Colin Calloway has produced a magnificent, sweeping history of the Native people of the American West from their arrival some 12,000 years or more ago to the European-American arrival in the early 19th century. Blending archaeology, ethnology, and colonial and frontier history, Calloway provides an unparalleled study of the people who dominated the West for generations. The West is always hard to define, and this volume suffers from a vague definition that at times includes the entire continent west of the Appalachians, but usually describes the area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
For 10,000 years the American Indians were on foot, and they existed in a sometimes harsh and hostile environment. For most of this time they were nomads, following the food sources from season to season. The first dramatic change came with the introduction of corn agriculture around A.D. 500. Hunter-gatherers became farmers. Populations grew and by A.D. 1500 small cities were abundant. Spreading north and east from Mexico, corn agriculture revolutionized the native way of life, even in the arid parts of the West.
A second great change came in the 18th century when horses became widely available. Thanks to Lewis and Clark and to Hollywood, most Americans are at least somewhat familiar with the great horsemen of the Plains—Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Comanche. But few of us realize that this was only the end of a long and distinguished history. Horses allowed them to move freely and prosper for only about 100 years before the conquest.
Of course horses were a mixed blessing, for the Europeans that brought them to the New World also brought measles and smallpox and a lust for land. Calloway pulls all these threads together in a coherent story that is skillfully written.
