Tragic Encounters

The People's History of Native Americans

“Pulling from his epic A People’s History of the United States**, Smith creates a chronological history of Native Americans.” —**Library Journal

During the last years of his life, Page Smith—one of America’s greatest historians—concentrated on composing a history of Native Americans after the first European contact. This manuscript was discovered unpublished after his death. Using his wonderful technique of narrative, discovering in the events of each period the thematic overview of that period, he again turns to contemporaneous documents to provide the structure and substance of his story. From Jamestown to Wounded Knee, the story of these Native peoples from coast to coast is explored, granting these oppressed and nearly destroyed people a chance to tell their own broad story. We know of no other similar attempt, and this book will surely caution and intrigue readers as they are offered a new slant on a very old subject.

“Rejecting an idealized version of American tribal life, a historian tells a complex story . . . a vivid recounting of brutality, duplicity, and violence on all sides.” —Kirkus Reviews