"Blood and Land is a personal view of the success and achievements of Native North America, and of today's challenges. It is about why Native Americans, First Nations and Arctic peoples matter today and why no understanding of the wider world is possible without comprehending the United States and Canada through their original inhabitants. This dazzling, panoramic account introduces a deeply complex story, of myriad identities and determined ethnicities - from the desert Southwest to the high Arctic, from first contact between Europeans and Native Americans to the challenges of Native leadership today. Instead of writing a chronological history, King confronts the reader with the paradoxes, diversity and achievements of Native North America - the astonishing ingenuity and supple intelligence that have allowed, after suffering centuries of violence and dispossession, a striking level of recovery, optimism and autonomy in the twenty-first century. Beautifully illustrated and filled with arresting and surprising stories, Blood and Land looks well beyond the 'feathers-and-failure' narratives beloved by historians."
