I have a long standing interest in Native American studies, and issues. Back in 2004, I published a book called Dream Catchers: How Mainstream America Discovered Native Spirituality. I have also followed avidly all the spectacular recent finds about the very early human settlement of the Americas. I have hugely enjoyed visits through the years to the native sites in the four corners area, and to many, many mound cities and other settlements across the country.
More recently, I have been revising a general textbook on US history, and it was natural for me to beef up the Native material, which in fact from my own point of view became by far the most interesting part of the project. I even thought about developing this into a whole new free-standing book, but we will see.
By way of illustration, I will include here my draft chapter on the “Native Americas” before European contact.
Of course, I was strictly limited by the tight constraints of word limits, and any of the subsections here could have expanded substantially, but I think this does make for a good survey. I have tried throughout to integrate some theme that I have worked in in other writings, especially the impact of climate change and climate shocks in reshaping human cultures.
As I return to this material yet again, I continue to be struck by how often the actual history of Native peoples contradicts so many familiar stereotypes. I am ever more impressed by the adaptability of those peoples, their energy and entrepreneurial skills, their capacity of innovation; and their willingness to move physically, often substantial distances, in pursuit of better lives. In short, it is their sheer dynamism that strikes me most.
Naturally, I have more material in other chapters about later eras, and especially the dramatic changes in Native fortunes in the early nineteenth century, and the head-on conflicts with the aggressive new United States. The years between 1811 and 1815 or so are fascinating in that way.
One way or another, I am sure this will grow beyond the narrow bounds of that textbook. I just don’t exactly see how as yet! Obviously, the scholarly literature is growing day by day. So yes, this is very much, and literally, a work in progress.
The material I present here naturally overlaps with some other current research of mine, especially that on American Empire in History.