500 Years of Indigenous Resistance

Gord Hill

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 by European military power. In reality, neither of these views is correct. This book 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

 Foreword • Introduction • 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. Indian Wars • 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

About the Author

Gord Hill is a member of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation on the Northwest Coast. Writer, artist, and militant, he has been involved in Indigenous resistance, anti-colonial and anti-capitalist movements for many years, often using the pseudonym Zig Zag.  

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