Native Peoples of North America

By: Daniel M. Cobb, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Daniel M. Cobb

History, for all its facts and figures, names and dates, is ultimately subjective. You learn the points of view your teachers provide, the perspectives that books offer, and the conclusions you draw yourself based on the facts you were given. Hearing different angles on historical events gives you a more insightful, accurate, and rewarding understanding of events - especially when a new viewpoint challenges the story you thought you knew.

Now the Great Courses has partnered with Smithsonian to bring you a course that will greatly expand your understanding of American history. This course, Native Peoples of North America, pairs the unmatched resources and expertise of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian with the unparalleled knowledge of Professor Daniel M. Cobb of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to provide a multidisciplinary view of American history, revealing new perspectives on the historical and contemporary experiences of indigenous peoples and their impact on the history of our country.

This insightful and unique 24-lecture course helps disprove myths and stereotypes that many people take as fact. Professor Cobb presents a different account of the Seven Years' War, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Gold Rush, the Transcontinental Railroad, and beyond, providing the stories of the American Indian people who fought and negotiated to preserve their ancestral lands.

Native Peoples of North America recounts an epic story of resistance and accommodation, persistence and adaption, extraordinary hardship and survival across more than 500 years of colonial encounter. As the Smithsonian curators stated, "The past never changes. But the way we understand it, learn about it, and know about it changes all the time." Be prepared - this course is going to change how you understand American history. And no matter how much you know about this subject, you will be surprised.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2016 The Great Courses (P)2016 The Teaching Company, LLC

great info but poorly read really annoying cadence

hard to listen to because of terrible narration
really annoying cadence
better if narrated by someone else

Excellent

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and highly recommend it. If you are interested in a “day to day” look at the lives of select tribes it will be a disappointment, yes. What it does cover is the struggles of Native Americans to retain their sovereignty as well as to continue to write their own history, in their own words. As to the complaints that the recording contains instances where the narrator makes and corrects spoken errors.... seems to me that it made the recording more natural.

Well thought out and informative.

I found it focuses on the eastern tribes. The author did a great job appealing to what most have been taught and giving alternatives ways of thinking about the situations from the Native perspective.

Keystone XL

I appreciate this in depth look at the Native American people. It gives us another sense of the insanity that tried to crush these real American natives.

you wilm feel proud to have learned it

in. a way it teaches you what was the really not known yet pages of native victotories and survival on the path to a better future

Great Lectures

Amazing lecture series, would highly recommend to anyone interested in the subject or to anyone who hasn’t learned about the history of the US and Native Nations

Not About Native Culture

Course is more about the relationship between Native Americans and the US government than it is about the people and culture. Would have loved more cultural discussion and attention to native perspective.

covers only part of the native American story

These lectures covered in great detail the relations between native Americans and the non-native people. I learned a lot, particularly form the perspective of the indigenous people. The indigenous peoples' perspective is usually given short shrift in popular history, so these lectures are important in presenting that point of view. The lectures, however, were not intended to be, and were not, objective in this respect. Overall, very well presented and for me, new information and perspective.

I thought that the course description was misleading. I expected the lectures to cover Indian family life, the differences between tribes and the evolution thereof, the various ways of obtaining sustenance, the various religions, social and political structure, migrations, housing, relations between the tribes, artistic expression, technological development, languages and language groups. None of this was touched on, except in the context of and for the purpose of explaining native-non-native relations. I guess these topics are for another lecture series.

About the struggle, not the peoples

What I was hoping for was to gain an understanding of the distinctions of various Native American groups. There is precious little coverage of the substance of particular native cultures. (The part covering the Iroquois is closest to what I was hoping for, but it still just scratches the surface.)

Author gives a good chronological overview of the past 500 years through native perspectives, which has its benefits. (Like getting to see how taking sides in the Revolution effected the Iroquois, for example.)

And now the rant:
It is preachy. Too preachy. Polemic. Moralizing. One-sided. Condescending toward people in history who probably did the same things we would do in their shoes, without really addressing the nuances of their motivations so we can examine the roots of their injustices in our own hearts. Instead it leaves us feeling better than them - like we’re definitely more enlightened.

Makes some good points (like the key part of “reservation” is “reserve” - they are something held back by right, not given by government).

Still I feel like I didn’t learn much about the different tribes themselves and their unique histories and cultures, which is really the gap in my knowledge I was hoping to fill with this course.

Excellent content, solid delivery.

The lecture series was informative and led me to other quality sources of information on indigenous peoples and their ways of life.

The narrator's performance was good on the whole but not perfect.