Northeastern Indian Lives, 1632-1816

by Robert S. Grumet, Anthony F. C. Wallace

Overview

This collection of fifteen essays examines the lives of important but relatively unknown Native Americans. The chapters explore the complexities of Indian-colonial relations from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries, from Maine to the Ohio valley. The volume is interdisciplinary, drawing on the methods and insights of social history, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and the study of material culture.

Few works have directed attention toward such lesser-known figures as Shickellamy, an Oneida diplomat; the Mohawk sachem Theyanoguin; Awashunkes, a Saconett sunksquaw; or Molly Ockett, a Pigwacket doctor. These individuals operated at the often dangerous and always uncertain interstices separating their world from that of the European settlers, as they worked for the security and survival of their peoples during the first centuries of contact. Their efforts helped shape events that determined the course of history in the colonial Northeast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558490017
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	03/06/1996
Series:	Native Americans of the Northeast
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert S. Grumet is a staff member of the National Park Service's North-east Field Office in Philadelphia. His most recent publication is Historic Contact: Indians and Colonists in Today's Northeastern United States in the Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries.

Editorial Reviews

"This collection of 16 life histories seeks to 'redirect attention' to some 'all-but-forgotten' lives. . . . Each of these studies draws on research in local records, oral traditions, and new models of cultural interaction to tell their stories. . . . Some essays provide fascinating details of Indian-white relations. Others exhibit the strengths of new paradigms for expanding understanding of Native American responses."—Choice

From the Publisher

This collection of 16 life histories seeks to 'redirect attention' to some 'all-but-forgotten' lives.... Each of these studies draws on research in local records, oral traditions, and new models of cultural interaction to tell their stories.... Some essays provide fascinating details of Indian-white relations. Others exhibit the strengths of new paradigms for expanding understanding of Native American responses.

Choice

Intended for upper level undergraduates in political science and history, this text takes as its leitmotif the efforts of successive leaderships to harmonize elements of traditional indigenous culture with formulas for industrialization and modernization that originally evolved in the West. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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