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Early America was a diverse place. A significant part of this diversity came from the fact that there were at least 1,000 different Indigenous tribes and nations living in different areas of North America before the Spanish and other European empires arrived on the continent's shores. Diane Hunter and John Bickers join us to investigate the history and culture of one of these distinct Indigenous tribes: the Myaamia. At the time of this recording, Diane Hunter was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. She has since retired from that position. John Bickers is an Assistant Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Both Diane and John are citizens of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and experts in Myaamia history and culture. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/372 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists The Power of Place: The Centennial Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1: Before 1620 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2: 1620 and Beyond Episode 297: Claudio Saunt, Indian Removal Act of 1830 Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder Episode 362: David W. Penney, Treaties Between the US & American Indian Nations Episode 367: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1 Episode 368: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 2: Legacies Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin's World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
Forget about beer, or even water; it was hard apple cider that was THE drink of choice in colonial America. Even kids drank it! And since it's made from apples – the “all-American” fruit – what could be more American than cider?But apples aren't native to America. They're originally from Kazakhstan.In this episode we look at the immigration story of Malus domestica, the domesticated apple, from its roots in the wild forests of Central Asia, to its current status as an American icon. And we look at how apples and cider were used in some of America's biggest migrations – from Indigenous tribes who first brought apples west across the continent, to the new immigrants who are using hard cider to bridge cultures and find belonging. Featuring Soham Bhatt and Susan Sleeper Smith.Special thanks to everyone Felix spoke to at the Cider Days Festival, including Judith Maloney, Carol Hillman, Ben Clark, Ben Watson, Charlie Olchowski, William Grote, and Bob Sabolefski.Editor's Note: This episode first aired in February of 2022. SUPPORTOutside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Talk to us! Follow Outside/In on Instagram, or discuss episodes in our private listener group on Facebook. LINKSHow to Make Hard CiderGeorge and Ursula Granger: The Erasure of Enslaved Black Cidermakers, by Darlene Hayes.An Apple Commons, reflections by Melissa Maddens on what it means to forage from wild apple orchards – relics of this country's history of dispossessing Indigenous people of their lands.Open Spaces Cider – Melissa Maddens' cidery focuses on reparations and reconciliation for living off a land that was taken from Indigenous peoples. CREDITSReported, produced and mixed by Felix PoonEdited by Taylor Quimby, with help by Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, and Rebecca Lavoie.Host: Nate HegyiExecutive producer: Rebecca LavoieMusic for this episode by Jharee, Kevin MacLeod and Blue Dot Sessions.Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio If you've got a question for the Outside/In[box] hotline, give us a call! We're always looking for rabbit holes to dive down into. Leave us a voicemail at: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don't forget to leave a number so we can call you back.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian has an exhibit called Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States & American Indian Nations. This exhibit allows you to see treaties the United States has made with American Indian nations and learn more about those treaties and their outcomes. David W. Penney is the Associate Director of Museum Scholarship, Exhibitions, and Public Engagement at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. He's also an internationally recognized scholar and curator who has a lot of expertise in Native American art history, and he was involved in creating the Nation to Nation exhibit. He joins us to guide us through this exhibit and some of the treaties the United States has made with Indigenous nations. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/362 Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Email Lists Complementary Episodes Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 264: Michael Oberg, The Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794 Episode 286: Elections in Early America: Native Sovereignty Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin's World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
How did Indigenous people adapt to and survive the onslaught of Indigenous warfare, European diseases, and population loss between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries? How did past generations of Indigenous women ensure their culture would live on from one generation to the next so their people would endure? Brooke Bauer, an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and author of the book Becoming Catawba: Catawba Women and Nation Building, 1540-1840, joins us to investigate these questions and what we might learn from the Catawba. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/353 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Women's History Month at Colonial Williamsburg Complementary Episodes Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South Episode 158: The Revolutionaries' Army Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder Episode 342: Elizabeth Ellis, The Great Power of Small Native Nations Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin's World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
In the Treaty of Paris, 1783, Great Britain ceded to the United States all lands east of the Mississippi River and between the southern borders of Canada and Georgia. How would the United States take advantage of its new boundaries and incorporate these lands within its governance? Answering this question presented a quandary for the young United States. The lands it sought to claim by right of treaty belonged to Indigenous peoples. Michael Witgen, a Professor of History at Columbia University and a citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, joins us to investigate the story of the Anishinaabeg and Anishinaabewaki, the homelands of the Anishinaabeg people, with details from his book, Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/323 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water Notification Database Save 40 percent on Seeing Red, use promo code 01BFW Complementary Episodes Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, A History of Early Detroit Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 264: Michael Oberg, The Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794 Episode 286: Native Sovereignty Episode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the Blackfeet Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin's World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
Forget about beer, or even water; it was hard apple cider that was THE drink of choice in colonial America. Even kids drank it! And since it's made from apples – the “all-American” fruit – what could be more American than cider?But apples aren't native to America. They're originally from Kazakhstan.In this episode we look at the immigration story of Malus domestica, the domesticated apple, from its roots in the wild forests of Central Asia, to its current status as an American icon. And we look at how apples and cider were used in some of America's biggest migrations – from Indigenous tribes who first brought apples west across the continent, to the new immigrants who are using hard cider to bridge cultures and find belonging. Featuring Soham Bhatt and Susan Sleeper Smith.Special thanks to everyone Felix spoke to at the Cider Days Festival, including Ben Watson, Charlie Olchowski, and Bob Sabolefski. LINKSHow to Make Hard CiderGeorge and Ursula Granger: The Erasure of Enslaved Black Cidermakers, by Darlene Hayes.An Apple Commons: reflections by cidermaker Melissa Maddens on what it means to forage from wild apple orchards – relics of this country's history of dispossessing Indigenous people of their lands. SUPPORTOutside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In. Subscribe to our free newsletter.Follow Outside/In on Instagram and Twitter.Join our private podcast discussion group on Facebook. CREDITSProduced and mixed by Felix PoonEdited by: Taylor QuimbyExecutive producer: Rebecca LavoieAdditional editing: Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, and Rebecca LavoieTheme: Breakmaster CylinderAdditional music by Jharee, Kevin MacLeod and Blue Dot Sessions.
Have you ever considered early American cities as places where Native Americans lived, worked, and visited? Native Americans often visited early American cities and port towns, especially the towns and cities that dotted the Atlantic seaboard of British North America. Colin Calloway, an award-winning historian and a Professor History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, joins us to investigate Native American experiences in early American cities with details from his book, “The Chiefs Now In This City": Indians and the Urban Frontier in Early America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/314 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Colonial Williamsburg Foundation LightStream Loans by SunTrusk Bank Complementary Episodes Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory With No Name Episode 132: Coll Thrush, Indigenous London Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 264: Michael Oberg, The Treaty of Canandaigua Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Amazon Music Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin's World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
Have you wanted to know more about the history of the Midwest, Native Americans, and the great lakes? Then this is the book for you! This week, I talk about Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes by Susan Sleeper-Smith. If you enjoy talking books, consider joining the conversation during live stream recordings of episodes every Thursday at 11 AM EST at twitch.tv/anthropologyarchives. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/anthropologyarchives/support
Who is American democracy for and who could participate in early American democracy? Women and African Americans were often barred from voting in colonial and early republic elections. But what about Native Americans? Could Native Americans participate in early American democracy? Julie Reed, an Assistant Professor of History at the Pennsylvania State University, and Kathleen DuVal, the Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor of History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, join us to investigate how the sovereignty of native nations fits within the sovereignty of the United States and its democracy. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/286 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute OI Reader Election Series Bibliography October 28, 2020 at 8pm eastern: Join Holly, Joe, and Liz LIVE in the Ben Franklin’s World Listener Community Complementary Episodes Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost Episode 158: The Revolutionaries’ Army Episode 162: Dunmore’s New World Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
Polygamy is not a practice that often comes to mind when many of us think about early America. But it turns out, polygamy was a ubiquitous practice among different groups of early Americans living in 17th and 18th-century North America. Sarah Pearsall, a University Teaching Officer, Fellow, and Historian at the University of Cambridge, joins us to discuss the surprising history of polygamy in early North America, with details from her book, Polygamy: An Early American History. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/278 Join Ben Franklin's World! Subscribe and help us bring history right to your ears! Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop Complementary Episodes Episode 013: Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America Episode 045: Spencer McBride, Joseph Smith and the Founding of Mormonism Episode 120: Marcia Zug, A History of Mail Order Brides in Early America Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 225: Elaine Forman Crane, The Poison Plot: Adultery & Murder in Colonial Newport Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
What was everyday life like for average men and women in early America? Listeners ask this question more than any other question and today we continue to try to answer it. Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, author of One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, joins us to explore the life of an average woman who lived in early New England. This episode originally posted as Episode 032. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/269 Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop Complementary Episodes Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache Episode 145: Rosemarie Zaggari, Mercy Otis Warren & the American Revolution Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams, Revolutionary Speculator Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America Episode 244: Kimberly Alexander, Shoe Stories from Early America Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter *Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
The Treaty of Paris 1783 ended the American War for Independence, but it did not bring peace to North America. After 1783, warfare and violence continued between Americans and Native Americans. So how did the early United States attempt to create peace for itsnew nation? Michael Oberg, a Distinguished Professor of History at the State University of New York-Geneseo and the author of Peacemakers: The Iroquois, the United States, and the Treaty of Canandaigua, joins us to investigate how the United States worked with the Haudenosaunee or Six Nations peoples to create peace through the Treaty of Canandaigua, 1794. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/264 Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute The Ben Franklin's World Shop Complementary Episodes Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory With No Name Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America Episode 184: David J. Silverman, Thundersticks Episode 179: George Van Cleve, After the Revolution Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley & Great Lakes Region Listen! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter *Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
When we think about colonial American history we think about the colonies of the English, the Dutch, the French, and the Spanish. Rarely do we think about the colonies of the Russians. And yet Russia had colonies in North America. Gwenn Miller, an Associate Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross, joins us to investigate a history of Russia’s colonies in North America with details from her book Kodiak Kreol: Communities of Empire in Early Russian America. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/233 Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Ben Franklin's World T-Shirts Meet Ups & Talks Albany, New York: April 25 at the New York State Cultural Education Center. Meet up at pre-talk reception. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 29, 6pm at Zaffiro’s Pizza Milwaukee, Wisconsin: April 30, 6pm free public talk at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Golda Meir Library Complementary Episodes Episode 021: Eugene Tesdhal, Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America Episode 184: David Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America Episode 223: Susan Sleeper-Smith, A Native American History of the Ohio River Valley SUBSCRIBE! Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App Helpful Links Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter *Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Ohio River Valley proved to be a rich agrarian region. Many different Native American peoples prospered from its land both in terms of the the land’s ability to produce a wide variety of crops and its support of a wide variety of small fur-bearing animals for the fur trade. Susan Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and author of Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women and the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792, helps us explore this unique region and the important roles it played in the early American past. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/223 Sponsor Links Omohundro Institute Institute for Thomas Paine Studies Follow the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies on Twitter (@TheITPS) Complementary Episodes Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Native American Defeat of the First American Army Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, Frontier Seaport: A History of Early Detroit Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France Episode 088: Michael McDonnell, The History of History Writing Episode 102: William Nester, George Rogers Clark & the Fight for the Illinois Country Episode 162: Dunmore’s New World Episode 184: David Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America Helpful Show Links Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast Join the Ben Franklin's World Community Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter Ben Franklin's World iOS App Ben Franklin's World Android App *Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D'arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D'arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D’arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D’arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D’arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D’arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D’arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Historians have gotten the story of the colonial Ohio River Valley all wrong, argues Susan Sleeper-Smith in Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792 (Omonundro Institute and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018). Sleeper-Smith, a Professor of History at Michigan State University and soon-to-be Interim Director of the D’arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, reads colonial sources against the grain and uses material culture to demonstrate how the Great Lakes region was a prosperous multicultural zone characterized by trade and agriculture well into the eighteenth century. Moreover, women played a central (and heretofore under-appreciated) role in the fur trade and agricultural work that made the Ohio River Valley such a fertile and bountiful region. Indigenous societies such as the Miami, Wea, and Shawnee have often been characterized as living primarily off hunting and suffering through ever-increasing reliance on fur trading and geopolitical chaos wrought by adjacent colonial empires. Sleeper-Smith instead paints a picture of primarily agricultural towns defined by their stability up until the years of American conquest and displacement. Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest is a much needed counterweight to narratives about the early American west which have for decades gone largely unquestioned. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices