Customer Reviews

American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World

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My one quibble with this book is that it only chronicles destruction - it does not discuss the long and continuing resistance of Native American people and cultures. In places like Vermont, the Abenaki continue to live in the shadows of their white neighbors, learned to use guitars and fiddles so we wouldn't be arrested for drum playing, and quietly suffer through continuing discrimination (there are several stores, where I could walk in and wait as long as the store is open, and not be served). A dirty little secret of the Democratic Party, which continues to hold the governorship of Vermont, is that it runs on a platform of never recognizing the Native People of Vermont - whether or not we gain federal recognition. (For fair comparison, I should note that the Republican Party wants to remove sovereign status from all Native Nations.) This is rascism, and Vermont history is completely whitewashed. The few times the Abenaki are mentioned in Vermont history textbooks that are sanctioned for use in the schools, we are constantly labeled as murderers and thieves. Never mind, of course, that we were murdered and raped in large numbers by European settlers who were stealing our crops and land.

Besides the continuing tribal resistance, there are very important modern movements of resistance that are pan-Indian, and embrace Hispanics and sympathetic whites and others, such as the Seventh Generation Project in Minnesota, and Tonatierra in Arizona.

The worst critique most people have come up with about this book is that its count of native peoples in the Western Hemisphere is inflated. That is hardly the case. If you check the research of modern anthropologists and professors in American Indian Studies Departments, you find out that the numbers have been consistently undercounted up until the modern day, and that the "accepted figures" taught in school were based on very little evidence.

There was native-on-native violence, and I agree that this has been somewhat glossed over. However, that is almost refreshing compared to the historically inaccurate painting of native peoples as bloodthirsty barbarians found in most of the older histories. Spanish conquerers are known to have over-counted the number of humans sacrifices made by the Aztecs, while not mentioning their own human sacrifices to God in the form of the Spanish Inquistion and the many bloody Christian sectarian wars being fought in Europe at the time. I cannot imagine the victims feel any worse about being sacrificed on an altar instead of a battlefield, and both are sacrificed in great pain in the name of a God or gods.

The rest of the critiques I have seen are rascist nonsense. One particular reviewer said that it only showed the "indian side of the story". First of all, Indians are inhabitants of India, I am Native American or American Indian, at least to outsiders, just as only blacks are allowed to use the inflammatory n-word with each other in single-race company. Secondly, the vast majority of histories only tell the white side of the story, so reading the "other side" should be informative. Thirdly, sir, to be mildly insulting, you sound like a stereotypical holocaust denier in your critiques - and I do mean of both the American and the European Jewish. There are very few books that only tell Hitler's side of the story - and none of them are accepted as valid scholarship. The same should hold true in modern histories of what happened in Native America.

I make this comparison for good reason - that being that Hitler is documented as having said that he based his final solution for the Jews on the U.S. government's final solution of the "Indian problem". In the thirties, this was continuing - with the Vermont Eugenics Project and other rascist eugenics projects that specifically targeted Native Americans and African Americans to be surgically castrated. Several of my grandmother's cousins were caught and targeted in that net. It continued in the 60s, when the BIA-run hospitals were discovered to be using saline solution instead of vaccines on our infants, experimental surgery on our people, and to be basically castrating women during C-sections so they could not have any more children. And it continues today, with uncapped Uranium deposits on Navajo land out west doing irreparable genetic damage to the people, with the Superfund site that magically "ends" at the border of the Akwesasne Reservation in Upstate New York and Canada, and many others (Winona LaDuke wrote an excellent book covering this continuing devastation in detail).

I highly suggest reading Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide, in addition to this book.

American Holocaust was published in 1992 in occasion of the 500 year anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the Americas. In the midst of much celebratory scholarship praising the greatness of Euro-American history and culture, Stannard wrote a book that tells history from a very different side. It present a vivid account of the European conquest of the Americas and focuses attention on how the often celebrated conquest resulted in nothing less than a holocaust for the Indigenous peoples of the America.
The first two-thirds of the book consist in a very graphic reconstruction of HOW the colonization of the Americas took place. Stannard pulls no punches and delivers us all the horror and brutality of the European invasion in no uncertain terms. The overall effect is rather depressing, but at the same time enlightening. Reading it before a hot date, though, is not suggested since you will probably be in a bad mood for hours. The second half of the book switches gears and focuses on WHY the colonization of the Americas took place the way it did. Showing he is not afraid of controversy, in a chapter entitled "Sex, Race, and Holy War" Stannard draws a direct connection between Christianity and the genocide of Indian peoples. Stannard himself admits that this is not the only explanation for the brutality of Euro-American conquest, but he suggests religion was an important part of it, and I tend to agree with him.
Overall, the book is nothing short of amazing. Unlike most boring historical analysis, this is one that--love it or hate it--is impossible to remain indifferent to. It is very captivating and beautifully written.
The only major flaw in Stannard's work is that he tries too hard to pigeonhole all facts in a "good Indian" versus "bad European" portrait. Showing the many, many exceptions to this rule would not undermine his argument. If anything, it would help it since it is easier to be convinced by an author who is not trying at all costs to divide reality in stark black and white. Furthermore, his overall conclusions are mostly supported by the facts. Some critics focus on Stannard's exaggerated black and white portrait and use it to dismiss it his entire argument. Had Stannard been just a little more even-handed in his treatment of the subject, it would be much harder for his detractors to dismiss him out of hand. This is an extremely important counterpoint to decades of scholarship based on racism and blind nationalism.

If, like "a reader" from New York, NY, you find that this work is "utter garbage," that's fair I guess. The most powerful thing, for me, however, about this material is the response it receives from others.
The spectrum of discourse can be found here, among the reviews.
The truth is that Native Americans were here first, in large numbers, and after the Europeans arrived, their culture, way of life, and people were "reserved" on patches of the land they formerly inhabited. If someone came along and tried to do that do present-day Canada, Mexico, and the US, we would see fighting on a scale not seen sicne the Second "World War." But we justify it somehow in our minds; to me, I think that we find ways to make genocide of Native Americans "okay" so as to avoid the psychic split that must occur in a human mind that has become fully aware of the evil that was involved in establishing this land for non-Natives.

Therein lies some of the reviewer response you will find. Read the book. Then read ten others. In the end analysis, you will return to the same place I inhabit; a place of amazement at how our leaders break breath to speak at all without first falling to their knees in begging for forgiveness for the evil that has taken place.

And I'm not even Native American. Wonder what they think...

Simply amazing.

There is obviously a great deal of debate about this book and it's subject matter. Many feel that it finally tells the truth about the past 500 years of death, disease, and oppression that has been inflicted on the native inhabitants of this land. Others feel that it is left-liberal revisionist history intended to promote white guilt at having conquered the continent via notions of Manifest Destiny. Regardless of which side one is on, one fact is undeniable: a whole lot of Indians died at the hands of Europeans. Whether through disease, starvation, gun or sword, the "Indian Problem" was ultimately solved by eliminating the problem altogether. The renants of these once great tribes from across the entire North American continent were herded onto dusty reservations and left to rot, where they still languish to this day. One has but to delve a little into history to glean the truth of the situation. Starting with the Spanish in the Caribbean and ending with the slaughter at Wounded Knee, Indians fought a losing battle against a technologically advanced invader and eventually paid the ultimate price. While the validity of the "Black Legend" of the Spanish in the New World can be debated endlessly, the truth is that entire civilizations were destroyed in the name of God and King. The Conquistadores, the encomiendas, the brutal extermination of entire cities were real. Later, the French, English, and the Americans committed their fair share of brutal injustices. This is not to say the Indians themselves did not committ horrible atrocities against whites who fell into their hands. There are many tales of torture and executions of white captives at the hands of enraged Indians. But in the end it was the Europeans who carried out a war of attrition against their neighbors in a greedy attempt to usurp their lands. And as a note to another reviewer below, whites did indeed willfully infect Indians with disease as seen in the case of British general Jeffery Amherst during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763 when he urged his commanders to distribute blankets tainted with smallpox to many of the noncombatant Indian refugees in the areas around the settlements in an effort to extirpate them completely! But the crux of the issue is that the Europeans, often aided by other Indian tribes lured by false promises of reward and friendship, carried out a long and intentional campaign to remove what they saw as the native nuisance, to sweep away what they saw as a savage race of hethens to make way for a glorious new civilization. If nothing more, this book should motivate you to explore these important histories on your own and make your own judgement.

I did not fully understand the atrocities the Europeans committed against the indigenous people of the Americas until I read this book.

Stannard chronicles the slaughter and dispossesion of American Indians beginning with the earliest Spanish arrivals in the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America, moving to the English immigrants in the Northeast, and finally to the Anglo settlers in the South and West. He also mentions the campaigns against the indigenous Central Americans happening today. He also discusses the ideological connection between the the Spainish Inquisition, the American Indian Holocaust, and the Jewish Holocaust.

The Europeans kept written and pictorial journals of their atrocities, and in some cases their acts are recorded in newspapers and Congressional records, so the author's assertions are well documented. Excerpts include: The Spanish bragging about feeding Indian infants to their flesh eating dogs; Anglo settlers in the West, after a particularly brutal massacre, using the entrails of Indian men as tobacco holders.

I would argue that most Americans do not even know how this land was really acquired because the history has been so completely buried. Everybody needs to know what happened here and on whose graves our country was really built. Read this book!

Along with Native American activist Ward Churchill, David Stannard stands at the forefront of the intellectual movement to elucidate the truth concerning America's (and Canada's) past and present treatment of Native Americans. Scholastic and readable, "American Holocaust" overwhelms readers with its devastating implications: not only has the North American population not come to grips with the reality of its brutal and genocidal heritage, the "American Holocaust"is an ongoing event. I also highly recommend Theodore Roosevelt's "The Winning of the West" as supplemental reading to Stannard"s "American Holocaust" - it helps put events in perspective.

This book is among the most absorbing, compelling, riveting, and painful, as well as emotionally distressing accounts of the invasion of the so-called New World I have ever read. The contents have been painstakingly and remarkably well researched and while both graphic and explicit in recording the sheer, wanton torture and undiluted butchery meted out to Native American Indian People, on a scale that is difficult to comprehend, feel this content is entirely justified. This account rapidly dispenses with centuries of liberal romanticism, fallacy, myth and propaganda, regarding the invasion of the Americas by Europeans. Why Columbus continues to be feted as some kind of hero beggars belief when, for the sheer scale of atrocities inflicted upon the Native populace, throughout the American Continent he should, in actual fact, be reviled and despised just as much as Adolf Hitler for the ultimate solution against the Jews. Not only did Native People have to contend with overwhelming, mind-numbing atrocities but also the influx of European diseases to which they had no immunity and which decimated their numbers still further. The portrait of unadulterated death, disease, misery and apocalyptic devastation endured by American Indian Nations is inordinately difficult to imagine and can fully understand their motivations for consciously choosing not to conceive children, to spare them the horrors into which they would, undoubtedly, have been born.

The greater amount I read, the more abhorred I became by the Christian roots of genocidal racism and extent to which Christian religious fervour and those in its, alleged, service contributed, on a large-scale, to the overall intentional brutalities, slaughter and deliberate, wilful annihilation of Native People.

What I feel is significant about this book is that it brings the situation up to date and addresses the issue of vehement Anti-Indian attitudes prevalent throughout America, today and this was more than amply illustrated when reading .throughout Central and South America Indian men and women and children have been murdered by agents of the government that controls them, simply because they were Indians; native girls and boys have been sold on open slave markets; whole families have died in forced labor, while others have starved to death in concentration camps. More will be enslaved and more will die in the same brutal ways that their ancestors did, tomorrow, and every day for the foreseeable future. The killers, meanwhile, will continue to receive aid and comfort and support from the United States government, the same government that oversees and encourages the ongoing dissolution of Native American families within its own political purview  itself a violation of the U.N. Genocide Convention  through its wilful refusal to deal adequately with life-destroying poverty, ill health, malnutrition, inadequate housing, and despair that is imposed upon most American Indian Nations who survive today.

A recent national study highlighted that the highest percentage of U.S hate crimes (per population) is directed toward American Indian People and their Communities. Efforts to usurp Indian lands (or environmentally degrade them) abrogate Treaty Rights, erode Nationhood and Sovereignty, plunder burial sites, defile Sacred Sites and perpetuate stereotypical images of Native Peoples are not only continuing but also escalating to alarming levels.

I, personally, feel it took a high degree of courage to write this tome and expose the deliberate genocide wilfully conducted against Americas Indigenous populations which, insidiously and covertly (often overtly) continues today unabated and which is perpetrated by the Anti-Indian movement, its allies and U.S. government federal policy. This has been and continues to remain the heinous crime perpetually denied and lurking at the very heart of the United States of America.

I thought the 'Epilogue' a particularly worthwhile contribution to this book as it highlights atrocities committed by U.S. troops in various theatres of war and that (for obvious reasons) have not been, previously, disclosed.

In conclusion, I commend and wholeheartedly recommend this book to those individuals having a desire to learn more of the history and current issues confronting American Indian People but forewarn any potential purchasers that a strong stomach is required. I will not deny I took frequent breaks, myself, throughout the reading of this book because of the emotional distress I, personally, experienced and that is as a non-Native person!

Finally, I would also recommend for further reading: The Earth Shall Weep by James Wilson. In the Absence of the Sacred  The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations by Jerry Mander and Anti-Indianism in Modern America  A Voice from Tatekayas Earth by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. Although, independently, all worthy tomes in their own right, I make these recommendations as I feel they strongly complement the work undertaken by David E. Stannard. When combined they provide an all encompassing, comprehensive and overall dovetailed documentary of the genocide historically and currently conducted against the Independent and Sovereign American Indian Nations  The People and Original Inhabitants of the American Continent.

Most classical histories of the arrival of Colombus or the "settlement" of the Americas are nothing at all like the holocaust Stannard documents in this stunning book. This is a blood-curdling tale of conquest and colonization. And yet for all that, Stannard only gives of a glimpse of what was lost! The sad truth is that we only possess a sketchy outline of the many unique and beautiful pre-Colombian cultures that were obliterated in the Euroamerican invasion. A must read for all living Americans.

I highly recommend this book for both its eloquence and its massively detailed research. If only it were required reading in our schools. I was taught in my youth to feel pride in my own family line that goes back to the earliest New England colonists, a brigade general who fought with George Washington in the French and Indian Wars and the American Revolution, and a long and 'distinguished' line of pioneer 'Indian fighters'. I also know that this family line also contains a long history of mental illness, schizoid personality disorder, and substance abuse and the family legends and personality are interlaced with PTSD and the trauma of war. After reading this book I can now put this family history into the context of New World genocide, which also damages the psyche of the perpetrators. I can also see how it is that the political leaders of our government to the present day have, as Stannard in part documents, phobically avoided responsibility for American genocide and for cultivating international efforts to prevent genocide. It also comes as no surprise then that the 'coalition' in the latest war against Iraq, itself one act in a century of Arab genocide, comprises the U.S., Australia, and Spain. These are three nations who have refused to confess or make any official apology for their histories of genocide and as a result continue to condone and perpetrator genocidal actions.

This book came into my hands as a result of a class project for graduate school. Because my family is American Indian, I was interested in the author's perspective and record of history. I was amazed at the detail that Stannard uses to describe history. This history that we do not read in history textbooks and it is a history that we do not hear in everyday conversation. Stannard expressed not only historical fact but an educated opinion about the history of and the resiliency of the indigenous people of the Americas. This is a must read for all. Not only those interested in history or American Indians but a must read for all Americans.