Skip to main content

Indian Country

March 2023
1min read

When she was orphaned in adolescence in the mid-1850s, Indians in northwestern Missouri offered to adopt my great-grandmother, part Cherokee, blood sister to the Kickapoos (or, perhaps, the Sauks and Foxes). As a result, I suspect, of Baptist religious training, Great-grandmother chose instead to live with a family of ex-slaves until she was taken in later by an aunt and uncle. She viewed the Indian life with respect but chose a path that was more compelling to her.

America must have tens and tens of thousands of similar family stories of connections to native blood and culture. My wife’s grandmother’s grandfather was an Apache scout, straddling the lands and cultures of Mexico, and America, as well as those of the Apaches. It was neither a simple nor easy task—the living at times involving serious violence, at other times whispered secrets. And there were all the difficult border crossings—physical, linguistic, and emotional.

Fergus M. Bordewich in “Revolution in Indian Country” (July/August issue) did an excellent job of wrestling with some of the complexities of our ongoing national struggle over what constitutes legitimate proprietorship of this land. By dealing openly and thoughtfully with these difficult issues, perhaps we can give proper respect to many lines of our heritage without amalgamating everything into a shallow blandness. Because of its effect on our attitudes toward the country and our sense of belonging, these questions will remain important at the individual, community, and national levels.

Thank you for the article.

George R. Cartter Nipomo, Calif.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "November 1996"

Authored by: William Jeanes

The single best-selling American car isn’t a car at all. It’s a pickup truck. Here’s how it rose from farm hand to fashion accessory.

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

Strictly speaking, the high-spirited gathering was a harvest festival, not a thanksgiving.

Authored by: John Steele Gordon

What you owe your car (ending the tyranny of the horse is only the beginning of it)

Authored by: Frederic D. Schwarz

The nuts-and-bolts perspective on how cars have shaped our lives

Authored by: Douglas Brinkley

The most American of American literary genres is nearly as old as the motorcar itself

Authored by: J. M. Fenster

At a time when driving from Manhattan to Yonkers was a supreme challenge, a half-dozen cars pointed their radiators west and set out from Times Square for Paris

Authored by: Brooks T. Brierley

When American cars ruled the world

Authored by: Phil Patton

Bill Mitchell’s imaginings brought you the cars of Detroit’s ultimate classic era

Authored by: Bruce Mccall

What it was like to be young and in the front lines when Europe mounted an assault on Detroit with small, snarling, irresistible machines that changed the way we drove and thought

Featured Articles

Famous writers including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts turned Sleepy Hollow Cemetery into our country’s first conservation project.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.

Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.

Born during Jim Crow, Belle da Costa Greene perfected the art of "passing" while working for one of the most powerful men in America.