Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Maps xi
Acknowledgments: Adventures in the Land of the Dead xiii
Introduction: The Geography of Empire in 1804 1
St. Louis 6
Michilimackinac 9
Santa Fe 11
The Pacific Coast 13
Family Stories 15
"Died Single" 18
Why Fur and Why Families? 19
Sources and Definitions 21
Maps and Signposts 22
Part I Replacing a State: The Continental Web of Family Trade 25
Chapter 1 Families and Fur: The Personal World of the Early American West 27
The Chouteau Family and the Missouri River World 30
"Middle Ground" or "Native Ground"? 35
"Tough Love" and Family Loyalty 39
On the Trail of Wealth and Opportunity 56
The Sublette Brothers and Their Family Business 57
Chasing Fortune and Family 70
Americans in Mexico, Californios in America 75
Dangerous Places 83
Chapter 2 Fort Vancouver's Families: The Custom of the Country 89
Cogs in the Fur Trade 89
The Local and Global Communities of the Columbia 92
The Métis World of John McLoughlin 97
The Tentacles of International Trade 104
The McLoughlins and the Company 109
Life and Work on the Columbia 116
Global Ambitions 124
The Fine Mesh of the Family Network 128
Immigrants, Nations, and the Loss of a Family Empire 133
Murder at Fort Stikine and Suicide in California 137
Chapter 3 Three Western Places: Regional Communities and Vecinidad 147
William Bent's Border World 151
Bent's Fort and Its Neighborhood 160
Omens and Weddings 162
Norteños and Yanquis in Alta California 170
Captain Sutter's New Helvetia 183
Dinner and Diplomacy in Northern California 191
Portents of Change 195
Stephen Austin's Border World 200
Planting Colonies in Texas 204
Austin's Fractious Neighborhood 212
Part II Americans All: The Mixed World of Indian Country 221
Chapter 4 The Early West: The Many Faces of Indian Country 229
Cherokee, Shawnee, and Osage 229
The View from Fort Osage 240
The View from St. Louis 250
Change, Loss, and Warfare on the Missouri 257
The Arikara War 262
Métis and Half-Breed in an Anglo West 268
Chapter 5 Empires in Transition: Indian Country at Midcentury, 1825-1860 279
Counting Indians 281
Expanding Power 289
The Santa Fe Trail 293
Native Nations and Texas Revolution 298
Retrenchment and Resistance 307
The Osages and Accommodation on the Arkansas 314
Good Fathers and the Fur Trade 317
Captivity Tales and Epidemic Disease 330
Part III From Nations to Nation: Imposing a State, 1840-1865 347
Chapter 6 Unintended Consequences: Families, Nations, and the Mexican War 351
What If Guadalupe Boggs Married Teresina Carson? 351
Questions of Citizenship and Identity 358
Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormonism 359
Mexican Revolutions 369
Continental Rumor Factories 373
The Bent Family and the Vagaries of War 378
Bent's Choice 385
Brigham Young and the Choices of War 388
Hard Choices in California 392
The McLoughlins' Choice 400
Chapter 7 Border Wars: Disorder and Disaster in the 1850s 409
The Evolving Fur Trade World 411
Postwar Family and Business on the Arkansas 416
Indian Wars in the Pacific Northwest 421
Oregon's Bloody Legacy 423
The Failure of Warfare and Washington's Native Nations 427
Nation Building in the Southwest 434
Raising Families and Fighting Wars 440
Chapter 8 The State and Its Handmaidens: Imposing Order 451
Civil Threats and the Mormons 452
The Personal Politics of Polygamy and Theocracy 455
The Almost War and the Massacre in Utah 459
Conquest and Chaos in California 462
A Nation of Squatters 475
While Kansas Bled and Native People Fled 477
The Pesky Details of Popular Sovereignty 480
A National Horror Show 484
The Minnesota Uprising of 1862 488
Sand Creek and the Bent Family Nightmare 492
Epilogue: How It All Turned Out 497
Sonoma 497
Los Angeles 501
Taos 505
The Arkansas River 506
Oregon 507
St. Louis 511
Kawsmouth 512
Notes 515
Bibliography 563
Index 597
