Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2021 2:31:16 GMT
Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hamalainen (https://www.amazon.com/Lakota-America-History-Indigenous-Western/dp/0300215959) is a fascinating work covering the existance of the Lakota in particular and the Sioux in general from pre-European contact to the present. It provides a sweeping vision of how the Lakota emerged from being a pretty much poverty stricken nation cut off from trade with European nations by more powerful native tribes to a westeward migrating nation pushing others out of their way as they journeyed from near Lake Superior. The author notes that the Lokata Nation appears to come into a more influenctial stage in 1776, just as the United States was born and the two would compete for centuries for resources and influence starting with the Lewis and Clarke expedition.
I bought the book to learn more about the evolution of the Lokota and the Sioux as my interest in the Little Bighorn grew, but i wanted to understand the larger context. I started the book toward the end, reading about the Centennial Campaign and immediately my ire was stirred by a map with North facing the bottom of the page on Page 360 illustrating the mobilization of the Sioux/Cheyanne against the US Army. As I skimmed the book, I initially was convinced of a revisionist approach to the era, by a I was also irritated that a Finnish professor of history serving as the Rhodes Professor of American History at the University of Oxford would take issue with the way the United States dealt with the original inhabitats working in a country that spearheaded, along with the French, Spanish, and Potrugese contributed much to the issues that still vex us today. But since I try to read things that challenge my assumptions, I persevered through it and gained greater knowledge and respect of the power of the Lokata Nation as it sparred with the United States for dominance of the West. It ended with increasing respect for the earlier inhabitants of the continent and aroused some annoyance at our historical mistreatement of them.
Perhaps if the book had come out earlier and our military and government leaders would have read and heeded some of its lessons, we should have faired better in our current long wars in Asia and the Middle East. There are lessons both political and military to be learned and lessons to be applied to improve our government in all levels in dealing with people of different cultures and backrounds.
The book does not offer much in the tactical level of war, which many who study the Little Bighorn in particular and Indian Wars in general probably prefer, but the longest war the United States faced was fought at all levels of the spectrum.
The author also wrote the Commanche Empire, which I shall most likely have to pick up.
Highly recommended both for its sweeping portrayal of the evoution of the Lokata Nation but also for being able to show how their ability in both diplomacy and war enables them to still carry the fight for their heritage and birthright forward today. A vexing problem indeed.
I bought the book to learn more about the evolution of the Lokota and the Sioux as my interest in the Little Bighorn grew, but i wanted to understand the larger context. I started the book toward the end, reading about the Centennial Campaign and immediately my ire was stirred by a map with North facing the bottom of the page on Page 360 illustrating the mobilization of the Sioux/Cheyanne against the US Army. As I skimmed the book, I initially was convinced of a revisionist approach to the era, by a I was also irritated that a Finnish professor of history serving as the Rhodes Professor of American History at the University of Oxford would take issue with the way the United States dealt with the original inhabitats working in a country that spearheaded, along with the French, Spanish, and Potrugese contributed much to the issues that still vex us today. But since I try to read things that challenge my assumptions, I persevered through it and gained greater knowledge and respect of the power of the Lokata Nation as it sparred with the United States for dominance of the West. It ended with increasing respect for the earlier inhabitants of the continent and aroused some annoyance at our historical mistreatement of them.
Perhaps if the book had come out earlier and our military and government leaders would have read and heeded some of its lessons, we should have faired better in our current long wars in Asia and the Middle East. There are lessons both political and military to be learned and lessons to be applied to improve our government in all levels in dealing with people of different cultures and backrounds.
The book does not offer much in the tactical level of war, which many who study the Little Bighorn in particular and Indian Wars in general probably prefer, but the longest war the United States faced was fought at all levels of the spectrum.
The author also wrote the Commanche Empire, which I shall most likely have to pick up.
Highly recommended both for its sweeping portrayal of the evoution of the Lokata Nation but also for being able to show how their ability in both diplomacy and war enables them to still carry the fight for their heritage and birthright forward today. A vexing problem indeed.