THE ENGLISH WESTERNERS' SOCIETY
JUNE 2010 BOOK REVIEW
This review first appeared in the Tally Sheet (Spring 2008, Volume 54, Number 2)
ONE VAST WINTER COUNT: THE NATIVE AMERICAN WEST BEFORE LEWIS AND CLARK
By Colin Calloway. Published by University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Hardback and paperback editions available.
Although this sweeping account of the histories of the native peoples of the West may be considered outside the usual field of interest for Westerners, it nevertheless offers a thorough, and thoroughly valuable, historical, and pre-historical, background to the later 19th century period where the interaction with Indians is concerned. Calloway begins with the arrival of people thousands of years ago and ends with the early years of the 19th century. The narrative covers the first inhabitants and their pursuit of game; the diffusion of corn and how it transformed Indian life; the resistance to Spanish colonialism; French-Indian relations in the heart of the continent; the diffusion of horses and horse culture; the collision of rival European empires and the experiences of Indians whose homelands became imperial borderlands; and the dramatic events between the American Revolution and Lewis and Clark (c1805).
The scope of the book is – not surprisingly – monumental, but Calloway masters his subject with a fluid integration of a wide range of oral and archival sources from across the West. The narrative blends ethnohistory, colonial history and frontier history and integrates the disciplines of archaeology, anthropology, environmental science and history in a vast panorama.
There are three parts to the book: The West before 1500; Invaders South and North – 1500-1730; Winning and Losing in the West – 1700-1800.
The West was a series of homelands and frontiers; there was a long and unbroken continuum. Readers of Western histories that focus on the 19th century are accustomed to events that flow east to west. The important events in this book more often follow a south to north direction and chronology and cover great periods of time.
For Westerners, particularly those with a special interest in the native peoples, this scholarly work should be reading of considerable value as it provides the immense historical background to the understanding of the native cultures, and so to their interactions with other cultures in the 19th century.
There are over 160 pages of notes and bibliography and the book has received at least six book awards.
Raymond Cox
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