500 Years of Indigenous Resistance

Oakland, Calif. : PM, 2009. 70 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. ISBN: 9781604861068

Publisher’s presentation

The history of the colonization of the Americas by Europeans is often portrayed as a mutually beneficial process, in which ’”civilization” was brought to the Natives, who in return shared their land and cultures. A more critical history might present it as a genocide in which Indigenous peoples were helpless victims, overwhelmed and awed by European military power. In reality, neither of these views is correct.
500 Years of Indigenous Resistance is more than a history of European colonization of the Americas. In this slim volume, Gord Hill chronicles the resistance by Indigenous peoples, which limited and shaped the forms and extent of colonialism. This history encompasses North and South America, the development of nation-states, and the resurgence of Indigenous resistance in the post-WW2 era.

Contents:

The Pre-Columbian world — The genocide begins — Expansion, exploitation, and extermination — The penetration of North America — The European struggle for hegemony — Tragedy, the United States is created — Revolutions in the "New World" Manifest destiny and the U.S. Indian wars — Afrikan slavery, Afrikan rebellion, and the U.S. civil war — Black reconstruction and deconstruction — The colonization of Canada — Extermination and assimilation: Two methods, one goal — The people AIM for freedom — The struggle for land — In total resistance

See also his interview

• The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book

Ward Churchill, introd. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010. 88 p. ISBN: 9781551523606

Publisher’s presentation

The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book is a powerful and historically accurate graphic portrayal of Indigenous resistance to the European colonization of the Americas, beginning with the Spanish invasion under Christopher Columbus and ending with the Six Nations land reclamation in Ontario in 2006. Gord Hill spent two years unearthing images and researching historical information to create The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book, which presents the story of Aboriginal resistance in a far-reaching format.
Other events depicted include the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico; the Inca insurgency in Peru from the 1500s to the 1780s; Pontiac and the 1763 Rebellion & Royal Proclamation; Geronimo and the 1860s Seminole Wars; Crazy Horse and the 1877 War on the Plains; the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s; 1973’s Wounded Knee; the Mohawk Oka Crisis in Quebec in 1990; and the 1995 Aazhoodena/Stoney Point resistance.
With strong, plain language and evocative illustrations, The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book documents the fighting spirit and ongoing resistance of Indigenous peoples through 500 years of genocide, massacres, torture, rape, displacement, and assimilation: a necessary antidote to the conventional history of the Americas.
The book includes an introduction by Ward Churchill, a writer, political activist, and co-director of the American Indian Movement of Colorado.