Summary Of Gillio Whitaker's A People

This Wednesday, Roxanne-Dunbar Ortiz and Dina Gillio Whitaker presented their new book at the Elliot Bay Company. Their book addresses myths associated with American colonization and the Indigenous peoples. Ms. Gillio Whitaker helped with specifics of the native history side of the book; both collaborating to address the issues they felt were important. Before the brief introduction and excerpt reading, they explained their disappointment in the election results and how it resulted in a therapy session at Washington State University earlier that day.
Although the book excerpt was interesting, the book sounded very similar to Indigenous Peoples. The emphasis on settler colonialism; whose goal is always the erasure of the Indigenous of the area and the so-called “benevolence” of our presidents. The importance of …show more content…
Dunbar-Ortiz was very lively and sarcastic; saying the Department of Defense should go back to its original name, the Department of War, and her underhanded comments implying America’s small mental capacity allowed Trump to win the presidency. Ms. Gillio-Whitaker was very passive; she only spoke at the beginning for a couple of minutes and answered one question afterwards. I had the opportunity to talk to both women afterwards, and I told Dunbar-Ortiz that Indigenous Peoples reminded me of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, in which she responded by telling me that Mr. Zinn was the one who asked her to write Indigenous Peoples, although he passed away before seeing it finished. We talked briefly, she said a few kind words, signed my book and I left. But she left a deep impression on me. Overtly, she seems fragile, she’s older and has a warm smile, but talking about the indecencies committed against Natives seemed to make her come alive; her passionate was evident in her tone and facial expressions, and I know her new book will be just as good as Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United