Tragic Encounter: The People's History of Native Americans

Upon his death Smith (1917%E2%80%931995) left an unpublished manuscript on the history of Native Americans, consisting largely of relevant chapters from the eight volumes of his "People's History of the United States." Considering how much the field of Native American history has advanced in the two decades since, one wonders why this manuscript has been published now. Not only does Smith claim that a work such as his is needed because environmentalists and adherents of the "man's movement" idealize Native American ways, but his writing style lacks nuance and is rife with clich%C3%A9s. The narrative makes little attempt to distinguish between the highly varied cultures of Native Americans, or even those of European settlers, who are described as marked by their "Protestant %E2%80%98work ethic.'" Smith devotes little attention to Native American social, cultural, or religious life, focusing almost exclusively on the political and military spheres and giving readers a strong sense that Indians were constantly reacting to whites' endeavors rather than taking any initiative of their own. Such a work, with its repeated invocations of the "infatuation of the counterculture with tribal life," would have seemed old-fashioned when it was written. Today it reads as almost laughably simplistic and lacking in intellectual sophistication, and only diminishes Smith's historiographical prestige. (Nov.)