I agree with both previous reviewers that the book is an extraordinary indictment of the dominant culture. But I got something else from this book as well. I read this that Forbes is saying that one of the reasons civilization is killing the planet is because of a spiritual illness with a physical vector. If I get the flu and then cough all over you, you might then get the flu, with all of its symptoms. If I have the cannibal sickness and I cough (or somehow otherwise transfer the disease to you) you will have to consume the souls of others in order to survive. You will become a vampire. Or to putthis another way, you will become a conquistador, a pornographer, a slaver, a businessman. I read this not only as a metaphor, but as a possible description of how things really are. And he makes a very convincing case. Wonderful and important book by a very wise man.

The previous reviewer missed the point of this brilliant book by Dr. Jack Forbes of UC Davis. It's about how the "white culture" (really referred to by Forbes as "European culture") is predatory and planet-destructive, not how white "people" are. This book is brilliant and insightful, a clean revisiting of the history of the Americas from the point of view of indigenous peoples, and not at all racist. Highly recommended!

Paints the White man as a disease , a cancer eating the earth and its inhabitants with a demonic appetite. More corectly, the White race as a virus. A virus performs no other function but to replicate itself endlessly. Whites come in contact with a culture and replicate themselves, forcing the natives to adopt white religeon, white customs,white goverment, white culture, white calendar, and if any refuse...like the indians,aztecs,etc etc etc then they Are SLAUGHTERED. Exellent and important read.

This book is one of the best I have ever read about the history of the Southwest and Northern Mexico. Forbes challenges many of the stereotypes about the Apaches and Navajos using archival documents from the colonial period. For example, he shows that the idea that the Apaches were inherently warlike and "savage" is untrue and misleading. In fact, it was the colonial policy of Spain that drove the Apaches into a raiding lifestyle. This is a great book for anyone interested in the history of the Latin American froniter, the American West or just of history in general. I recommend this book over all others about the Apaches.

Forbes has written a well-documented and lucid account of the local tribes in California and Nevada dealing with a succession of non-native invaders: the Spanish, the Mexican-Indian, and the Anglo-Americans. Unfortunately, these invaders used increasingly hostile forms of removal, forced labor camps, and extermination to achieve their desires for land and resouces. Can the US criticize any nation for ethnic cleansing or genocide with such a history? Certainly not without acknowledging our own past: this is the fresh perspective one gets from reading Forbes' book. Forbes also makes clear there has been a long process of renewal in local tribes, which continues with vigor and hopefulness today.