One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark (History of the American West)

This magnificent, sweeping work traces the histories of the Native peoples of the American West from their arrival thousands of years ago to the early years of the nineteenth century. Emphasizing conflict and change, One Vast Winter Count offers a new look at the early history of the region by blending ethnohistory, colonial history, and frontier history. Drawing on a wide range of oral and archival sources from across the West, Colin G. Calloway offers an unparalleled glimpse at the lives of generations of Native peoples in a western land soon to be overrun. Publishers Weekly Author of First Peoples and a distinguished Dartmouth historian, Calloway concentrates on the Indian experience from the Appalachians to the Pacific, in a time frame from prehistory to the 18th century. The scope is staggering, but Calloway masters it, demonstrating a remarkable command of a broad spectrum of historical, ethnographic and archeological sources including printed material and oral traditions. Conventional American history moves from east to west. Calloway's narrative tends instead to follow a south-north pattern, with cultural innovations like corn and horses diffusing from Mesoamerica along the river-centered trade routes. Conventional histories of Indian-European relations place them at the center of the Native American experience in what became the United States. Calloway demonstrates that until the mid-18th century, the European impact was secondary and indirect on most of the cultures involved. Conventional myths assert the relative peacefulness of Native American interaction. Calloway shows that conflict was also a norm. Conventional wisdom presents Indian cultures as static, living in a timeless harmony with their environment. Calloway establishes that they were in fact constantly changing, adapting to climatic changes, animal migrations, ecological and technological innovations and, not least, the movements, peaceful and hostile, of other cultures. Indian response to European penetration was correspondingly flexible, ranging from partial accommodation to resistance, then rebellion, as European governments sought to move from asserting influence to exercising control. And Native Americans sustained that agency until the "Killing Years," the period from 1770 to the century's turn, when the impact of the American Revolution extended from the Appalachian Mountains to the Pacific Coast, and a smallpox pandemic unpredictably turned the Native American West into a graveyard. It was that last episode, mocking theories of historical determinism, that set the stage for the Lewis and Clark expedition to encounter shocked survivors and suddenly empty lands that seemed to invite European occupation. One Vast Winter Count is both a major work in its own right and a magnificent first volume in Nebraska's new History of the American West series. History Book Club, Military Book Club and Reader's Subscription Book Club selections. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. This magnificent, sweeping account traces the histories of the Native peoples of the American West from their arrival thousands of years ago to the early years of the nineteenth century. Colin G. Calloway depicts Indian country west of the Appalachians to the Pacific, with emphasis on conflict and change. With broad and incisive strokes Calloway's narrative includes: the first inhabitants and their early pursuit of big-game animals; the diffusion of corn and how it transformed American Indian life; the Spanish invasion and Indian resistance to Spanish colonialism; French-Indian relations in the heart of the continent; the diffusion of horses and horse culture; the collision of rival European empires and the experiences of Indian peoples whose homelands became imperial borderlands; and the dramatic events between the American Revolution and the arrival of Lewis and Clark. The account ends as a new American nation emerged independent of the British Empire, took over the trans-Mississippi West, and began to expand its own empire based on the concept of liberty and the acquisition of Indian land. One Vast Winter Count offers a new look at the early history of the region—a blending of ethnohistory, colonial history, and frontier history. It features Native voices and perspectives; a masterful, fluid integration of a wide range of oral and archival sources from across the West; a dynamic reconstruction of cultural histories; and balanced consideration of controversial subjects and issues. Calloway offers an unparalleled glimpse at the lives of generations of Native peoples in a western land soon to be overrun. From the dust jacket. This sweeping account traces the histories of the Native peoples of the American West from their arrival thousands of years ago to the early years of the nineteenth century. Colin G. Calloway depicts Indian country west of the Appalachians to the Pacific, with emphasis on conflict and change. Calloway's narrative includes: the first inhabitants and their early pursuit of big-game animals; the diffusion of corn and how it transformed American Indian life; the Spanish invasion and Indian resistance to Spanish colonialism; French-Indian relations in the heart of the continent; the diffusion of horses and horse culture; the collision of rival European empires and the experiences of Indian peoples whose homelands became imperial borderlands; and the dramatic events between the American Revolution and the arrival of Lewis and Clark. The account ends as a new American nation emerged independent of the British Empire, took over the trans-Mississippi West, and began to expand its own empire based on the concept of liberty and the acquisition of Indian land. This book offers a new look at the early history of the region--a blending of ethnohistory, colonial history, and frontier history. It features Native voices and perspectives; a fluid integration of a wide range of oral and archival sources from across the West; a reconstruction of cultural histories; and balanced consideration of controversial subjects and issues. Calloway offers a glimpse at the lives of generations of Native peoples in a western land soon to be overrun Frontmatter List of Illustrations (page ix) List of Maps (page x) Series Editor's Preface (page xi) Acknowledgments (page xiii) A Note on Terminology (page xvii) Prologue: Land and History in the American West (page 1) Part 1: The West before 1500 Chapter 1: Pioneers (page 25) Chapter 2: Singing Up a New World (page 67) Part 2: Invaders South and North, 1500-1730 Chapter 3: Sons of the Sun and People of the Earth (page 119) Chapter 4: Rebellions and Reconquests (page 165) Chapter 5: Calumet and Fleur-de-lys (page 213) Part 3: Winning and Losing in the West, 1700-1800 Chapter 6: The Coming of the Centaurs (page 267) Chapter 7: People In Between and People on the Edge (page 313) Chapter 8: The Killing Years (page 367) Epilogue: The Slave in the Chariot (page 427) Notes (page 435) Selected Bibliography (page 569) Index (page 597) "One Vast Winter Count offers a new look at the early history of the region - a blending of ethnohistory, colonial history, and frontier history. It features Native voices and perspectives; a masterful, fluid integration of a wide range of oral and archival sources from across the West; a dynamic reconstruction of cultural histories; and balanced consideration of controversial subjects and issues. Calloway offers an unparalleled glimpse at the lives of generations of Native peoples in a western land soon to be overrun."--Jacket.