God Gave Us This Country: Tekamthi and the First American Civil War

This book, which I found at the library(can I say that word here?) was truly engrossing. The author juxtaposes indian and colonial culture so clearly and freshly, putting a historical and very personal perspective on facts not previously so well illuminated. He described and de-bunked for me the particulars of early period of colonial-indian political and territorial relationships. The action and battle scenes are painted with skillful brushstrokes as are the characterizations of the principle players. Mr Gilbert fairly describes with a warm heart the phenomemon which was the native American, sharing the fine points which created this honorable people without filtering the panorama through rose-colored glasses. The reader is reminded of this sad and shameful legacy of our country's history with each turn of the page. I think we would have been a much greater nation had we dealt these people an even hand. Great reading, greta history.

The history of the deceit effected upon Native Indian ancestors, especially the Shawnee, by the British, French, Americans, and by the Iroquois truly made me ashamed to be a white American. We call ourselves "civilized"; the lies, purging, and needless slaughter of Native Indian nations is comparable to the extermination of the Jews. Americans stole this continent from the Indians. Tecumseh (Tekamthi) was an honorable, just man, who only wanted what God had given his people - the land and the freedom to roam it and to use it (Mother Nature). As I approached the last chapter of God Gave Us This Country, I did not want Tecumseh to die; but I know he still lives on in the minds of living Indians as well as those of us who avidly study Native American history and who prefer justice