American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Historian Patricia Limerick’s book The Legacy of Conquest focuses on the history of the American West within the context of conquest as “the historical bedrock of the whole nation” and the American West as “a preeminent case study in conquest and its consequences.” Limerick writes that to “live with that legacy, contemporary Americans ought to be well informed and well warned about the connections between past and present.” The experiences, past and contemporary, of indigenous peoples form an integral part of this legacy. In Red Matters, Arnold Krupat asserts that “you just can’t understand America, more specifically, the United States, without coming to terms with the indigenous presence on this continent.” Still, in mainstream U.S. consciousness, there is little comprehension of the scope of past genocide or awareness of contemporary Native issues. Krupat writes that “this lack of awareness most immediately and directly hurts Native people,” but clearly “hurts Americans in general.” This statement becomes especially meaningful in the contemporary context of post 9/11 realities and the so-called “War on Terror,” constructed rhetorically through the political doctrine of neoconservatism. The building blocks supporting the rationale of perpetual warfare against an ideologically defined “evil” is located in traditionally imperialist rhetoric. To become intimate with the history of Native Americans in the evolution of the American nation means to better comprehend the destructive consequences of current imperial rationalizations which insist that the narrow parameters of Western cultural values define a highly complex world In “Lewis and Clark in Afghanistan,” Derq Quiggle traces the line of America’s imperial project from the Lewis and Clark expedition through the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the illegal ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from Haiti.