Our Way: A Parallel History

Indigenous History Is American History 
Our Way: A Parallel History dispels the myths, stereotypes, and absence of information about American Indian, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian people in the master narrative of US history. For most of American history, stories of the country’s Indigenous Peoples were either ignored or told by outsiders. This book corrects these errors, exploring the ways in which Indigenous cultures from every corner of the nation have influenced American society from the past into the present, reminding the reader that they have both shaped the US and continue to play a vital role in its story.  
  
Significantly, Our Way: A Parallel History is a collaboration of Native scholars representing more than ten Indigenous nations, sharing their histories and their cultures. Each contributor, either an affiliate of an institution of higher education or a prominent Native leader, provides the reader with an inside account of tribal culture and heritage. The result is a comprehensive resource restoring the histories of Indigenous Peoples and their nations to their rightful place in the story of America.   
  
The book covers topics such as: 
-The Doctrine of Discovery 
-Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 
-US American Indian Policy and Civil rights 
-Blood Quantum 
-Selling Hawaii 
-Lots More 
  
As Julie Cajune (Salish) notes in the preface, “I believe this collection of history, story, and reflection provokes and invites us to think and feel deeply about what it means for all of us to be human in our communities, nations, and beyond. After all, that is what a good story does. 

Julie holds a master’s degree in education from Montana State University–Billings. After several years of classroom teaching on her home reservation, Julie began developing tribal history materials and curriculum and served as her Tribe’s Education Director. Julie has collaborated with Indigenous scholars, knowledge keepers, artists, and musicians, as well as elders and poets to produce materials in a variety of media including DVDs—Stories from a Nation Within, Art and Identity, Remembering the Songs, and Inside Anna’s Classroom— and children’s books—Gift of the Bitterroot and Huckleberries, Buttercups and Celebrations, and a variety of other publications Julie is a recipient of the national Milken Educator Award, the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award, and two Lifetime Achievement Awards. She continues her work to add Native voices to the master narrative of American history.