Research Paper on:
The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
James Wilsons "The Earth Shall Weep" is an interesting account of the Native American peoples and the various trial and tribulations they have been forced to endure since the  point of contact with non-Native Americans. Native American history is a difficult subject to get a handle on prior to contact with non-Native cultures due to the lack of  a written language. Wilson overcomes this problem by drawing on the rich oral histories of the Native peoples and on the archaeological record. His book combines written historical  sources with ethnographic and archaeological accounts to provide the Native perspective from a view which it is seldom experienced. Wilsons book is broken  into three sections and twelve chapters. The first section, "Origins" is broken into two chapters: "This is how it was: Two Views of History" and "Contact:  In the Balance". This section discusses the precontact history of Native America, its origins and its diversity. Wilson clarifies that the exact origin of the various peoples which  make up that group we most often refer to as Native Americans or Indians is a subject of much debate. Numerous theories have been proposed to explain their presence  in the Americas. These include a migration over the Bering Strait land bridge, multiple migrations from multiple locations, and an independent origination in the Americas themselves.  Wilson relates that consequent to this great migration of one or even a few cultures was the evolution of a tremendous number of peoples  who are now considered as the indigenous population of the Americas. With each geographic barrier they created a new culture complete with its own language, its own subsistence patterns