American
history to provide a more nuanced understanding of the term.
Throughout the book, the author gives examples of the varieties of
contact between Europeans and natives of the Americas, including
those of the Aztec and Inca. In most cases, these do not meet his
definition of the term genocide. The decimation of Native Americans
from small pox brought unwittingly by Europeans was not intentional
and therefore not genocide. But giving Indians contaminated
blankets in the hope that disease would, in the words of Major
General Jeffrey Amherst: 'Extirpate this Execrable Race,' is
genocide. While Alvarez condemns the many massacres and
resettlements, he does not see them as genocide, since it was not
the intent of the government to destroy the natives as a race.
However, the author makes an excellent case for the intentional and
long-term cultural genocide of Native Americans in the kidnapping
of children for the purpose of 'acculturation.' The governmental
attempt to destroy Native language, religion, history and culture,
even under a misguided belief that this was a positive,
'civilizing' action is still cultural genocide. Alvarez gives a
thought-provoking study that compels the reader to reexamine
concepts that we too often address superficially.
*Publishers Weekly*
Alvarez tackles the complex question of whether or not the
post-contact decimation of Native American populations, magnified
by events such as the Sand Creek Massacre, constituted genocide. He
defines genocide as an attempt to destroy a population group.
Further, he concludes that genocide entails a strategy, not just an
event or series of events. It’s through this lens that he views a
selection of massacres, waves of disease, forced removal to
reservations, and native children’s mandatory attendance at
military and church-run boarding schools, in his attempt to
ascertain whether any of these qualify as genocide. Wounded Knee
and the Sand Creek Massacre he labels as isolated events, not
committed as acts of policy meant to exterminate entire tribes. The
Long Walk of the Navajo to the Bosque Redondo Alvarez calls
'traumatic,' but not genocidal, for it was intended to kill Navajo
culture, but leave the people alive—the crux, he says, of cultural
genocide. In his sensitive treatment of this difficult issue,
Alvarez strikes a balance between scholarly pragmatism and a
humanist’s empathy for the victims of this immense tragedy.
*Booklist*
There is a desperate need for a carefully drawn analysis of the
kind Alex Alvarez presents in this book. He has placed his analysis
squarely within the context of genocide theory, and by doing so has
surpassed many previous works on the topic through the care he has
taken for the subject and the concepts upon which it rests. In
short, this work is a benchmark for others to follow, and deserves
to take its place among the first rank of studies dealing with the
question of genocide relative to Native America.
*Paul R. Bartrop, Florida Gulf Coast University*
Without at all diminishing the inhumanities, injustices, and
indignities that took place, Alvarez argues persuasively that
United States’ Indian policy was far more complicated than
genocide. This is a well-written, commonsense book that deserves to
reach a wide audience.
*David Wishart, University of Nebraska-Lincoln*
Professor Alvarez has written a comprehensive analysis which
directly confronts the controversial question concerning whether or
not the destruction of the indigenous populations of the Americas
was genocide. The book is exceedingly well written and one of
the most interesting treatments of the topic I have seen. It
should be of interest to students and teachers in a variety of
fields including genocide studies, political science, history and
criminal justice.
*Herbert Hirsch, Virginia Commonwealth University*
By addressing issues linked to the term genocide and to genocide
studies in relationship with the complex histories of Native
Americans, Alex Alvarez has put together a thought-provoking volume
which will be a valuable resource for study and debate in the
classroom.
*Joyce Apsel, New York University*
In this important and fascinating study Alex Alvarez examines the
question whether or not the catastrophe that engulfed Native
Americans following European colonization amounted to
genocide. In his work he balances the scholar’s commitment to
intellectual honesty with the humanist’s empathy for the
victims.
*Robert Melson, professor emeritus, Purdue University; former
president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars*
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