Utah's Native Americans Robert S. McPherson The writing of
Native American history can be said to have started when
Christopher Columbus first waded ashore on San Salvador Island
in the Caribbean. It has continued ever since. What preceded his
arrival--the prehistoric phase of Native Americans--has
generally been left to archaeologists and anthropologists to
decipher and explain from physical remains. The initial contact,
post-contact, and contemporary phases are the realm of
historians, who write in keeping with longstanding conventions
of their own trade. In both instances, facts, dates, and
interpretation generally are presented from an Anglo American
perspective that has evolved over centuries. What this has meant
to the Indian people is that rarely, if ever, has their view
been predominant, if it has even been known. Calvin Martin, a
noted Indian historian, put it this way: "We presume to document
and interpret the history of a people whose perception of the
world for the most part eludes us, whose behav