Indigenous continent : the epic contest for North America / Pekka Hämäläinen.

Includes bibliographical references (page 467-538) and index.

Introduction: The end of colonial America -- Part one: The dawn of the indigenous continent (the firsty seventy millennia). The world on the turtle's back -- The egalitarian continent -- Blind conquests -- Part two: Appear at a distance like giants (the long sixteenth century). Terra Nullis -- The Powhatan empire -- Wars at the water's edge -- The Pequots shall no more be called Pequots -- Part three: The contest for the great American interior (early and mid-seventeenth century). The rise of the five nations league -- Enemies of the faith -- The power of weakness -- Part four: The indigenous backlash (late seventeenth century). The English as a little child -- Metacom's challenge -- Virginia's civil and uncivil wars -- The great southwestern rebellion -- Part five: The enduring indigenous continent. Holding the line -- They smelled like alligators -- An infinity of rancherías -- Part six: The heart of the continent (mid- and late eighteenth century). Magic dogs -- Wars to the end of the world -- British America besieged -- Worldly and otherworldly wars of independence -- A second Chinese wall -- Part seven: American revolutions (late eighteenth to early nineteenth century). The American crucible -- Western promises -- The white devil with his mouth wide open -- Part eight: the age of equestrian empires (nineteenth century). The long removal era -- The rise of the Comanche empire -- The Lakota shield -- Epilogue: Revenge and revival.

"There is an old, deeply rooted story about America that goes like this: Columbus 'discovers' a strange continent and brings back tales of untold riches. The European empires rush over, eager to stake out as much of this astonishing 'New World' as possible. Though Indigenous peoples fight back, they cannot stop the onslaught. White imperialists are destined to rule the continent, and history is an irreversible march toward Indigenous destruction. Yet as with other long-accepted origin stories, this one, too, turns out to be based in myth and distortion. In Indigenous Continent, acclaimed historian Pekka Hämäläinen presents a sweeping counternarrative that shatters the most basic assumptions about American history. Shifting our perspective away from Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, the Revolution, and other well-trodden episodes on the conventional timeline, he depicts a sovereign world of Native nations whose members, far from helpless victims of colonial violence, dominated the continent for centuries after the first European arrivals. From the Iroquois in the Northeast to the Comanches on the Plains, and from the Pueblos in the Southwest to the Cherokees in the Southeast, Native nations frequently decimated white newcomers in battle. Even as the white population exploded and colonists' land greed grew more extravagant, Indigenous peoples flourished due to sophisticated diplomacy and leadership structures. By 1776, various colonial powers claimed nearly all of the continent, but Indigenous peoples still controlled it-as Hämäläinen points out, the maps in modern textbooks that paint much of North America in neat, color-coded blocks confuse outlandish imperial boasts for actual holdings. In fact, Native power peaked in the late nineteenth century, with the Lakota victory in 1876 at Little Big Horn, which was not an American blunder, but an all-too-expected outcome. Hämäläinen ultimately contends that the very notion of 'colonial America' is misleading, and that we should speak instead of an 'Indigenous America' that was only slowly and unevenly becoming colonial. The evidence of Indigenous defiance is apparent today in the hundreds of Native nations that still dot the United States and Canada. Necessary reading for anyone who cares about America's past, present, and future, Indigenous Continent restores Native peoples to their rightful place at the very fulcrum of American history.