Popular media depict miners as a rough-and-tumble lot who diligently worked the placers along scenic rushing rivers while living in roaring mining camps in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Trafzer and Hyer destroy this mythic image by offering a collection of original newspaper articles that describe in detail the murder, rape, and enslavement perpetrated by those who participated in the infamous gold rush. "It is a mercy to the Red Devils," wrote an editor of the Chico Courier, "to exterminate them." Newspaper accounts of the era depict both the barbarity and the nobility in human nature, but while some protested the inhumane treatment of Native Americans, they were not able to end the violence. Native Americans fought back, resisting the invasion, but they could not stop the tide of white miners and settlers. They became "strangers in a stolen land."
Michigan State University Press

Adam Fortunate Eagle (Chippewa)
The occupation of Alcatraz Island, from November 1969 to June 1971, is one of the more important Indian activist events in the twentieth century, yet remains a poorly recorded event. The occupation of wounded Knee II, which lasted seventy-one days, and the occupation of the Washington, D.C., BIA headquarters, which lasted for only seventy hours, may well have not occurred at all without the occupation of Alcatraz.

The occupation of Alcatraz Island represents the longest continuous occupation of a federal facility by any minority group in US history. Alcatraz set in motion a wave of overtly nationalist Indian militancy that ultimately resulted in abandonment of the US government's policy of termination and the adoption of a policy of Indian self-determination. This publication commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Alcatraz occupation and presents poetry and political statements written by Indian people during the occupation or in commemoration of the event.
University of California

Fresh, informative, and provocative, this collection of interviews showcases twelve leading Native artists and activists who have challenged and helped reshape prevailing expectations about Native cultures and identities during the late twentieth century: writers Sherman Alexie and James Welch, singer-songwriter and educator Buffy Sainte-Marie, poet Elizabeth Woody, activist and AIM member Dino Butler, musician and activist John Trudell, writer and activist Winona LaDuke, actor and musician Litefoot, the late aids activist Bonnie Blackwolf, and visual artists Rick Bartow, Jesse Hummingbird, and Norman Guardipee. Engaging in their own right and offering substantive insights into individual careers and personalities, these interviews also explore a number of significant and often controversial intellectual, cultural, and political issues affecting Native peoples today. Among the topics discussed are the effects of the New Age movement and other forms of cultural appropriation, current conflicts and disagreements within Native communities, connections to the environment, alcohol and drug addiction, the American Indian Movement, the blood-quantum debate, religious freedom, the value of elders, and obligations to past cultural traditions.
University of Nebraska Press

The environmental destruction of Indian lands is charted in a hard-hitting account tracing five hundred years of atrocities. From strip-mining and uranium mining to contamination of lands with toxic materials, this continues the ongoing saga of white exploitation of Indian communities, presenting a grim and revealing portrait of the politics involved on all sides. - Midwest Book Review
Clear Light Books

Donna Goodleaf (Mohawk)

The first book dealing with the issues surrounding the Oka crisis from an Indian perspective. An in-depth focus on the issues of Mohawk sovereignity.
Clear Light

Chief Seattle (Suquamish) & Eli Gifford
Chief Seattle's impassioned plea to respect "the Sacred Web of Life" has become an inspiration to many. But what did he really say? Our research lead us to the version the Suquamish elders from Seattle's tribe include in their oral tradition, published here with two popular twentieth century adaptations. Historical background explains the evolution of the speech and clears up the recent controversy surrounding the authenticity.  Eli Gifford was writing a masters thesis on Chief Seattle and his famous speech. Together with Michael Cook, who talked to the Suquamish elders, interviewed Robert Perry and contacted the estate of William Arrrowsmith, they were able to trace the evolution of the original speech to two popular 20th century adaptations. Warren Jefferson, a photographer and researcher, was given access to rare photographs from the Suquamish archives for this book.
Book Publishing Company

George Beaver (Mohawk)

Historical perspectives & personal views from a contemporary Iroquois columnist.  Articles originally published in the Brantford expositor, 1987-1995.
Iroqrafts

Karen Coody Cooper (Cherokee)

During the twentieth century, American Indians across North America organized protests against traditional museum treatment of Native materials and the Native community. In response, museums began to change their methods. Spirited Encounters provides a foundation for understanding museums, examines how museums collect Native materials, and explores protest as a fully American process of addressing grievances. Now that museums and American Indians are working together in the processes of repatriation, this book can help each side understand the other more fully.