A collection of documents illustrating encounters between Native American peoples and a variety of European newcomers from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Includes maps, journals, advertisements, and letters.

In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded to the westward rush of European settlers. Or so the story usually goes. Yet, for three centuries after Columbus, Native people controlled most of eastern North America and profoundly shaped its destiny. In Facing East from Indian Country, Daniel K. Richter keeps Native people center-stage throughout...

An illuminating history of North America's eleven rival cultural regions that explodes the red state-blue state myth. North America was settled by people with distinct religious, political, and ethnographic characteristics, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn't confront or assimilate into an "American" or "Canadian" culture, but rather into one of the eleven distinct regional ones...

In 1607, a group of British adventurers, including John Smith, led by the greedy Virginia Company governor Ratcliffe, set sail for the New World, seeking gold and other treasures. In Virginia, Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's daughter, ponders her life as she is faced with marriage to the stern warrior, Kocoum. The British establish the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia and dig up the countryside for gold. Smith meets Pocahontas and they overcome their...

The windigo is a cannibal spirit prevalent in the traditional narratives of the Algonquian peoples of North America. From Labrador in the north to Virginia in the south, and from Nova Scotia in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west, this phenomenon has been discussed, feared, and interpreted in different ways for centuries. Dangerous Spirits tells the story of how belief in the windigo clashed with the new world order that came about after European...