On Facing East from Indian Country

I’m really impressed by this work. Richter says in the preface that his inspiration for the phrasing behind the title was actually the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, which was examined from his hotel room. He notes that, originally, the Gateway Arch was meant to be viewed “facing west,” from Illinois across the Mississippi. However, the development of St. Louis has made it nigh impossible to see the Arch from there, so most people who see the Gateway Arch will be “facing east.” He then asked, well, what if we looked at the actual Euro-American settlement of North America “facing east” as much as we do with one of the most prominent symbols of “Western expansion.”

What emerges is a fascinating book and a provocative methodology. A lot of Richter’s methodology is similar to other authors who work on the “New Indian History,” but he includes really interesting anecdotes that—although theoretically fictional—are based on the writings of Europeans. He then asks, “well, what would this look like from the angle of Native Americans?” I read one reviewer here on Goodreads who complained that these anecdotes were fictionalized, but I’m not sure that “fiction” is the right way to describe it. Instead, it reminds me of the paradigmatic fisherman that says, “the fish was THIS big.” While stories like that generally has a lot of truth to it, they’re often embellished as well. Embellishment is ok, and I found the anecdotes to be interesting.

The book starts off with an overview of Mississippian society, which consisted of the vast majority of Native American peoples east of the Mississippi, then Richter discusses how Mississippian culture fragmented along linguistic lines with the coming of the Little Ice Age before facing European colonization. Then, the author breaks down his analysis into thematic chapters including topics like material objects, mythology about prominent indigenous individuals (Pocahontas and Metacom both get a lot of attention here), the experience of colonization and Native practices of balancing European imperial powers against one another.

Richter finds that the beginning of the end took place with the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763. Before the coming of British dominance of eastern North America, the variety of imperial powers (British, Spanish, French, even Dutch) ensured stability because Natives could establish alliances and they had rather close connections with Europeans. While the Spanish were never terribly strong east of the Mississippi, the expulsion of the French from the continent was a deathblow for American Indians. Facing existential threats from settlers, who vilified and tried to kill many, Native Americans often fought back, but it was a losing battle. The book ends with the coming of “ethnic cleansing” (or I would go so far to call this case genocide) by Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, where the vast majority of Native peoples in the Southeast were pushed west of the Mississippi. In the ensuing decades, those of the north would largely be pushed out as well (for instance, Siouan peoples were originally along the eastern seaboard, but by the time of the American Civil War they were relegated to the Great Plains).

While the book doesn’t cover everything, it doesn’t aim to be comprehensive. Instead, Richter’s major contribution is to re-frame the way we think about colonial/early American history; on that count, Richter is largely successful—I’m able to see the history of North America from the perspective of American Indians much clearer now.

Recommend.