text: But "both sides" have never been presented; that's the point. And this one-sided story has persisted so long that many Americans still consider it the norm, the truth, even though the actual historical record shows that it is partial and biased. 
  
  The pre-Columbian Americas were no utopia, but unless we can look right at the historical record of contact and colonization present generations will never know who they are and where the nation is going.