Like all colonial powers, we in this country do tend to have institutional amnesia. What about that part of the unfolding of the Americas that has come at the expense of indigenous peoples for whom this was truly a “promised land?” They were here, in true relationship with the bounty of this land, with a deep sense of gratitude for those gifts. It is too easy to reject or overlook the contributions of those who were here before us. They were here long before the peoples of Europe even knew that the earth was round, and they had well-developed systems of living with each other, the land, and their sense of the source of all life. What if we had been more willing to learn from them, rather than treat them as inferior?

Until we acknowledge, and make amends for, what amounted to genocide, we have little hope of ever completely fulfilling the “promise” of this land.

Here are some (of the many) books that we feel add to a balanced understanding of this “promised land.”

The Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen
Seven Arrows, by Hyemeyohsts Storm (a teaching story)
Creek Mary’s Blood, by Dee Brown (novel)
Touching the Fire, by Roger Welsch
Touch the Earth: A Self-portrait of Indian Existence, compiled by T. C. McLuhan
Dance Back the Buffalo, by Milton Lott (novel)

P.S. We’d love to hear a program that would help restore the memory of those who would prefer to stay more comfortable and therefore less informed.

I read both books when I was in college many years ago. Loved Ellison’s novel hated Morrison’s Beloved.

I voted for Obama but no because of these books. I also voted for Clinton and it wasn’t because I read Faulkner.

Let’s get real here.

I’ve noticed two books that have influenced my college-age students from their high school reading, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I think would would not have Obama as president if it weren’t for the impact of these books.

He leaves out any book that captures the immigrant experience in America. He makes it seem as if the wasp culture set was the norm and only books that either express those cultural values or challenge them are important.

I would suggest that books like Saul Bellow’s Augie March which for many ethnic American writers changed their perception of the country and their place in it. Writers as diverse as Jeffrey Eugenides and Philip Roth looked to that book as a liberating experience and not Kerouac or the beats.

Mary Antin’s book btw doesn’t even come close to having have had the same influence as Bellow did.

Great show, as usual.

What disturbed me most, however, is when Parini was talking about the immigrant book and said that “everyone here who’s not Native American is an immigrant,” and failed to say, “some against their will,” and failed to mention slavery or blacks when he was talking about what immigrants observed when they arrived as opposed to what they imagined.

Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship

Joseph Smith, Jr., The Book of Mormon

Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life

JD Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

The Hite Report, Shere Hite