American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850 Review

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American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850 ReviewA dispassionate, scholarly look at what happened in North America to its native peoples when the Europeans arrived. The book spans 1500 to 1850, the latter being essentially before the American Civil War. It concentrates on events inside the present day United States. You should be aware that there is little coverage of Mexico and the Canadas. Lest you think this restrictive, remember that we are still referring to a span of 350 years and the US. Given this vast field in time and space, the book does not claim comprehensiveness. What it does have are chapters on numerous aspects of the encounters. Intermarriage, religion, trading, disease and, of course, war and the forced relocation of the few survivors.
There is coverage not just of the eastern seaboard, with the well known incidents at Plymouth and the selling of Manhattan. Also presented are chapters on the Spanish incursions and settlements in the South West. The chapters strive to go beyond the stereotypical, marginal roles played by the natives in standard histories. You can get some understanding of the intricacies of their societies and the range of their dealings with the Europeans. There is, though, a continual frustration; which is not the fault of the authors. The written records we have are overwhelmingly those left by the settlers. We can only wonder now at what was never recorded directly by the natives, and which has been irretrievably forsaken to the nameless dust of history.American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850 Overview

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Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate Review

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Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate ReviewAlthough Henige writes cleverly, probably few laymen will choose this book as leisure reading. Likewise, few scholars (except perhaps for Henige's professional enemies and a few unfortunate graduate students) will read it all the way through without skipping pages and even whole chapters.
Henige need not worry. His book needed to be written, and his thesis is sound. "High Counters" have indeed grossly exaggerated the pre-contact population of American Indians on the basis of virtually nothing but the desire to take a currently fashionable position. Wisely, Henige reminds his readers that there are places historians cannot go because no evidence remains and that this lack of evidence can become an opportunity for wild conjecture on the part of those who have ideological axes to grind.
Of necessity whoever took on the "High Counters" had to drudge through the facts and figures to prove them misguided, and the drudging doesn't always make for engaging reading. Nevertheless, Henige ranges widely and engagingly in his series of essays, treating such profitable topics as numerical exaggerations in classical texts and even in works of imagination. Some passages are so witty I laughed out loud.Numbers from Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population Debate Overview

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