Writing the history of North America from Indian country

The view from the north-central Plains, 1800-1870

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2633262
AutoresRaymond J Demallie (Chancellor University, autor correspondente), Gilles Havard (Indiana University)
Ano2019
Volume105
Fascículo1
Páginas13-40
Data de publicação2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal de la Société des Américanistes (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0037-9174 • E-ISSN: 1957-7842
EditoraOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/jsa.16803
OpenAlexW2962958524
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas12

This article is based on the premise that an insightful reconstruction of the specific cultural world of American Indians allows a clearer, more in-depth understanding of North American history as a whole. To illustrate our perspective, we examine a concept of geographical and cultural space denoted as 'Indian country.' As a case study, we focus our analysis on tribes of the central and northern Plains between 1800 and 1870. Taking the view from this Indian country and using sources produced by Indian people themselves, such as the 1806 Arikara map of Too-Ne, it becomes easier to understand how Plains people envisioned territory and social groupings in their own ways. The confrontation between Indians and Europeans was fueled by mutual misconceptions of land ownership and social and political institutions. From Indian countries, we learn that some categories that seemed common to Euro-Americans, such as tribe or nation, chief, race, and métissage, were not universal categorizations that were understood in North America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and that they need to be historicized. In this regard, the colonial conquest was not only territorial but was a way in which new social meanings and practices were created

Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Indian culture · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Premise · Race (biology · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Tribe · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Anthropology · Archaeology and Natural History · Gender Studies · History · Law