Books in the Narrating Native Histories series

Focuses on the lives of four indigenous activist-intellectuals in Bolivia, key leaders in the Alcaldes Mayores Particulares (AMP), a movement established to claim rights for indigenous education and reclaim indigenous lands from hacienda owners.

Nancy van Deusen examines over one hundred lawsuits that indio slaves brought to the Spanish court in the mid-sixteenth century to gain their freedom. The category indio was largely constructed during these lawsuits, and van Deusen emphasizes the need to situate colonial indigenous subjects and slavery in a global context.

Seeking to understand these transformations in the capacities of Native communities to resist cultural, economic, and political domination, this book offers an ethnographic analysis of aboriginal Canadians' changing experiences of historical violence.

The Colombian activist Juan Gregorio Palechor (1923-1992) dedicated his life to championing indigenous rights in Cauca, a department in the southwest of Colombia, where he helped found the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca. This book traces his political awakening, his experiences in national politics, and the disillusionment that resulted.

Now Peru is Mine is the account of the life of Manuel Llamojha Mitma, one of Peru's most creative and inspiring indigenous political activists. His compelling life story covers nearly eight decades, providing a window into many key developments in Peru's tumultuous twentieth-century history and political mobilization in Cold War Latin America.