Table Of ContentFirst Americans
First Americans provides a comprehensive history of Native Americans from their earliest appearance in North
America to the present, highlighting the complexity and diversity of their cultures and their experiences.
Native voices permeate the text and shape its narrative, underlining the agency and vitality of Native peoples
and cultures in the context of regional, continental, and global developments. This updated edition of First
Americans continues to trace Native experiences through the Obama administration years and up to the
present day. The book includes a variety of pedagogical tools including short biographical profiles, key review
questions, a rich series of maps and illustrations, chapter chronologies, and recommendations for further
reading. Lucid and readable yet rigorous in its coverage, First Americans remains the indispensable student
introduction to Native American history.
Kenneth W. Townsend earned his Ph.D. in American History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill in 1991, two years after joining the faculty of the Department of History at Coastal Carolina University
in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In addition to his teaching and university service responsibilities, Townsend
served as Chair of the Department of History and established the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at
Coastal Carolina University, acting as its director for two years. He is the author of World War II and the
American Indian (2000), South Carolina (2008), and varied articles.
What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our mother, nourishing all her children,
beasts, birds, fish, and all men. The woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the
use of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him?
(attributed to Massasoit, Wampanoag, 1581–1661)
No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers. . . . Sell a country! Why not sell the air,
the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
(attributed to Tecumseh, Shawnee, 1768–1813)
I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first
place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man
is good in his sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.
(Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota, 1831–1890)
If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. . . . Treat all men alike. Give them
all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit
Chief. They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people and all people should have equal rights upon
it. . . . Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade . . . free to follow the religion
of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself. . . .
(Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, 1840–1904)
The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into
the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once
grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged.
(Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Lakota, 1868–1939)
First Americans
A History of Native Peoples
2nd edition
Kenneth W. Townsend
Second edition published 2019
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kenneth W. Townsend to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Pearson Education Ltd. 2013
Second edition published by Routledge 2019
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-73588-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-73585-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16138-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Stone Serif
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To my wife, Diann; our children, Danielle, Brandon, and Dustin; and our grandchildren,
Kaylee, Miranda, Peter, Tyler, Tristan, Alexandra, Aubree, Teagan, and Tucker
Contents
List of Figures xv Seeing History: Chiefdoms Maintaining
List of Maps xxi Power Through Images 23
Preface xxiii Conclusion 24
Acknowledgments xxvii Reading History: The Iroquois Origin
Story 24
1 Native North America Before Review Questions 25
European Contact 2 Recommended Readings 25
Native American History Online 26
Stories Versus Science 3
Beginnings 5
We Were Always Here 5 2 Native Peoples and European
The Scientific Evidence 6 Newcomers, 982–1590 28
Reading History: The Kwakiutl Story Conquests, Colonies, and
of the Deluge 7 Contradictions 29
Clovis and Folsom Cultures 8 An Iberian New World Order 32
Changes in the West 10 Christopher Columbus and the West Indies:
California Indians 11 The Tainos Encounter Spaniards 33
The Northwest 11 The Maya, Aztec, and Inca Worlds 35
The Great Basin and the Plains 13 Maya 35
Agriculture-Based Societies in the Chichén Itzá and the Mayan City-States 36
Southwest 14 Maya Women and the City-States 37
Cultural Diversity and the Aztecs 38
Arrival of Maize 14 Pre-Aztec States in Mexico 38
The “Chaco Phenomenon” 15 Rise of the Aztec Empire 39
Hohokam and Mesa Verde Cultures 17 Tenochtitlán 40
Seeing History: Anasazi Sites Compared 18 Aztec Gods and Religion 40
Eastern Woodlands 19 Aztec Women in a Warrior Culture 41
Early Eastern Woodlands Traditions 19 Inca 42
Adena and Hopewell Cultures 20 Growth of the Inca State 43
Mississippian Chiefdoms 20 Inca Rule 43
The Iroquois 22 The Power of Inca Women 44
vii
Contents
Spanish Conquest, Spanish Rule 45 New Power in Governance: Encomenderos
Fall of Tenochtitlán 46 and Colonial Rule 84
Profile: Malintzin, A Woman Negotiates Rebellion: The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 85
With the Aztecs 46 Reading History: Declaration of the
Reading History: A Woman’s Voice From Indian, Juan. Place on the Río del
Post-conquest Mexico: Ana Juana From Norte, December 18, 1681 86
Culhuacan 48 Northern Mining Frontiers 87
Conquest of the Incas 50 Serrano Peoples: Native Life in Sonora 87
Profile: Titu Cusi Yupanqui, an Inca Elite Miners, Ranchers, and Moving Frontiers 88
After Conquest 50 Missionaries: Serrano Peoples and
Conquest of the Maya 51 the Jesuits 88
Reading History: A Voice From the Maya Wanderers and Communities: Native
New World Inquisition: Francisco Chuc Resistance to Spanish Rule 89
of Sahcaba, August 11, 1562 53 Early Borderlands Connections in the
French and English Newcomers 54 Southwest 89
Pre-Columbian Encounters in North Horses and Networks of Masculine Trade
America: The Norse 55 and Warfare 89
Early Expeditions to the Northeast 55 The Rise of the Comanches 90
Native Peoples and the French Along the Conclusion 92
St. Lawrence River 56 Review Questions 92
Algonquians and the English at Recommended Readings 92
Roanoke 58 Native American History Online 93
Conclusion 59
Profile: Manteo, the Roanoke 4 Seventeenth-Century Eastern
Interpreter 60 Woodlands, 1607–1689 94
Review Questions 61 Worlds Apart 95
Recommended Readings 62 Tsenacommacah 98
Native American History Online 62 The Rise of the Powhatan Confederacy 98
Powhatan and the English: Trade and
3 Spanish Borderlands, 1527–1758 64 Conflict 100
On the Fringes 65 Indian War and the Emergence of Virginia 102
La Florida: A Maritime Borderland 67 Profile: Pocahontas in the Atlantic
The Indian Landscape of La Florida 69 World 104
Friars and Chiefdoms 71 Southern New England Indians
Mission Life 71 Encounter the English 106
Rebellion and Decline 73 Native Americans and Plymouth Bay 107
Southeast Chiefdoms and Hernando New England Indians Face English
de Soto 75 Expansion 109
The Southwest Borderlands 77 Christianity and the Praying Town Model 111
Women and Caddoan Power 77 Profile: Uncas, the Last Sachem of the
The Texas Mission-Presidio Complex 79 Mohegans 112
The World of the Pueblos 80 Confederacies, Empires, and Villages 114
New Power in the Sword: The Spanish The Huron Ascendancy 114
Invasion 82 War and Mourning: Five Nations’ Ferocity 116
New Power in the Church: The Franciscan Middle Grounding: The Pays d’en Haut 117
Pueblo Missions 83 Transformation of the Five Nations 118
viii
Contents
Profile: Kateri Tekakwitha 120 Tuscarora and Yamasee Wars and Breaking
Maturing Colonies Ending a Century in with the British 150
Conflict: Metacom’s War and Bacon’s Profile: Mary Musgrove: A Creek Woman
Rebellion 120 Between Worlds 152
Metacom’s War 121 The Seven Years’ War and Indian
Reading History: Mary Rowlandson’s Perspectives on Empire 154
Captivity Narrative, 1682 123 The Redefinition of Empire and Racial
Bacon’s Rebellion 124 Consciousness 156
Conclusion 126 Seeing History: Neolin’s Master of Life 157
Review Questions 126 Conclusion 160
Recommended Readings 126 Review Questions 160
Native American History Online 127 Recommended Readings 160
Native American History Online 161
5 Empire, 1700–1763 128
Empires, a Chief, and a Prophet 129 6 The Indians’ Revolution, 1763–1814 162
Indians and Empires in the Northeast 131 A Disease, a Continent, and a Revolution 163
Deerfield on the Edge of Empire 132 The American Revolution 166
Reading History: John Williams, The Questions of Iroquois Neutrality 166
Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion, For Liberty and Independence: New England
1774 133 Indians 169
Returning to New France and Shifting Profile: Molly Brant, an Iroquois Woman
Strategies 134 and British Loyalist 171
New England Indians “Behind the Dunmore’s War and the Old Northwest 172
Frontier” 134 The South and Choosing Sides 174
Land and Indian Communities 135 Seeing History: A Draught of the
Native Peoples and the Economics of the Cherokee Country by Lieutenant Henry
British Empire in New England 135 Timberlake, 1762 175
Religion, Education, and Indian Sovereignty 136 Native American Recovery, Native
Profile: The Transient Life of Sarah American Resistance, 1783–1814 177
Gardner, Indian Woman 137 The Revolution Continues: Treaties and
Reading History: Samson Occom Tells His Bloody Years 178
Story, 1768 139 The Civilization Program 181
A Mid-Atlantic Frontier 140 Prophets and War 183
Delawares and the Quest for Land 140 Profile: Black Hoof, Shawnee Annuity
The Pennsylvania Backcountry 141 Chief 184
The Indians’ “Great Awakening” in Reading History: Handsome Lake’s First
Pennsylvania 142 Vision, 1799 186
Profile: Andrew Montour: The Frontier Profile: Hillis Hadjo, The Creek Prophet 189
Negotiator 143 Western Revolutions 190
Reading History: Esther: a Mahican- The Borderlands Revolution: Comanchería 191
Moravian 145 Comanchería: Wealth and Empire 191
Multitribal Zones and Imperial Pressure Alta California: Missionary Revolutions 192
in the South 146 Mission Life 193
Trading Slaves and Deerskins 147 Profile: Indian Leaders in the Franciscan
Native Americans and the Costs of French Missions 194
Expansion into the Lower Mississippi Valley 148 Conclusion 195
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