The Shawnees and the War for America

May 14, 2007
I
n placing the Shawnee “center stage,” Calloway (editor of the Penguin Library of American Indian History and Dartmouth Native American studies chair) achieves a remarkably accessible distillation of Shawnee history. He guides the reader through a thicket of wandering as the Shawnees' forced movement scatters them from the Ohio Valley during the late 17th century, before they reassembled in Ohio in the mid-18th century, and then gathered again in Oklahoma in the 19th century. “The Shawnees stand out as hard liners when it came to defending Native lands, Native rights, and Native ways of life,” says Calloway. Indeed, their history is a cycle of killings and revenge killings, battles and massacres by both sides, swallowing up those who made accommodations (Black Hoof and the model farm at Wapakoneta) as well as those who resisted (the legendary brothers, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh). Daniel Boone, who “played a key role in destroying the Shawnees' world in Kentucky,” is part of that history, as is General Amherst, who advocated using germ warfare. The treks and treaties are not always easy reading, but Calloway's text is enlivened with judicious first-person excerpts and his passion for his subject. His heart is with the Shawnees, but he writes with balance of the fateful “meeting of the cultures on the frontiers.”

April 1, 2007
Since the 1970s, scholars have produced a significant number of monographs on Native American history and prehistory. Recognizing that these were written primarily for an academic audience, "The Penguin Library of American Indian History" series has been inaugurated to allow leading scholars in the field to share their expertise with a lay audience. Calloway (history & Native American studies, Dartmouth Coll.; "One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark") examines the history of the Shawnee people from the 18th century through their repeated removals by the U.S. government during the 19th century. Particularly poignant is Calloway's description of the development and eventual collapse of the pan-Indian religious revitalization movement led by the Shawnee brothers Tenskwatawa, also known as the Shawnee Prophet, and Tecumseh.

Renowned scholars on the ethnohistory of southeastern native peoples and coauthors of "The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast", Perdue and Green have produced an excellent overview of the removal of the Cherokee people to Oklahoma from their homelands in southern Appalachia. They pay special attention to the development of the U.S. government's policies concerning the removal of native peoples from lands desired by white settlers. Although the story contained here is tragic, it is also a testament to the resilience of the Cherokee people. Both of these volumes are highly recommended to public and school libraries. Based on the quality of these initial volumes, libraries might also want to consider seriously putting the series on standing order.John Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

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