Race to the Truth: Colonization and the Wampanoag Story
| Enlightenment |
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 Race to the Truth: Colonization and the Wampanoag Story
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American History > Enlightenment > Indigenous American History
Until now, you've only heard one side of the story: the "discovery" of America told by Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the Colonists. Here's the true story of America from the Indigenous perspective.
When you think about the beginning of the American story, what comes to mind? Three ships in 1492, or perhaps buckled hats and shoes stepping off of the Mayflower, ready to start a new country. But the truth is, Christopher Columbus, the Pilgrims, and the Colonists didn't arrive to a vast, empty land ready to be developed. They arrived to find people and communities living in harmony with the land they had inhabited for thousands of years, and they quickly disrupted everything they saw.
From its "discovery" by Europeans to the first Thanksgiving, the story of America's earliest days has been carefully misrepresented. Told from the perspective of the New England Indigenous Nations that these outsiders found when they arrived, this is the true story of how America as we know it today began.
Emily's Review
I'm always on the lookout for interesting and non-whitewashed history texts, so I was excited to stumble upon this book. This book fills a much-needed gap in that it tells the story of the Wampanoag people pre-colonization as well as giving a well-rounded view of what colonization did to them.
The book is divided into two sections - the "When Life Was Our Own" sections follow Little Bird and her family, Wampanoag people before European colonization. I really enjoyed this section of the book because it gives a really great picture of what their lives were like. Over the course of the book you follow them through the seasons for a whole year. The writing is beautiful and I think children will enjoy spending a year with Little Bird and her people.
The rest of the book is a history of European colonization and the ways in which it affected the Wampanoag and other Indigenous peoples. This section might be challenging for younger children, because it is a lot of information and some of it can be pretty heavy at times. I highly recommend this book as a read-aloud so that you can stop to discuss as you read.
The colonization chapters end with helpful discussion questions so that you can have a dialog with your children as you read. I recommend this book for children ages 10+, but I think that children as young as 7 might enjoy listening to the When Life Was Our Own sections.
Other Similar Books
Other suggestions on the subject of Colonization
- History Smashers: Christopher Columbus and the Taino People (by: Messner, Kate, Colonization, Exploration, Caribbean, Indigenous Americans)
- Morning Girl (by: Dorris, Michael, Early America, Indigenous Americans, Colonization)
- Race to the Truth: Colonization and the Wampanoag Story (by: Coombs, Linda, Colonial America, Indigenous Americans, Wampanoag, Colonization)
- Babel: or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History (by: Kuang, R.F., Colonization, Revolution, Oxford)