Major Problems in American Indian History: Documents and Essays

This text presents a carefully selected group of readings, on topics such as European encounters and contemporary Native American activism that allow students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians, and draw their own conclusions.

ALBERT L. HURTADO, now retired, was professor of history at the University of Oklahoma, where he taught courses on American Indian history and the American West. He is past president of the Western History Association and the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. His prize-winning books include Indian Survival on the California Frontier (1988), and Intimate Frontiers: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California (1999). He has published many articles. Hurtado’s most recent book is Herbert Eugene Bolton: Historian of the American Borderlands (2012).

PETER IVERSON is Regents' Professor of History (Emeritus) at Arizona State University. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Iverson has written many books in modern American Indian history, including The Navajo Nation (1981), Carlos Montezuma (1982), When Indians Became Cowboys (1994), “We Are Still Here” (1999), Dine: A History of the Navajos (2002), and, with former Navajo Nation president, Peterson Zah, We Will Secure Our Future (2012). His work has been supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment For the Humanities. At Arizona State University Iverson directed or co-directed 51 Ph.D. students to completion of their programs. He served as president of the Western History Association in 2004-2005.

WILLIAM J. BAUER, JR., professor of history at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas and enrolled citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of “We Were All Like Migrant Workers Here”: Work, Community and Memory on California’s Round Valley Reservation, 1850-1941 (2009) and has published articles in The Western Historical Quarterly, American Indian Quarterly, and Boom!: A Journal of California. His ongoing research interests include the history of Indigenous people in California and oral traditions during the Great Depression.

STEPHEN KENT AMERMAN, professor of history at Southern Connecticut State University, received his B.A. from Duke University and his Ph.D. from Arizona State University. He teaches courses on American Indian history as well as western and environmental history. He is the author of the book, Urban Indians in Phoenix Schools, 1940-2000 (2010) and has published articles in American Indian Quarterly, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, and the Journal of Arizona History. His ongoing research interests include the history of Indigenous peoples in Connecticut and southern New England, particularly.