The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (The Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity) Hardcover – April 25, 2023

Blackhawk does a masterful job of documenting the European conquest of America, while attempting to humanize the Amerind residents who had already lived here for thousands of years. My one wish is that he would have stressed more highly, the contributions of the Indigenous population's contributions to civilized life. Their contributions in gastronomy, geography and powers of observation that coincide with the hunter/gatherer lifestyle should be the antidote to the pernicious attitudes of Europeans against the indigenous populations.

After spending some time in Colorado with the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory the past two summers, I was introduced to the Ute Tribe through a field trip to the Ute Museum in Montrose, Colorado. After that visit, I realized I had little knowledge of the history of the indigenous peoples that were here before European colonization other than what was taught in my public school into the late early '80s. The history that this book exposed to me is agonizingly painful to say the least and far beyond anything I had previously been exposed to in regards to the brutality and suffrages the peoples from this land had and still endure. This book invoked a deep empathy in me towards the American Indian and an appetite for political fairness for their cause and identity. I think as American's, we're all better off when we understand each other better and this book goes along way towards that!

Ned Blackhawk's "The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History" doesn't un-make U.S. history, in my opinion. By focusing the view from a different angle, it refreshes the history. If there is a history, it must be complete and that includes the history of Native Americans.I read it slow because it is an academic work. It is dense with information. Each section has a view that makes what is happening look different because the perspective is different but by the end of the section, it gives a fuller telling of the events.There are points where I felt it meandered, but overall, it was a solid read. Again, it is an academic read so it can get dry and overwhelm with facts, but I expected that. Each section was like reading a book unto itself so in the end, it felt like a history collection.

Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) is the first tenured Native American professor at Yale. He is an expert on the history of indigenous people in North America and uses this lens to rewrite the history of North America.Nearly 600-pages (only 450 if you don’t count footnotes and references), it provides the first interpretive overview of Native American history—from 1492 to the present. No one has written an overview of Native American history like this. And I’m only up to the year 1701!I was very much taken by Jill Lepore’s These Truths, which recasts U.S. history through the lens of slavery and Jim Crow. But notably absent is the role of indigenous people. From Blackhawk, I learned the details of our pre-original sin, how North America’s population fell from around 8 million to just 4 million between 1492 to 1776. As Blackhawk writes: “The almost unimaginable scale of death and depopulation calls into question the celebratory portraits of the nation’s founding, and also helps explain the motivations for American Indian trade, diplomacy, and warfare, all of which shaped the evolution of European settlements. … These truths show that it is impossible to understand the United States without understanding its Indigenous history.Blackhawk has written three far-reaching books. His first two books, Violence over the Land and Indigenous Visions, recast common assumptions about the place of Native peoples in U.S. history. These books won many prizes including the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize from the Organization of American Historians. The Rediscovery of America is Blackhawk’s most important work yet.

This dense and thorough study leaves me baffled, bewildered and sad after each sub section. So much of history unknown, as I have only seen it through the limited tunnel vision of American history - written of course, by the colonists ancestors. To hear an indigenous voice is so wonderful…my ancestors have only been here for nine generations…immigrants indeed. Please, please read this wonderful book and continue to write Dr.Blackhawk. You have a wonderful and vital career ahead of you. May your voice be heard.

This book is helping me be a better docent at the First Americans Museum. FAM tells the stories and history of the 39 tribal nations in Oklahoma from the indigenous peoples.

Mr Blackhawk paints a vivid picture of how the continent was taken by European colonial nations. His story ends with improving national policies since the late 20tieth century.I would strongly recommend it to everyone from politicians, to captains of industry, and especially teachers at all levels.

Book arrived in a timely manner and in very good condition, as described. Excellent! Great seller!

This book, “The Rediscovery of America”, is really the rediscovery of American history. It is an accessible book about the history of the United States, but unlike many other histories it aims to overcome the absence of the Indigenous population (1). The historical approach is straightforward, but it always includes events relevant to the Indigenous population. These events may be unfamiliar to the reader. Other events, expected by the reader, may not be found. For example, at the end of the American Revolution freedom for the colonists did not mean freedom for the Indigenous peoples as there was a surge of settlers moving west into their lands. The Louisiana Purchase was good for the young United States, but bad for the Indigenous peoples who lived there. The end of the Civil War was good for the Union and for the former slaves, but it led to an increase in federal power over the western lands leading to the enforced assimilation of Indigenous peoples.THE BOOK is a fat book of 445 pages of text (2) with 12 chapters, divided into two parts. Part I discusses the European imperial history in North America with English, French, Dutch and Spanish colonists. Part II discusses the post-revolutionary republic of the United States of America, its consolidation, its move westwards, the Russians along the northern Pacific coast and the struggles of sovereignty between the United States and the Native nations. (3). There are 10 maps and 20 matt illustrations of various sizes, all in black and white (4).LOOK INSIDE: This option lists, from the start of the book, the Contents, the first map, the Introduction and most of the first chapter “American Genesis”; it also lists, from the end of the book, the Notes, Acknowledgments and Index.THE AUTHOR: Ned Blackhawk (Western Shosone) is Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, where he is the faculty coordinator for the Study of Native America. He is the author of Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West_____________________________________________________________________(1) “Indigenous absence has been a long tradition of American historical analysis. Building upon a generation of recent scholarship in Indigenous history, this book joins the many scholars who are creating a different view of the past, a reorientation of U.S. history.”(Introduction, page 2 and its reference Susan Smith, Why You Can’t Teach United State History without American Indians)(2) It is even fatter if you include the 102 pages of Notes at the end of the book. This is despite most of the notes being short references to sources used.(3) CONTENTSIntroduction: Toward a New American History (11 pages)PART I1. American Genesis: Indians and the SpanishSpain’s Earliest American Conquests – The Meeting: Spanish and Nahua Empire in Mexico – De Soto and Coronado across the Spanish Borderlands; 1539-42 – The Colonization of the Silver Frontier: The Mixtón War of 1540-41 and After – Juan de Oñate and the Conquest of New Mexico – Pueblo Struggle and Survival: The 1800s – The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 – New Mexico’s Growing Heterogeneity and Diversity: The 1700s2. The Native Northeast and the Rise of British North AmericaThe Violent Origins of British North America – Ideologies of Difference: Puritanism – The Native Northeast on the Eve of Colonization – English Enslavement of Native Peoples: Tisquantum’s travels – Puritan Settlement upon a Widowed Land – Wampum and Anglo-Dutch Rivalry on Long Island Sound – The Battle for Long Island Sound: The Pequot War (1636-37)3. The Unpredictability of Violence: Iroquoia and New France to 1701Initial Encounters: Champlain and the Iroquois Confederacy – The Centrality of Violence in the Atlantic World – the Rise of the Dutch-Iroquois Alliance – The Iroquois and Wendat Confederacies in the Age of Disease – Origins of Iroquois Expansion – The Effects of Iroquois Assaults on Wendake: 1648-53 – the Iroquois and the Remaking of New France – The Great Peace of 17014. The Native Inland Sea: The Struggle for the Heart of the ContinentAfter 1701: The Reconfiguration of Iroquois Power in the Eighteenth Century – Trade, Mediation, Justice, and Religion: French Ties across the Interior – Intermarriage, Kinship and Sexuality – Indigenous Warfare and Captivity along the Violent Edges of Empire – Alliances and Tensions: The Origins of the Seven Years’ War – The Beginnings of the Firs World War – An Interior Still at War5. Settler Uprising: The Indigenous Origins of the American RevolutionThe Unexpected Costs of the Seven Years’ War – Cultural Hybridity and Indigenous Power After 1760 – Religious Diversity across the Interior – Neolin and the Troubled Aftermath of War – Pontiac’s Uprising and the Revolutionary Costs of Peace – Western Pennsylvania and the Crisis of British Imperialism – The Conestoga Massacre of 1763 and the Expansion of Racial Violence – Colonial Divisions and Endemic Indian Violence – Pontiac’s War and the Political Culture of Interior Settlements – “To Serve the Enemies of Mankind”; The Indigenous Origins of the Revolution – After 17656. Colonialism’s Constitution: The Origins of Federal Indian PolicyAmerican Indians and the Revolutionary Republic – Interior Indian Lands and the Origins of American Federalism – The Chaotic Interior and the Republic’s Search for Order – When States Illegally Seized Indian Lands: New York and Iroquoia in the 1780s – Virginians View Indian Lands: Washington’s Proposal of 1784 – American Federalism, American Indians – The Failures of the Article of Confederation – Indians and the U.S. ConstitutionPART II7. The Deluge of Settler Colonialism: Democracy and Dispossession in the Early RepublicRacial Formations and the Market Revolution – A Deluge of Opportunities – Whiteness, Gender, and Naturalization – Myth Making in the American Imagination – Expulsion or Incorporation: The Ambiguity of Indian Policy – Early Federal-Indian Diplomacy – Slave Revolts and Interior Indian Campaigns, 1791-1800 – Indian Treaty Making and the Practices of Federal Power – Jay’s Treaty, the Treaty of Greenville, and Foreign and Domestic Affairs – Treaty Making and the Origins of the Louisiana Purchase – Indians and States’ Rights in the South – Indian Removal and the Marshall Court8. Foreign Policy Formations: California, the Pacific, and the Borderlands Origins of the Monroe DoctrineMission Uprising: Persecution and Colonialism – Changes in California’s Maritime Economy – Imperialists from the North: The Russian-American Company – The Pacific Coast in the Age of Revolution – Attempted Incorporations of the Northwest – The Economic and Epidemiological Roots of Dependency – Smallpox and the Reordering of Western Indian Societies – Missouri and the Crisis of Mexican Independence – Borderlands Standoff: Florida and Spain’s Crumbling Empire – Seminole War and the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 – James Monroe, John Marshall, and the Doctrines of 18239. Collapse and Total War: The Indigenous West and the U.S. Civil WarSettler Booms and the Absence of the State – The Dakota War and Indigenous Genocide – California Militias at the Beginning of the Civil War – the Civil War and the Union’s Ineffective Indian Office – Settler Colonialism and Infrastructure during the Civil War – The Hybridity of the Southwest – Treaty Making on the Northern Plains – Oklahoma Indians and the Crisis of Secession – Western Mining and Economic Booms – California Volunteers outside of California: From Owens Valley to Bear River – The Long Walk and Confinement at Bosque Redondo – The Road to Sand Creek10. Taking Children and Treaty Lands: Laws and Federal Power during the Reservation EraThe West’s New Legal Regimes – New Land and Educational Policies – Indians, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Growth of the Federal Government – Treaty Making during Reconstruction – Infrastructure and Environmental Change – The Origins of the Great Sioux Reservation – The Great Sioux War and Centennial America – The Challenges of Assimilation – Expansion of the Assimilation Campaign: 1880s-1920s – The Supreme Court Affirms the Plenary Power Doctrine – The Wounded Knee Massacre of 189011. Indigenous Twilight at the Dawn of the Century: Native Activists and the Myth of Indian DisappearanceWorld’s Fairs and the Politics of Representation – American Imperialism and Growing Movements of Indigenous Resistance – The Society of American Indians – The Vexed Place of Citizenship: Communal Sovereignty versus Individualism – Laura Cornelius Kellogg’s Internationalism and Iroquois Advocacy – Allotment, Race, and the Meriam Report’s ‘Problem of Indian Administration’ – Henry Roe Cloud and Elizabeth Bender Cloud’s Shared Visions of Empowerment – The Great Depression and the Indian New Deal – Activism at the Local and National Levels: The Origins of the Hualapai Decision12. From Termination to Self-Determination: Native American Sovereignty in the Cold War EraNative Americans and World War II – The Early Cold War in Indian Country – Ideology versus Practice: The Twisted Implementation of Termination – Reservation Resources and Menominee Termination – The Cold War and the Racial Logic of Termination – Termination and Indian Child Welfare – The Rising Tide of Red Power – The Road to Self-Determination: 1969-78 – Expansion and Backlash: Self-Determination in the Late Twentieth CenturyNotes (102 pages)Index (44 pages)(4) MAPSPre-contact or pre-removal Native nations (2 pages and in Look inside)European forts before 1787 (2 pages)Seventeenth-century Iroquois raids (½ page)North American locations of the Seven Years’ War (2 pages)Interior Indian groups, regions, and typography (1 page)Treaties with Native nations after 1787 (2 pages)Native nations of California (1 page)Great Sioux Reservation (½ page)Selected Indian boarding schools (½ page)Contemporary Native nations (2 pages)ILLUSTRATIONSAll the illustrations are in black and white. Although some of the illustrations were originally also in black and white, such as the engravings and the photographs, many of the other illustrations would be much better in their original colour.The first illustration is an engraving of the battle in 1609 between Samuel de Champlain and his Native allies against Mohawk soldiers (also in Look inside). There are representations of people such as John Verelst’s painting of Tejonihokarawa, Alfred Hoffy’s portrait of Tshusick, a statue of Popé (Po’Pay) in the US Capitol building, a mural on a wall in Los Angeles of Toypurina and a photo of Laura Cornelius Kellogg.Other illustrations include: a picture of the Spanish setting dogs on Indigenous nobles, 1560; a wampum belt; a painting of the Iroquois Creation Story; a painting from 1780 of French and Indian dress; the front cover of Benjamin Franklin’s A narrative of the late massacres, in Lancaster County, of a number of Indians; a painting by J W Hill in 1829 of the newly built Erie Canal and photographs of Indian schools.