Lakota America - A New History of Indigenous Power (Pekka Hamalainen, 2019)

This was a really interesting read - much worthwhile.

Biggest takeaway - this tribe, and no doubt others, was a sophisticated player when it came to trade, politics, war, strategy. This author wouldn't agree with the "victim" portrayal, even though eventually the wars (and territories) were lost.

Lakota/Sioux - complicated sifting through the tribes in the early periods (16th and 17th centuries, approximately) - think of Lakota as westernmost of this group?  Sioux too far west to access guns and French trade goods in quantity - at risk from better-armed tribes to the east.  Sioux seek access, try to work diplomacy with French and Indian allies, it doesn't hold long-term.

Idea - early in book - that the "horse frontier" moved west to east starting or accelerating following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 - interesting, I hadn't thought about "where" the horses came from.

"Gun frontier" was moving east to west - having both was transformational.

Lakota use expands ~1700ff - a big change as they shift attention westward - another impetus was losing French support (and trading posts) which made selling beaver difficult or impossible.  Bison herds, horses, westward ho.

1757 - first reference to Lakota using guns while riding horses.  Groups further east lacked horses.  Groups further west lacked guns.

More on horses; buffalo chase and switch to the plains to the west.

Lots of fighting among tribes as Lakota push into their territories. Lakota have numbers, etc.

1820-30s - Lakota strong; continue to invite traders even up to Ft. Laramie - very much wanting the trade goods, esp. guns - apparently not concerned that settlers might follow in their wake.  Interesting; Lakota must have known what happened in multiple territories in east and midwest. 

Civil War is a distraction, but westward push by Americans continues, accelerates.

Eventually the US Army focuses - we get to Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Custer, denouement.  

Blood and Thunder - Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West (Hampton Sides, 2006)

If you're interested in the American West, this book is well worth reading.

Helping put Mexican War, conquest of CA, Santa Fe Trail in context.   Kearney, Fremont, Benton - names I've often heard but lose track of.

Overlap with Lamy of Santa Fe.

AZ as pretty much just outback throughout this period - not very important to the story line.

Descriptions of first detailed surveys; names attached to places rather randomly, so many have stuck (unfortunate but not unusual).

First artist sketches of desert, canyons.  Initial difficulties in seeing beauty - which then was equated with productive land, or Hudson River School lushness.

Indian wars - not solvable.  Longstanding enmity with Mexicans and between tribes.  Lots of awful behavior but current criticism of this period probably would benefit from more reading.   

Bosque Redondo - I finally understand where it was, why such a disaster for the Navajos (and a few Apaches mixed in).

Chivington (Sand Creek massacre).

Kit Carson - incredible fiction around his life; the real story is even better.  Deep appreciation for multiple tribes (two Indian wives); but "did his duty" in terms of rounding up Navajos and others.

Canyon de Chelly, Canyon de Muerto.  Destruction of peach trees (which originated with the Spanish).

Subjugation of Native Americans in general - what a situation.  

There There (Tommy Orange, 2018)

(304 pages)

Book club selection (via Nicole; session held 1 December 2019).

Intersecting story lines of Native Americans mostly resident in Oakland, California - and generally struggling.  Leading up to a major pow-wow at the end.

Value to me was it gave some way of thinking about how that struggle might feel and play out.

Seemed like a lot of it was the "Native American as victim" story line.  Which I'm sure is quite accurate, but I'm not sure how helpful it is to keep focusing on.  I don't think America in 1491 was idyllic, either - shifting populations, violence, etc. - the odd notion that failing to freeze 1491 status quo was somehow wrong.  Populations were conquered around the globe since forever - whether via Romans, the tribes that conquered Rome, the Arabs, whatever it might be. 

Alcatraz sit-in is part of the story, I remember that as getting a lot of attention in the '70s.

Hopi - Susanne & Jake Page (1982)

(224 pp)

This had been recommended by Joseph Day (he and his Hope wife run a shop on Second Mesa, discussed here).

Hopi are famously reluctant about allowing photos etc.  This book-project was unusual - undertaken in late 1970s (with initial publication date in 1982) - they explain that the tribe was amenable in part because a book about the Navajo had been well-received a few years earlier.  So I think it was a bit of a PR project.

But nothing similar has since been permitted, so this one is particularly worthwhile.

Interesting discussions of internal politics within Hopi as this existed at that time (no doubt somewhat similar now).  Great photography.  The dances (social and religious).  Hadn't realized the importance of eaglets.  Discussion of spirituality, or spirit world.  How the San Francisco Peaks and other key areas fit into the origin narrative and current locations.  Transition in white man world.  Interactions with Navajo, ongoing border issues.

Incredible continuity over so many centuries.

It's all rather amazing - and centered just a few miles N/NE of here.

The Lost World of the Old Ones - Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest (David Roberts, 2015)

I enjoyed this - helps with bits and pieces of information on the "ancient southwest" - which we think of as a large area around Four Corners.  The author isn't a professional archaeologist - but is a heckuva rock climber and has written on many topics.  He had written a very popular/successful book on this topic a few years before - which I've not read - this one seemed like a sequel.  Picked up a variety of topics that don't fit together particularly closely - but all tied into this area.

One takeaway - still not much resolution on the depopulation that happened shortly before the Spanish showed up.  Also mysterious:  the populations in the pueblos at the time the Spanish showed up (down to now) - language and pottery patterns don't fit together cleanly - backgrounds?

The utter beauty of this stark area; the ingenuity of the ancient populations; great stuff here about the rock art in various forms.  Inaccessible granaries indicating protection of precious grains in starvation-times.  An interesting "meridian" theory about moving some of the population centers.

We have visited the general area quite a few times but haven't explored it nearly as much as we'd like.  A strange kind of beauty, captivating.

First chapter involves exploring Cedar Mesa - author spent lots of profitable time with an old-timer (Waldo) who was born and raised in the area - this quote made me think of my dad and his knowledge of the St. Joe area (other than the "vague sorrow" thing):  "The more time Greg and I spent in Waldo's company, the more we realized that he was a walking encyclopedia of local lore, or knowledge that had escaped the historians and archaeologists, of understandings that would evaporate with his passing.  Waldo knew it:  that sense of impending loss, I guessed, was at the core of the vague sorrow he seemed to carry with wherever he went, even as he told funny stories about the blatherings of self-styled "experts"."

They take a rafting trip into Desolation Canyon (named by John Wesley Powell) - author gets bummed because the trip is going too fast - just how it feels when we are hiking in Grand Canyon!  He writes:  "Twenty-nine of our eighty-five river miles were behind us.  I felt the adventure already slipping through my fingers - I wanted to make the journey last forever.  I thought of Edward Abbey [rafting through Glen Canyon] . . . "The time passes slowly," Abbey wrote, "but not slowly enough."  So true.