Traders and Raiders

In this noteworthy study Natale Zappia argues that raiding and commerce permitted the Amerindian societies of the Colorado River Basin to create a distinctly indigenous “interior world” (6) between 1540, when Spaniard Hernando de Alarcón led the first European expedition into the area, and 1859, when Anglo-Americans finally asserted their hegemony over the region in the aftermath of the Mojave War. Trade and plunder, Zappia argues, were central to the political economies of the native communities of the interior world, permitting them to remain largely independent, both politically and economically, from peoples of European descent prior to 1859.The resource-rich Colorado River served as the economic and cultural backbone of the interior world. “Indian highways” (8) originating on its banks extended hundreds of miles in every direction, permitting a perennial flow of people, trade articles, and ideas from as far afield as the Pueblo settlements of New Mexico or the Chumash villages of California’s Channel Islands and Pacific Coast. In this complex network of interethnic exchange, where more than twenty tongues were spoken, indigenous peoples retained control of strategic waterways and crossroads well into the nineteenth century.Zappia underscores the similarities between the native commodities, markets, and economic networks of the interior world and those found elsewhere in the Americas and the Atlantic world. Over time the circulation of native-produced articles such as shell beads, baskets, or cotton fabrics lost importance to the traffic in livestock and captives. Highlighting the relevance of captivity-related practices in the political economies of the peoples from the Colorado River Basin and surrounding regions, Zappia’s book complements James F. Brooks’s (2002) classic work Captives and Cousins by placing the geographic focus farther west. According to Zappia, the European intrusion resulted in a shift from laxer forms of interethnic captivity, in which captives were typically women and children, to more exploitative forms of market-oriented enslavement. The introduction of horses also contributed to the expansion of raiding among peoples as diverse as the Yokut and the Mojave.Traders and Raiders is written in a scholarly and clear style that makes it accessible for lay readers and appropriate for undergraduates. It consists of an introduction, where Zappia lays out his main ideas and clearly explains certain key terms, and six chapters corresponding roughly to successive chronological periods. Zappia draws on a variety of secondary and primary sources, including archaeological evidence, paleoclimatic data, ethnographic information, and native oral traditions, to complement the documentary record. Not all the native peoples who inhabited the interior world receive the same attention—likely an undesired consequence of imbalances in the availability of sources. As a result, Zappia’s discussion covers some groups, such as the Quechan or the Mojave, more than others, such as the Cahuilla or the Cocopah. The book includes several illustrations and maps, as well as four useful appendixes containing significant qualitative and quantitative information.All in all, this relatively short book is a fine contribution to the historiography on the native Southwest, where California and New Mexico have traditionally received much more attention than the Colorado Basin. It will doubtless serve as a useful starting point for further research into the still relatively unknown past of the interior world peoples

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• Captives & cousins

  James Brooks•Captives & cousins•2002

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• Captives and Cousins

  Rick Hendricks•Hispanic American Historical Review•2003

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