Native America, Discovered and Conquered

Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny

Bibliographic Data

ID9308466
AuthorsRobert J Miller (0000-0002-8350-3759, corresponding author)
Year2006
Publication date2006-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueNative America, Discovered and Conquered (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPraeger (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5040/9798400689635
OpenAlexW4399238202
Open LibraryOL10289711M
ISBN9798400689635
LanguageEN
Citations received21

Manifest Destiny, as a term for westward expansion, was not used until the 1840s. Its predecessor was the Doctrine of Discovery, a legal tradition by which Europeans and Americans laid legal claim to the land of the indigenous people that they discovered. In the United States, the British colonists who had recently become Americans were competing with the English, French, and Spanish for control of lands west of the Mississippi. Who would be the discoverers of the Indians and their lands, the United States or the European countries? We know the answer, of course, but in this book, Miller explains for the first time exactly how the United States achieved victory, not only on the ground, but also in the developing legal thought of the day. The American effort began with Thomas Jefferson's authorization of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, which set out in 1803 to lay claim to the West. Lewis and Clark had several charges, among them the discovery of a Northwest Passage—a land route across the continent—in order to establish an American fur trade with China. In addition, the Corps of Northwestern Discovery, as the expedition was called, cataloged new plant and animal life, and performed detailed ethnographic research on the Indians they encountered. This fascinating book lays out how that ethnographic research became the legal basis for Indian removal practices implemented decades later, explaining how the Doctrine of Discovery became part of American law, as it still is today

Archaeology · Doctrine · Ethnography · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Manifest destiny · Miller · Political science · Politics · Victory · Archaeology and Natural History · Ecology · History · Law · (1804-1806) · 1743-1826 · America · American history · discovery and exploration · Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies · Geographical discovery & exploration · Government relations · History - General History · Indians · Indians of North America · Indigenous peoples · Jefferson, Thomas · Lewis and Clark Expedition · Lewis and clark expedition (1804-1806) · Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) (uri) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84018492 (uri) http://viaf.org/viaf/sourceID/LC|n84018492 · Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84018492 · Native American · Native American Studies · North america · North American · race relations · Relations with Indians · Social Science · Sociology · Territorial expansion · Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) · united states

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