A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present

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Holocaust, genocide and denial have a specific American history that reaches back 500 years and continues into present day. It lives in legends of the Hollywood Western and the Old West itself, and has raged unabated in all the Americas since the first European settlers landed. People often link the term holocaust with the Nazi extermination of the Jews, yet in this text Ward Churchill presents judicial, historical and sociological evidence in support of his argument that genocide against indigenous Americans has continued unabated for over 500 years. This text confronts the amnesia of a continent in order to reverse the legacy of this terrible history. Churchill reveals how the international definition has been subverted to meet various political and hegemonic ends. In this researched volume, he demonstrates why the suffering of indigenous people should be included in the category of genocide.

Reviews

"Ward Churchill opens the X-Files of American history to examine the phenomenon of genocide in eight essays . . ."--Susan A. Miller, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

"Churchill relates the history of genocide and the struggle for a definition of the term sufficiently accurate and comprehensive, to prevent the watering down of the concept, and to cut through the misleading rhetoric which now obfuscates debate, thereby permitting this and other genocides to continue . . ."--A. Clare Brandabur, Purdue University

"Churchill paints the whole picture here - from Columbus onwards, the major and significant struggles between an ignorant but brutal Conquistadores and the all-too-vulnerable American Tribes are analysed in a context of deliberate genocide. In terms of effectiveness, it surpasses the holocaust delivered upon European Jewry by the Nazis."--Schnews.org.uk

Ward Churchill (enrolled Keetoowah Cherokee) is Professor of American Indian Studies with the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. A member of the American Indian Movement since 1972, he has been a leader of the Colorado chapter for the past fifteen years. Among his previous books have been Fantasies of a Master Race, Struggle for the Land, Since Predator Came and From a Native Son.

Author Bio

Ward Churchill has achieved an unparalleled reputation as a scholar-activist and analyst of indigenous issues. He is a Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, a leading member of AIM, and the author of numerous books, including A Little Matter of Genocide, Struggle for the Landand Fantasies of the Master Race.