Native Peoples of North America

By: Daniel M. Cobb, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Daniel M. Cobb

Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

History, for all its facts and figures, names and dates, is ultimately subjective. You learn the points of view your teachers provide, the perspectives that books offer, and the conclusions you draw yourself based on the facts you were given. Hearing different angles on historical events gives you a more insightful, accurate, and rewarding understanding of events - especially when a new viewpoint challenges the story you thought you knew.

Now the Great Courses has partnered with Smithsonian to bring you a course that will greatly expand your understanding of American history. This course, Native Peoples of North America, pairs the unmatched resources and expertise of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian with the unparalleled knowledge of Professor Daniel M. Cobb of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to provide a multidisciplinary view of American history, revealing new perspectives on the historical and contemporary experiences of indigenous peoples and their impact on the history of our country.

This insightful and unique 24-lecture course helps disprove myths and stereotypes that many people take as fact. Professor Cobb presents a different account of the Seven Years' War, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, and beyond, providing the stories of the American Indian people who fought and negotiated to preserve their ancestral lands.

Native Peoples of North America recounts an epic story of resistance and accommodation, persistence and adaption, extraordinary hardship and survival across more than 500 years of colonial encounter. As the Smithsonian curators stated, "The past never changes. But the way we understand it, learn about it, and know about it changes all the time." Be prepared - this course is going to change how you understand American history. And no matter how much you know about this subject, you will be surprised.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2016 The Great Courses (P)2016 The Teaching Company, LLC

covers only part of the native American story

These lectures covered in great detail the relations between native Americans and the non-native people. I learned a lot, particularly form the perspective of the indigenous people. The indigenous peoples' perspective is usually given short shrift in popular history, so these lectures are important in presenting that point of view. The lectures, however, were not intended to be, and were not, objective in this respect. Overall, very well presented and for me, new information and perspective.

I thought that the course description was misleading. I expected the lectures to cover Indian family life, the differences between tribes and the evolution thereof, the various ways of obtaining sustenance, the various religions, social and political structure, migrations, housing, relations between the tribes, artistic expression, technological development, languages and language groups. None of this was touched on, except in the context of and for the purpose of explaining native-non-native relations. I guess these topics are for another lecture series.

Excellent content, solid delivery.

The lecture series was informative and led me to other quality sources of information on indigenous peoples and their ways of life.

The narrator's performance was good on the whole but not perfect.

About the struggle, not the peoples

What I was hoping for was to gain an understanding of the distinctions of various Native American groups. There is precious little coverage of the substance of particular native cultures. (The part covering the Iroquois is closest to what I was hoping for, but it still just scratches the surface.)

Author gives a good chronological overview of the past 500 years through native perspectives, which has its benefits. (Like getting to see how taking sides in the Revolution effected the Iroquois, for example.)

And now the rant:
It is preachy. Too preachy. Polemic. Moralizing. One-sided. Condescending toward people in history who probably did the same things we would do in their shoes, without really addressing the nuances of their motivations so we can examine the roots of their injustices in our own hearts. Instead it leaves us feeling better than them - like we’re definitely more enlightened.

Makes some good points (like the key part of “reservation” is “reserve” - they are something held back by right, not given by government).

Still I feel like I didn’t learn much about the different tribes themselves and their unique histories and cultures, which is really the gap in my knowledge I was hoping to fill with this course.

Highly informative!

This audiobook helped make the familiar stories I've heard of native American culture seem unfamiliar, from the perspective of about 500 Indian cultures subjected to 500 years of colonial encounters. It saddens me to learn of the reference to the savagery of native Americans in our 1776 Declaration of Independence.

Honest history of Native America

I absolutely loved it! it's refreshing to hear the real history and struggle of Native Americans.

History since European contact well told

I had actually been looking for a longer span of history, but was not disappointed. Most of the more recent history was unknown to me, even though I was aware of the major items from the news. That first draft of history was not so good.

OK, but misleading title

The author apparently doesn't know what North America is. But the book is not bad overall.

SUBJECT: It focuses quite a bit on government relations with tribes, including various legal and diplomatic issues. Art, culture, music, language, etc are mentioned, but if these are your main interest, this is not the book for you.

TIME: The time span is essentially European contact through the present. There is not much about pre-contact life on the front end. And on the back end, whereas some books on this topic might choose to end with 1890, in this book 1890 is about the midpoint. There is significant focus on more recent history.

PLACE: Despite the title, it is exclusively about the USA (and predecessor colonies), mentioning Canada and Mexico only when events overlap the border. It is mostly about the lower 48 states of the USA, with some mentions of Alaska, and perhaps one passing mention of Hawaii.

NARRATOR: The narrator is good enough. I lost focus and had to back up a few times, but probably due to the dry subject, not specifically the narrator's style.

SUMMARY: Overall I am glad I chose it, but I can't give it a 5 star rave review.

Good information, but hateful undertones

To date, I have yet to listen to anything from the great courses that have been decent, and this is about the same quality as the bible lady I heard. I hear these words, "invasion", "slaughtered". From the way, he is talking it sounds like the Europeans planned to kill all the natives, and I never agreed with that. Small Pox killed 90% of the Native population. Even if the Europeans hadn't colonized the west, the Natives wouldn't have survived with so many dead. And that wasn't done on purpose, that was just life. Disease happens. When the fur trade started, and the west wanted furs, they gave guns to the natives and agreed to pay a LOT for furs. The natives went and got the furs. When they ran out of furs they started killing themselves to get the furs. That isn't racist to say, that is just the truth. The natives weren't perfect people that lived a perfect life and never sinned. And the Europeans weren't evil terrible people with a plan to kill innocent people because they could. And to draw such a black and white line is to MASSIVELY oversimplify history.

I have been looking for this kind of "information"

Excellent. Much much more than I could have hoped for. Have gained many new perspectives, and yes, I will be spending more time learning. I will return to listen to these lectures again and will share them with my friends. Thank You.

One of the best lessons in North American Indigenous History. Highly recommended for anyone seeking better understanding of the rich history and cultures of Native Peoples.