The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 (Studies in North American Indian History)

Book Description

This book seeks to step outside the simple stories of Indian/white relations--stories of conquest and assimilation and stories of cultural persistence. It is, instead, about a search for accommodation and common meaning. It tells how Europeans and Indians met, regarding each other as alien, as virtually nonhuman, and how between 1650 and 1815 they constructed a common, mutually comprehensible world in the region around the Great Lakes that the French called the "Pays d'en haut". Here the older worlds of the Algonquins and various Europeans overlapped, and their mixture created new systems of meaning and of exchange. Finally, the book tells of the breakdown of accommodation and common meanings and the recreation of the Indians as alien and exotic. The process of accommodation described in this book takes place in a middle ground, a place in between cultures and peoples, and in between empires and non-state villages. On the middle ground people try to persuade others who are different than themselves by appealing to what they perceive to be the values and practices of those others. From the creative misunderstandings that result, there arise shared meanings and new practices.

Customer Reviews:

Top five.......2006-03-20

This belongs on any list of the five best books of American Indian history, or of North American colonial history. Richard White is brilliant. Read this book.

A professional work.......2006-02-04

Richard White managed to write a historical book that combines political, social, and cultural history with a wonderful writing style, which captures the readers' attention from the very beginning.

White indicated in the introduction of his book that he "seeks to step outside the simple stories of Indian/white relations- stories of conquest and assimilation and stories of cultural pesistence." The book is about a search of accommodation and common meaning, according to the author.

Richard White maintains that in the Middle ground of the Great Lakes, many different cultures met and accommodated their differences to be able to live together. This Middle ground of overlapping cultures and lifestyles brought mutual understanding, changes in all societies and influence on one another, not assimialtion. The big colonial wars, however, concludes White, led to sudden ruptures of accommodation and common meanings between Europeans and Indians.

The Middle Ground and Victim Baiting.......2005-09-15

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF RICHARD WHITE'S
THE MIDDLE GROUND

By Jeff Hendricks

Richard White. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Richard White's The Middle Ground is a detailed and extensive study of the inter-relationships between various European colonists and the Native American tribes they encountered in the Great Lakes reigon of the current United States from 1650 to 1815. The study traces the development of what Richard White argues was a "middle ground" of cultural accomodation that was created as a result of these encounters. The whole of White's book is dedicated to proving his "middle ground" argument.

At the beginning of White's study, he creates a category that lumps together the Native Americans of the Great Lakes region, known as the pays d'en haut, into a grouping that he refers to as the Algonquins. The Algonquins were an assortment of tribes from various areas surrounding the pays d'en haut who had been forced together into the region due to warfare in the east. White's study begins with descriptions of the brutal and murderous situation taking place in the pays d'en haut as the various factions of the Algonquins engaged in inter-village warfare amongst themselves, as well as war against the Iroquoi federation, which had been attacking the region from the east. In addition to these inter-tribal wars, the Algonquins living in the region were also forced to deal with the French colonists, who had begun to enter the pays d'en haut in order to profit from the fur trade. The entrance of the French traders into the region set in motion the events that would eventually lead to the formation of White's "middle ground."

White argues that the middle ground begins to form slowly, as the French colonists insert themselves into the day to day happenings of the pays d'en haut and work to achieve a position in the area that will allow them to carry on trade with the Algonquins. White shows how, in order to achieve a profitable trade situation, the French quickly realize that they need to bring the inter-tribal warfare to a hault - or at the least reduce it enough to permit trade to occur. In their attempts at building a trading realtionship with the Algonquins, the French realized that the Algonquins' social system differed greatly from their own. The French were products of a hierarchal society, and from that society they had been conditioned to see obedience and respect as things that were gained through force. When the French tried to impose their own notions of social order on the Algonquins, who lived in a collective based non-hierarchal society, they soon realized that they would have to accommodate and negotiate with the Algonquins to form a profitable trade relationship with them. Simply brutalizing the Algonquins into submission was not going to work. For the Algonquins, brutality did not breed submission - it bred resistance.

Another obstacle that the French encountered in their trade with the Algonquins was the differentiation between their respective economic systems. To put it simply, Algonquin economics were based on need, whereas French economics were based on excess accumulation and profit. The Algonquins were not accustomed to exploitative economic relations and thus resisted any type of trade that they did not view as meeting the needs of both parties involved. The French, on the other hand, could not understand an economic system based on mutual aid and cooperation. In order to push past this cultural/economic barrier to relations, the French had to create a system of trade that the Algonquins could view as a mutual exchange of gifts rather than a purely economic exchange of material for private profit.

The story of the formation of the "middle ground" was based on these and other mutual agreements and accomodations that were developed between the French and the Algonquins. To facilitate trade, the French singled out individuals from various factions of Algonquins to mold into trade emissaries, whom they referred to as "Cheifs." The French instituted a system in which they bestowed gifts to these Algonquin Cheifs, who in turn would distribute the gifts amongst their own village population. In time, these Algonquin Cheifs developed a degree of authority within their villages due to their distribution of goods, as well as their ability to communicate with the French. The European goods that the Cheifs distributed to members of their village soon became objects of status in the Algonquin world. As the Algonquins developed a want of these European goods, they began to spend some of their excess time hunting fur animals for the French which they could then trade in exhange for items such as rum, guns, knives, cloth, and various metalic utensils. Soon this system became cemented, enabling trade to take place in a somewhat peaceful manner.

Once the French had created Cheifs within the villages who could weild some degree of authority amongst their own people, they began to use their economic control of these Cheifs to press them to pacify the warriors of their respective villages. In this way, the French were able to help bring about the cessation of hostilities amongst many of the villages of the pays d'en haut. Soon, according to White, the various Algonquin peoples came to view their relation to the French as one of a child to its father. The French became the only people who could bring about an end to the bloody fighting amongst the various tribes that was occuring in the area. With this positon of negotiated power, the French were able to pacify the pays d'en haut long enough to build a profitable fur trade.

By 1701, the French had managed to help negotiate a peace between the Algonquins and the Iroquoi federation and thus had succeded in creating an atmosphere that would be favorable to their own economic exploitition of the region. A period of relatively peaceful French / Algonquin interaction existed on the "middle ground" for the next few decades as the French and Algonquins engaged in trading relations. However by the 1720s, the English had begun to inch in on French economic turf and by 1728 warfare had broken out between the English and the French/Algonquin alliance. Although White continues with his "middle ground" hypothesis throughout the remainder of his book, the war of 1728 was, in reality, the beginning of the decline of the "middle ground." Shortly after the French/Algonquin alliance succeded in driving back the British, the Algonquins broke apart into pro and anti French groupings. By the 1740s, many of the Algonquins had turned against their French-made village cheifs, who preached peace and conciliation, and joined a republic comprised of various Indian nations whose purpose was to disengage from the "middle ground" and regain their traditional pre-European lifestyles. As it became increasingly apparent to the Indian villagers that the the French and English were engaged in their own imperial struggle and were only really interested in using the villages as pawns towards their own ends, the middle ground laid down on its death bed.

From this point on, many tribes, including the Iroquoi, developed an understanding of the true imperial nature of both the French and the English and refused to fight on either side. Those tribes/villages who did decide to continue to fight on the side of the French in the Seven Years War (1754-1761) were doing so only as a part of their own strategy to rid the pays d'en haut of all European invaders - once the English had been driven out, the tribes had planned to turn on the French and drive them out as well. Although there were still short lived re-births of "middle ground" relations between the Algonquins and the French, these were not the norm. Concerning the English, there was almost never any middle ground of cultural accomodation between themselves and the Algonquins. After the defeat of French in the Seven Years War, the British occupied French positions in the pays d'en haut (in violation of a promise not to) and as White himself states, "[the British] vision of the pays d'en haut was a simple one: the British were conquerors; the Indians were subjects. It was a view that abolished the middle ground." The problem for the British was the fact that the Algonquins had never actually been conquered - they still retained village cohesion and the ability to resist British incursions with force. As the Algonquins began to resist the British with force, the British cynically tried to bring back a policy of cultural accomodation with the Algonquins in order to normalize trade relations. This transparent attempt to become "fathers" to the Algonquins was quickly scrapped in the face of Algonquin resistance to what they came to realize were British attempts to occupy their lands. By the 1760s, open warfare had once again broken out amongst the Algonquins and against the British. This pattern of short lived peace followed by rebellion and war became the norm in the pays d'en haut for the remainder of White's study, as the various factions of Europeans encroached upon Algonquin lands. By the early 19th century, at the conclusion of the book, the French traders and English traders had, for the most part, been replaced by American frontier squatters who, along with the implicit and explicit support of Washington, embarked on a campaign of removal and extermination.

Thus, a major flaw with White's analysis is the fact that the "middle ground" of cultural accomodation, which White describes throughout the book as being of central importance to the relations between the tribes of the pays d'en haut and the European invaders, was in fact already dead before White had even progressed halfway through his study. Although White's descriptions of the various ways that the French and English developed methods to facilitate cultural understanding with the Algonquins were interesting and insightfull, it really should not have been the central theme around which the book was written. The over-the-top focus on the "middle ground" argument found throughout White's book also leads one to question what political effect White had intended his study to have on the previous and current historiography on the subject.

White's book has been described by many historians and reviewers as a refreshing and intelligent attempt to tell the story of Native Americans in a way that it has never been told before. Colin G. Calloway, upon reviewing, The Middle Ground, stated that he believed it to be a success because it altered from the established norm: "most studies of Indian-White relations [are] too simplistic in their story of conquest and assimilation or of cultural persistence in the face of tremendous odds." This speaks to what seems to be an attempt by White to frame his study as the real story - a story that attempts to avoid taking sides, either by resorting to romanticization of the Algonquins or slander of the Europeans. However, the overall attempt at fairness and objectivity with which White seems to cloak his study in seems transparent at many points.

A major symptom of this problem lies with White's research materials and his interpretation of them. White's study relies very heavily on documentation produced by the colonizers themselves. This reliance may be a result of objective circumstance, as the Algonquins did not leave written documentation of their own activities, however when one is forced to rely on one-sided documentation to make a historical argument, it should be common sense to understand that documents cannot always be accepted as factual interpretations of past events. White runs into deep trouble when he incorporates, sometimes word for word, the writings of those Europeans whose economic and religious intrests rested with the demonization and slander of native populations.

In the case of European/Native American interactions, historians such as David Stannard in his book American Holocaust, have shown that many of the European accounts of interaction with Native Americans were deliberate exaggerations, if not outright fabrications. Stannard has shown that it was common for European Army officers or Priests to exaggerate accounts concerning violence, spirituality, and sexuality in order to justify to themselves and their superiors that their conquests and conversions were of necessity. Continually throughout his book, White relays descriptions from military officers and priests that portrayed the Algonquins as savage, brutal, cannibalistic, drunken savages. Attacks committed by Algonquins against Europeans are continually described in bloody detail while European attacks against Alqonquins are most often only stated as dry numerical fact.

There are other problamatic factors with White's choice of event descriptions in his study. Granted, no historian can include everything in one historical study, White makes a few profound ommissions of historical occurances that would have had great impact on the overall cause and effect cycle of his study. As was stated earlier, White begins his study in the midst of a brutal war beging waged against the Algonquin refugees by the Iroquoi federation. White takes great time reprinting the descriptions of this warfare written by French colonists such as Allouez and Priests such as Nicolas Perrott. Page after page, White allows descriptions of extreme, bloody and canibalistic brutality being waged by the Iroquoi Federation against the Algonquins to enter his narritive without so much as a single remark about the possibility of exaggeration on the part of the colonizers. The worst offense of these opening pages is the fact that White fails to even mention at all the fact that the Iroquoi were only in the pays d'en haut because they had been pushed west into Algonquin lands by the British.

White's opening pages paint a picture of the Iroquoi as brutal imperialistic invaders out to steal land and kill off animals for profit - White calls the Iroquoi Federation "an engine of destruction." All of this in the first few pages really begs the obvious question: what then were the Europeans? White shows his carelessness, or possibly his sympathy for European conquest, when he continually describes effects without refrence to their origin. Why were the Iroquoi fighting with the Algonquins? Why had Indian on Indian violence become endemic within the pays d'en haut region? Why were Native American village structures falling apart? Why was there rampant alcohol abuse? Why did some of the Native Americans succumb to killing animals for profit? White is only providing the symptoms while ignoring the root of the problem.

The debate over victimization and agency is one that is needed and correct for historians to involve themselves in and this debate is especially important when writing histories that deal with the European invasion of the Americas. However, White's The Middle Ground has vastly over-emphasized the agency at the expense of the tragic victimization of the Native American peoples of the pays d'en haut. White and his supporters are correct in appluading the fact that White's work has moved away from a Turnerian paradigm in which the Native Americans were marginal and inconsequential barriers to progress which were quickly overrun by Manifest Destiny. To its credit, White's book is an execellent resource for researchers, and his extensive documentation of dates, places and names makes his book important as an encyclopedic refrence. However, the analysis and arguments contained within The Middle Ground cannot lead to a realistic interpretation of how the events of the pays d'en haut actually played out.

Native American historians such as David Stannard, Ward Churchill, and others of the victimization with agency school, come much closer to a realistic portrayal of what the cirumstances were when it came to the interactions between the European invaders and Native American Tribes. Their success stems from the fact that they make a concerted effort to get at the Native American perspective on the colonization of the Americas wheras White makes absolutley none.

Although in many ways White's book moves away from the classic Turnerian framework, it remains fully within it in at the same time. White fails to move away from basing his analysis on primary sources written by the colonists themselves and in doing so he has produced yet another one-sided account, in line with the Turnerian framework. White's book may not be Eurocentric, as it does involve the Algonquins as central players in the narrative, but it still remains entrenched in European bias and, because of this, it fails in its attempts to make a legitimate argument or to provide a realistic view of the actual events that occurred in the pays d'en haut from 1650-1812.

Jeff Hendricks
www.tiamatpublications.com

Breaking new ground.......2005-02-03

Richard White should be awfully proud of himself. Using a close examination of a particular time in a particular place, he manages to open one's eyes to an entirely new way of thinking about the long term dynamics of human interaction that we call "history". Works like these are the fruit of all the painstaking hard work that American historians have been contributing over the last one or two generations. The studies of gender, environment, disease and race might seem like annoying "political correctness" to the close-minded, but when divorced from ideological polemics (pro or con) they have proven to be goldmines of fresh perspective. This book is an elegant example of what can be achieved when the primary evidence is reassessed in the light of this new spirit of inquiry.

Amply supported by a wide selection of primary sources, White plunges into a detailed dissection of the course of history in what the French called the "Pays d'en haut"--the roughly triangular territory bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Great Lakes--from the establishment of French hegemony to the defeat of Tecumseh at the hands of the United States. Characters, landscape and events are vividly drawn, but underlying it all is White's astonishing theoretical angle: that the various participants--traders, chiefs, colonial officials, missionaries, prophets, warriors and women--were forced to continually construct the rules of a common game that their respective cultures and traditions were inadequate to navigate by themselves. Of course, neither Europeans or natives discarded their cultural baggage wholesale--rather, they raided each other's ideologies and practices for tools they could use for their own purposes, refashioning them into novel combinations and thus a new "culture". Under White's sharp lens, activities and categories which might seem unambiguous--"murder", "trade", "prostitute", "father", "metal tool"--are shown to actually be embedded in a kaleidoscopically shifting galaxy of symbols, mutually forged, mutually apprehended (and misapprehended) by the resourceful women and men of the "middle ground". White carefully traces the strategies of exploitation and survival mediated by French, Algonquin, British and Iroquois participation in this new world--scenes of sickening brutality, unexpected mercy and clever dealing merge with those of day-to-day business and coexistence in a vast mural that rings as true as any history I've yet encountered. I am eager to see how this brand of method and insight will be employed in other histories.

Influential beyond its scope.......1999-08-20

Anyone who has attended an academic history conference in the last five or so years already realizes the impact that this densely-written, but provocatively argued book by an historian of the American west has had on the study of American history. For both good and ill, White's central thesis -- that Indians and Europeans in the Great Lakes region created together and sustained an elaborate system of cultural and political contact that endured for centuries based not on mutual understandings, but mutual MISunderstandings, often deliberate ones -- has come to set the tone for the most recent studies of cultural encounter and creolization in the New World. Indeed, White's "middle ground" bids fair to assume the blanket hegemony exercised over the American historical imagination a decade or more back by the idea of "republicanism." And, not without cause: White's book is in many respects a stupendous achievement -- exhaustively researched, laser-subtle analyses, and ambitious in scope. What weakens the book is White's tendency to often assert the existence of a so-called cultural "middle ground" between Indians and others in advance of the evidence he presents. The "middle ground" is too often presented as a given, one that can act as the explanation, rather than as the hypothetical that it actually is, the actual subject that should be under investigation. This said, the influence of this book will be felt for years to come.

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Guests
Guests
Guests
Guests: A book reveiw
Can Growing up be Rushed?

Guests
Michael Dorris
Manufacturer: Hyperion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Literature GuidesA complete guide to teaching Guests. Includes an author biography, background information, summaries, thought-provoking discussion questions, as well as creative, cross-curricular activities and reproducibles that motivate students.

Customer Reviews:

Guests.......2003-05-30

...

Guests

Guests, was a great book By: Michael Dorris, even though he committed suicide, he was still a smart person. Michael made many books like, The Broken Cord, and the Yellow Raft on Blue Water ect... But one good book he wrote was Guests it's about a kid named Moss who is Native American. When Michael Dorris was growing up he was an American Indian so he was in the same situation as Moss. Moss was brave he went into the woods to find his role in life.

Moss the main character was brave he faced his fear of the woods and of girls. Moss saw this girl but he was scared of girls accept this one. Then after they get separated and that was sad. When Dorris wrote the book he added that love can happen to any one. Moss found a magic porcupine that would talk to him and the porcupine said something like it can be done just put your heart to it.

Guests.......2003-05-28

Guests

By Michael Dorris

Guests, an excellent book by Michael Dorris was an adventurous and touching book. Michael Dorris explained what it is like to be young and in love. He explained how the boy, Moss, could find his answers in the wilderness. After all, since Moss is from a Northeast Indian tribe he has to find his role in life. I'm guessing that Dorris wrote this book because he as well is partial American Indian.

To find his answers was difficult for the young boy. Until however, he meets a mysterious porcupine that tells him to go on with life. Dorris did not actually say this in his story but is trying to say that nobody can ever answer your questions.

If I were asked to describe this book I would say adventurous and romantic. Moss was very brave. But was he brave enough? He walked into the woods with nothing... This is where the book got very interesting.

Trouble who comes in the story later is a girl. Usually Moss is weird around girls but this girl was different He acted around her just like he would to anyone else.

Moss is what made this book interesting to me. He was adventurous and clever. He always knew what to do.

Even though this story takes place in the woods it is still very fun. The setting is what makes Guests suspenseful.

"Where have you been Moss"? "In the woods". "ALONE". The reason I put that quote is because it left a lot of questions ringing in my mind.

Now do you think Moss found his answers? To find that out you have to read the book!

I never got to read all of Michael Dorris's books. I am sure that he would have made more but instead he died on April 10-11 of committing suicide.

Guests.......2003-05-28

Guests

Guests, by Michael Dorris was an adventurous, mysterious, exciting, and suspenseful book. When the author sets the tome in the beginning he describes the enchanting life of a young Native American searching for is position in life. As the story goes on he meets someone. "You're a girl" Moss the main character once said along with "Usually if a girl smiled at me I would laugh, or blush, but not his time, this time I smiled back" With these statements he shows the reader what love really is.
Answers to lives questions such as "Moss, what do you think beauty is" are hard to answer like that. In the forest when Moss meets a mysterious porcupine the author explains without putting it in words that no one can answer your life questions, but they can only help you.
This book was both adventurous and romantic. Moss had a very brave soul, or did he? When he walked into the forest he walked in without anything, not even a knife. You could infer he was scared and nervous because he stated, "I'm going with nothing, I said braver then I felt" With that said you could sense something bad was going to happen.
Moss the main character of this book was a dare devil at times but was also a scared at times too. Trouble, the girl Moss meets was definite a tomboy. She once stated, " Would you want to be a girl?" Explaining to Moss tat being a girl was NOT one of her favorite parts of life.
As Michael Dorris is a Native American boy himself I bet he wrote this book to express his childhood event or one of another's. Michael Dorris has also written, A Yellow Raft on Blue Water, and, The Broken Cord. With that books breakthrough brought fetal alcohol syndrome to national attention. This was a great book to learn lives questions and how to answer them. Because of Michael Dorris's sudden death he was not able to write more books.

Guests: A book reveiw.......2003-05-28

Bray Ferguson
May 27, 2003
Community 7-213

Guests
Guests by Michael Dorris, was intriguing and suspenseful. As the authors explains the beautiful woodlands in the Northeast, he revisits his childhood by explaining to the reader that he, himself grew-up in an Indian tribe and fell in love, as did the boy, Moss.

He finds a girl and usually is scarred to talk to girls, but no, not this time, he smiles back. He tries to show his tribe and himself that anything is possible, just do everything you can. Moss keeps trying and he soon finds that in life nothing comes easily. Everyone tries to make as simple and sweet as possible, but as Moss tries to do exactly that, he finds himself getting much more out of it, LOVE!

This book was both adventurous, but still like a love story. As he was walking through the forest one day, thinking about life, he came across a magical porcupine. He started talking to him, and Moss was amazed. The magical lady porcupine told him the most important thing he needed to hear, "you are who you are, an no one can tell you the truth about that." I think everyone at one time needs to hear that. Ii wish we all had magical porcupines.

Moss is a normal boy, he gets into trouble a little to easily, but he always gets out of it. He enjoys walking in the woods and talking to the magical porcupine, he wants to be understood, and eventually, he is.

I enjoyed the book, but some chapters were hard to get through. To find out what happens to Moss, his girlfriend, and the magical porcupine, read the book Guests by Michael Dorris.

Can Growing up be Rushed?.......2003-02-09

Moss is an immature youth in a unnamed Native American tribe--still in that awkward stage between childhood and warrior status. This boy longs to embark on his own Away Time; i.e. a vision quest/rite of passage. This particular day he resents his family's (indeed, the entire village's) obligation to entertain guests, whose skin and clothing, language and customs are completely alien to all he has experienced.

Suddenly
Moss finds himseslf sulking in the woods; then unexpectedly
trying to impress a misfit girl from a distant clan, who is also seeking solace from Nature and respite from her own family. Then Moss feels compelled to plunge rashly into the primeval wilderness--totally unprepared for quality Away time. Does he
seriously believe that he can slip into the woods (or Life) as a boy and emerge some days later to be recognized and accepted as a man? Can two lonely, misunderstsood preteens find their respective ways back Home? Will Moss be able to interpret and follow the advice from a matronly porcupine? Despite several un-Indian expressions, behavior and conversations, this short tale is remarkably well told--instantly capturing the reader's interest. Moss learns important lessons that critical day of the unwanted guests: about hospitality, maturation of the heart and mind, plus the value of a caring family. This book is
good multicultural fare, which reads quickly. One wonders if perhaps the first Thanksgiving encounter was something like this....

Roanoke, 2nd Edition: The Abandoned Colony
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Interesting and relevant history.

Quite dull

This is THE book to read on Roanoke

Surprisingly interesting!

Roanoke, 2nd Edition: The Abandoned Colony
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Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The story of Roanoke is a tale marked by courage, miscalculation, exhilaration, intrigue, and enduring mystery. Now in its second edition, Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony tells the tragic and heroic story of the lost colony during the years between Columbus's voyages and the landing of the Mayflower. Award-winning historian Karen O. Kupperman brings to life the struggle of the settlers and the complex Native American cultures they encountered; and examines reasons for the colony's failure and what might have become of the first English settlers in the New World.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting and relevant history........2006-05-06

I'm not certain why, but books on the "lost" colony of Roanoke seemed to catch my eye, so I added several to my wish list. I selected Karen O. Kupperman's volume as the first to read and found it interesting and insightful.

Roanoke, the Abandoned Colony is a little old and reflects it's 1984 vintage. Settlement of the North and South American continents is described as having occurred by way of a "land bridge" during the glacial epic 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. Native people are depicted as having followed their game animals across the Bering Strait into the Americas. Today this is considered somewhat less likely than it was prior to the 1990s, and alternative possibilities are usually given in more recent works on the topic.

Once beyond the background history of the native population, however, the author is on firmer ground. The ample documentation of early English settlement provides her with evidence for a thorough discussion of the period. Much of her background information, however, is taken from secondary rather than primary sources. The notes to the edition contain references to works written in the 1960s, 70s, and 80's about Roanoke, Raleigh, the Southeastern Indians, and so on, rather than documents by early explorers, although she consults those doing original research with primary sources or with archaeological field data.

I had rather expected a more sensational approach to the topic; most of us who know anything at all about Roanoke simply know of the mysterious disappearance of its colonists and the name Virginia Dare. Neglected beyond that introduction by most high school American history courses-in fact many college courses-the average reader is left with a lacuna in his/her understanding of the colonial era.

Ms Kupperman ably fills that breach. Her discussion of Indian culture and politics during the age is very insightful. When I studied American colonial history years ago, the Indian people were hardly considered at all, and then mostly as "background noise," sort of part of the flora and fauna of the continent. That they had political acumen, let alone a political agenda, was not even considered, a lapse that made the history of the period lopsided and confusing. The academic perspective at the time-prior to the establishment of American Indian Studies programs in colleges and universities-was no doubt an outgrowth of the European point of view. Historians and like minded individuals in US society saw the expression of expansionism and the displacement and even extermination of native peoples as part of its "manifest destiny." So integral is this perspective to society's concept of itself even now, that it requires works like Roanoke to remove the cultural blinders. Through it all, though, the author neither blames nor excuses. Like a good journalist, she describes and explains what occurred, giving cultural background information on all parties that helps clarify interactions. Her discussion of 16th century English policy with respect to Ireland is especially relevant.

One of the most interesting facets of the book, but definitely one that took me a while to appreciate, was the degree to which it involved the history of Elizabethan England and the life of Sir Walter Raliegh and other English explorers. In fact this period of North American history from the perspective of its European heritage is pretty much about England and its relations with others: its international fortune, its social structure and social outlook, and so on.

While the story of Roanoke is part of US history, understanding its experience and demise only makes sense when placed in the context of what was going on world wide at the time. In fact, it's possible that the history of no specific place on the globe ever makes complete sense without referring to world context.

Overall the book gives a very detailed and informative account of early English experience in North America. With the above caveats, it would make an excellent source book for high school history and a good addition to a school library.

Quite dull.......2004-06-18

The prose is dry, and the book didn't provide any insights you couldn't get from just asking someone on the street -- no new material, no interesting conclusions.

This is THE book to read on Roanoke.......2004-03-25

Well written, researched and documented. A fascinating mystery told in a great way.

Surprisingly interesting!.......2001-11-10

I bought this book because I needed to write a book review for my American History review course. I was expecting to trudge through a hundred and some odd boring pages, but was pleasantly surprised.

It was very well written, and read more like a short novel than a history book. While providing information on the many people involved in the Roanoke adventures, it also reviewed the general socio-economic factors influencing American colonization in general. It really contained a ton of information on American colonization and the European factors behind it, and it presented it in such a way that it told a story, rather than simply jumping from time-period and event to time-period and event! (like many of those so called "textbooks")

The author is a noted authority on the early contacts between Europeans and Native Americans.

Book Description

Using the example of the Eastern Algonkians, this book argues that Native Americans did not necessarily convert to Christianity, but rather incorporated it into their own belief system.

Visions of Sound: Musical Instruments of First Nation Communities in Northeastern America (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)

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Visions of Sound: Musical Instruments of First Nation Communities in Northeastern America (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)
Beverley Diamond , M. Sam Cronk , and Franziska von Rosen
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226144763

Book Description

The most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the musical instruments of native people in Northeastern North America, Visions of Sound focuses on interpretations by elders and consultants from Iroquois, Wabanati, Innuat, and Anishnabek communities. Beverley Diamond, M. Sam Cronk, and Franziska von Rosen present these instruments in a theoretically innovative setting organized around such abstract themes as complementarity, twinness, and relationship. As sources of metaphor--in both sound and image--instruments are interpreted within a framework that regards meaning as "emergent" and that challenges a number of previous ethnographic descriptions. Finally, the association between sound and "motion"--an association that illuminates the unity of music and dance and the life cycles of individual musical instruments--is explored.

Featuring over two hundred photographs of instruments, dialogues among the coauthors, numerous interviews with individual music makers, and an appended catalogue of over seven hundred instrument descriptions, this is an important book for all ethnomusicologists and students of Native American culture as well as general readers interested in Native American mythology and religious life.

Commoners, Tribute, and Chiefs: The Development of Algonquian Culture

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Commoners, Tribute, and Chiefs

Commoners, Tribute, and Chiefs: The Development of Algonquian Culture
Stephen R. Potter
Manufacturer: University of Virginia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813915406

Customer Reviews:

Commoners, Tribute, and Chiefs.......2000-05-05

Potter combines findings from ethno-history, archaeology, and anthropology to trace the living patterns of natives occupying the Potomac Valley during the years from 200 to 1700. In particular, Potter uses these findings to trace the Chicacoan political organization, social behavior, and settlement patterns as they changed over time showing how and why the Chicacoans went from being a distinct group before contact with Europeans to moving to new land and merging with two other tribes and becoming the Wicocomoco by the latter 1600s and finally becoming landless tenants living on an English plantation. Potter shows that Chicacoan life (as well as the living patterns of other native groups in the region) was affected by changing subsistence patterns (increasing importance of agriculture), increasing population, conflicts with neighboring tribes, changing climate, and finally contact with Europeans.

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One Indian's story
A beautiful story...
Sublime
A sad and touching tale
An Insightful & Fascinating "Hand-Me Down" Story

The Last Algonquin
Theodore Kazimiroff
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Babbs Switch Story
A Century of Dishonor: The Classic Expose of the Plight of the Native Americans
An Algonquian Year : The Year According to the Full Moon
Silent to the Bone
Twenty Years at Hull-House (Signet Classics)

ASIN: 0802775179

Book Description

As recently as 1924, a lone Algonquin Indian lived quietly in Pelham Bay Park, a wild and isolated corner of New York City. Joe Two Trees was the last of his people, and this is the gripping story of his bitter struggle, remarkable courage, and constant quest for dignity and peace.

By the 1840s, most of the members of Joe’s Turtle Clan had either been killed or sold into slavery, and by the age of thirteen he was alone in the world. He made his way into Manhattan, but was forced to flee after killing a robber in self defense; from there, he found backbreaking work in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Finally, around the time of the Civil War, Joe realized there was no place for him in the White world, and he returned to his birthplace to live out his life alone—suspended between a lost culture and an alien one. Many years later, as an old man, he entrusted his legacy to the young Boy Scout who became his only friend, and here that young boy’s son passes it on to us.

Theodore Kazimiroff, the son of Joe Two Trees’s young confidant, writes historical, environmental, and natural history articles for several magazines. He lives in Bayville, New York.

Customer Reviews:

One Indian's story.......2007-09-10

I first read this book many years ago and bring it out every so often to refresh Two Trees' persona in my mind. This book is full of the author's love for his subject and he passes this on to the reader with great art. The story is in some ways so terribly sad that it is almost unbearable, but Two Trees and his love for nature and his dog can really only ultimately express joy and wonder. I just love this book and hope everyone who reads it follows Two Trees' wish to pass this extraordinary story along.

A beautiful story..........2003-05-22

Joe Two Trees is the last of his tribe. New York in the early twentieth century is not for him. Or is it? As a native New Yorker with a passion for the past, I loved this beautiful story. Whenever I return home, I can no longer visit the Bronx (especially Pelham Bay) without thinking of Joe and his relationship with Theodore Kazimoroff's father. The writing is lovely, and the story evokes all sorts of feelings at so many levels. It was my Aunt, a former teacher, who told me that I should read this book. It has become one of those novels that I recommend to others regularly.

Sublime.......2003-05-14

Some people talk about spirit like it is taught in "Indian 101", but you can experience something very soulful and ancient in the words and earth here.

A sad and touching tale.......2002-11-22

The Last Algonquin is a sad but heartwarming story about a man and his attempts to come to grips with his place in the world. The fact that this man, Joe Two Trees, is the last of his tribe of the Algonquin's makes his journey that much harder and more interesting. If you are looking for an official history of the American Indians, this isn't the book for you. However, if you are looking for a deep and touching story of one American Indian, and what we as a nation have lost by ignoring the heritage of American Indians, then you will enjoy this book. Mr. Kazimiroff has done an excellent job of preserving the story given to him by his father and keeping the memory of Joe Two Trees and the Algonquin Indians alive.

An Insightful & Fascinating "Hand-Me Down" Story.......2002-04-21

This is a must read, especially for those of us raised in the Pelham Bay section of Bronx. The tale of The Last Algonquin is inspiring and heartwarming. And, I hope that Mr. Kazimiroff realizes that he has given The Bronx, the Algonquin Indians and his father the immortality they truly deserve.
Remember as long as someone tells( hears or reads) this tale, the story of Joe Two Trees will continue to live on among the rocks and trees of Pelham Bay Park.

An Algonquian Year : The Year According to the Full Moon

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American Indian culture in An Algonquian Year

An Algonquian Year : The Year According to the Full Moon
Michael McCurdy
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Last Algonquin
Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back
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Turtle Island: Tales of the Algonquian Nations
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ASIN: 0618007059

Book Description

As the moon waxes and wanes, her cycles set a pattern of life for those who live beneath her silver glow. For the Northern Algonquians in precolonial America, these rhythms served to measure out the year. January's Hard Times Moon means biting winds and long nights, and February's moon brings the big snow. Now animals and people alike search for food; the land is locked in a deep, icy cold. But by the April and May moons, one can fish at night by torchlight and leave the wigwam door open to the rising sun in the east. Soon the summer moons of planting and ripening will guide the daily work of the tribe. Then come the fertile autumn moons of harvesting to ready the people for yet another hard winter. In graceful prose and stunning scratchboard illustrations, Michael McCurdy follows the important path the moon made in Algonquian lives. He brings to life the seasonal cycles of work, play, and survival a busy and fulfilling year punctuated by the beauty of the full moon.

Customer Reviews:

American Indian culture in An Algonquian Year.......2000-11-30

Michael McCurdy's book An Algonquian Year: The Year According to the Full Moon outlines how the Algonquian's lives change throughout the year. The book is divided by the months of the calendar (January through December), which seems odd considering the title of this book, and the fact that the moon does not follow this schedule. However, the entry for each month details the types of activities the Algonquians pursue each month and how these activities fit in with the activities of the rest of the year.

In his article "The 'Indian Tales': Are They Fish or Fowl?", Norman Williamson defines methods for determining the value of American Indian tales in children's literature. These principles can be applied to An Algonquian Year to determine its value as a way to learn about the Algonquian culture.

First, Williamson points out that readers should note the purpose of the story. Is the author writing a story that would be acceptable to the dominant culture of the United States and Canada that has a Native American setting and background, or is the author trying to introduce a new culture that may be foreign to the readers? An Algonquian Year seems to be the result of careful research and an intention to introduce this culture to a new audience. This book does not contain a narrative story; instead, the author states in the introduction that it "concentrates on the daily life of Algonquian tribes found in the northeast of what is now Canada and the United States." No names are given for any of the people, instead only the tribes are named. This emphasis on group rather than personal names reinforces the idea of getting to know the group rather than individuals. Also, this book contains an introduction that gives information about the background of the Algonquians and their names for the different moons. After the story, the author has included a map with the areas where different tribes lived and a bibliography for more information. This bibliography contains books written for both adults and children. Clearly, this is a researched and educational book.

Williamson states a problem that many books about Native Americans face. This problem is that "the authors of children's version have committed themselves to a pre-Columbian environment. No child of the dominant culture can relate to this alien environment in a personal way" (71). McCurdy seems aware of this problem and tries in small ways to overcome this difficulty. Instead of focusing only on the activities of the adults, he includes the children as well. For the month of February or "Snow Blinder Moon," he says, "in the villages, the children are growing restless." The readers of An Algonquian Year can understand restless children and identify with this problem. Another example of McCurdy's efforts to relate this culture to the dominant culture is seen in March or "Sap Moon." He explains how sap is collected and made into maple syrup and then adds, "the Algonquian tribes will one day show the white settlers how to make maple syrup." McCurdy relates the Algonquian culture to the history of the dominant culture and prevents the reader from feeling alienated.

Michael McCurdy's An Algonquian Year: The Year According to the Full Moon is an educational tale about the lives of the Algonquian people before the settlers arrived from Europe. By applying criteria from Norman Williamson's article "The 'Indian Tales': Are They Fish or Fowl?", the reader discovers that this story serves the purpose of introducing readers to the Algonquian people.

--
WORKS CITED
McCurdy, Michael. An Algonquian Year: The Year According to the Full Moon. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
Williamson, Norman. "The 'Indian Tales': Are They Fish or Fowl?." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 12.2 (1987): 70-73.

The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway (Basil Johnson Titles)
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Wonderful

Excellent reading!

The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway (Basil Johnson Titles)
Basil Johnston
Manufacturer: Minnesota Historical Society Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Ojibway Ceremonies (Basil Johnson Titles)

Ojibway Heritage (Basil Johnson Titles)

History of the Ojibway People (Borealis Books Reprint)

Ojibway Tales (Basil Johnson Titles)

Chippewa Customs (Publications of the Minnesota Historical Society)

ASIN: 0873514114

Book Description

These are the stories of the manitous--the spirits who inhabit the supernatural world of the Ojibway (the Native American tribe of the Great Lakes and central Canada region). Harvested by an eminent expert from an ancient oral tradition, these sacred stories introduce wily tricksters, fearsome giants, timorous tree spirits, seductive maidens, and wise grandmothers. Here, a coward masquerading as a hero becomes one; a powerful warrior is riled and routed by a younger sibling with a gift for dancing and disguises; and the ever-hungry evil weendigos--evil manitous--haunt the land. In spellbinding and hypnotic fashion, the creation and flood legends are told, and the origin stories of corn, spruce, and tobacco are revealed. Comic, erotic, dramatic, and tragic, these engrossing tales are a window into the heart of an ancient culture, an important contribution to Native American literature, and a fascinating source of spiritual guidance for the many followers of New Age mysticism.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful.......2002-04-24

Basil Johnson is a master story teller and writer. The legends are all deeply meaningful. He really transmits the spirit of the Anishinaubae in a vivid way. I hope he writes down a lot more of these haunting legends and that his hopes for the recovery of the Anishinaubae language and cultural traditions come to full realization.

Excellent reading!.......2000-04-07

This book is written in such a way to document the historical value and so interestingly you don't even realize you are learing all along the way. I found the book accurate as to the stories as I remember the old people telling them.

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Outstanding Work on a Little-Researched Subject

Algonquian Peoples of Long Island
John A. Strong
Manufacturer: Heart of the Lakes Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1557871485

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding Work on a Little-Researched Subject.......1998-06-21

Strong has written a clear, concise overview of a people too long overlooked in the history of New York State. His analysis of their lives, beliefs and eventual conquest by Dutch and English settlers provides an understanding of who they were and why the Europeans found it so easy to manipulate and pressure them into a marginal existence.

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