"a centuries-long perspective of Native power...that every student of our common history will find illuminating."--Elliott West
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New York Times Book Review • 100 Notable Books of 2022
Best Books of 2022 — New Yorker, Kirkus Reviews
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
"Indigenous Continent is a triumph. Pekka Hämäläinen has crafted a grand, sweeping narrative premised on a fundamental truth: American history is Indigenous history. To read this book is to see the past anew."
--Elizabeth Fenn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People
"In Indigenous Continent, Pekka Hämäläinen continues his pathbreaking work that re-envisions the North American narrative to put Native peoples at center stage. Here he pulls back to a centuries-long perspective of Native power, strategic maneuvering, and spiritual and diplomatic adaptation that every student of our common history will find illuminating."
--Elliott West, author of The Last Indian War and The Contested Plains, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize
A prize-winning scholar rewrites 400 years of American history from Indigenous perspectives, overturning the dominant origin story of the United States.
This nation's history and self-understanding have long depended on the notion of a "colonial America," an epoch that supposedly laid the foundation for the modern United States. In Indigenous Continent, Pekka Hèamèalèainen overturns the traditional, Eurocentric narrative, demonstrating that, far from being weak and helpless "victims" of European colonialism, Indigenous peoples controlled North America well into the 19th century. From the Iroquois and Pueblos to the Lakotas and Comanches, Native empires frequently decimated white newcomers in battle, forcing them to accept and even adopt Native ways. Even as the white population skyrocketed and colonists' land greed become ever more extravagant, Indigenous peoples flourished due to sophisticated diplomacy and flexible leadership structures. As Hèamèalèainen ultimately contends, instead of "colonial America" we should speak of an "Indigenous America" that was only slowly and unevenly becoming colonial. In our myth-busting era, this restoration of Native Americans to their rightful place at the very center of American history will be seen as one of the most important correctives yet"--
Pekka Hämäläinen is Rhodes Professor of American History at the University of Oxford and the author of The Comanche Empire, winner of the Bancroft Prize, and Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power. He lives in Oxford, England.
