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Early American Studies
An Infinity of Nations: How the Native New World Shaped Early North America
An Infinity of Nations explores the formation and development of a Native New World in North America. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, indigenous peoples controlled the vast majority of the continent while European colonies of the Atlantic World were largely confined to the eastern seaboard. To be sure, Native North America experienced far-reaching and radical change following contact with the peoples, things, and ideas that flowed inland following the creation of European colonies on North American soil. Most of the continent's indigenous peoples, however, were not conquered, assimilated, or even socially incorporated into the settlements and political regimes of this Atlantic New World. Instead, Native peoples forged a New World of their own. This history, the evolution of a distinctly Native New World, is a foundational story that remains largely untold in histories of early America.Through imaginative use of both Native language and European documen
456 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
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413 people want to read
About the author
Michael Witgen
1 book4 followersMichael Witgen is Associate Professor and Director of Native American Studies at the University of Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 12, 2015
An essential and thought provoking study in the long term survival and even temporary thriving of native communities in the Upper Mississippi which shows the Ojibwe and other allied actors as actors in their own right and capable of dynamic response.
I once wrote something similar for the Iroquois as my capstone paper for undergraduate university studies as a history major so naturally I enjoyed it. The constant use of my least favorite word (problematic) and the overlooking of some other equally interesting and nearby case studies like the Shawnee diaspora and the Iron Confederacy made me ever so slightly err on the side of 4 rather than 5 stars-but if you go into this knowing its scope it will deliver everything you want and more.
I once wrote something similar for the Iroquois as my capstone paper for undergraduate university studies as a history major so naturally I enjoyed it. The constant use of my least favorite word (problematic) and the overlooking of some other equally interesting and nearby case studies like the Shawnee diaspora and the Iron Confederacy made me ever so slightly err on the side of 4 rather than 5 stars-but if you go into this knowing its scope it will deliver everything you want and more.
December 16, 2020
Witgen has written one of those books that is definitive text for understanding Native North America as it existed along the western edge of the Great Lakes and the northern Great Plains. Flipping the usual narrative of contact between Europeans and Native Americans, Witgen looks at it from the Native point of view. To do this he also uses the languages, designations, symbology and cultural events used by these peoples as a means to frame the book, instead of relying on the traditional European markers used by historians. This makes the book fundamentally different in the historiography of contact. It is an incredibly important book, both in the depth of his research but also in the way that it is written.
"The story of the Ojibweg, who also called themselves Anishinaabeg, like the story of Nanabozho, involved a lot of shape-shifting. Ojibweg is the plural form of the word Ojibwe, a name that nineteenth-century Americans mispronounced as Chippewa. This was, however, only their most recent appellation The Ojibweg entered the historical record in the midseventeeth century as the Sauteurs, the French word for "people of the waterfalls" used to describe the people resident at the village they called Sault Sainte Marie, or the falls of Saint Mary (Bow-e-ting). The term Anishinaabeg could be translated as first or original human beings, but by the nineteenth century speakers of Ojibwe translated this word more simply as Indian. The Ojibwe language or Anishinaabemowin was spoken with mutually intelligible dialect variations across the Great Lakes and its hinterlands. Anishinaabeg was a collective identity shared by a number of peoples, speakers of Anishinaabemowinan, who inhabited the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi Valley including the Odawa, Boodewaadamii, and Mississauga, as well as numerous smaller groups living in the interior north of Lake Superior and west of Hudson's Bay. The French referred to these linguistically related peoples collectively by the designation Algonquian." 13-14
"An Infinity of Nations attempts to tell the story of the parallel development and eventual convergence of these two emerging social worlds-the Atlantic New World and the Native New World." 21
"The indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes and the northern Great Plains however, presented European empires with a different kind of social formation. The peoples of these regions lived largely as hunter-gatherers with a habit of seasonal migration. The patterns of this movement and the social structure that made it possible resulted in a social adaptability that European observers interpreted as politically unformed and culturally primitive." 27
"The more traders and missionaries learned about this other world, however, the more it became apparent that Anishinaabewaki, the land that French colonists thought of as the pays d'en haut, was not a wasteland rapidly filling up with refugees. It was instead a rather sophisticated arrangement of social relationships organized around village centres, trade routs, ritual ceremonies, hunting territories, and resources like fish runs and rice stands." 48-49
"Increasingly, the colonial officials of New France learned from experienced traders to think of the pays d'en haut, or the upper country, not so much as a physical space belonging to a particular Native nation but rather as a set of relationships that bound Native peoples to one another. Political alliance was expressed as kinship. Trade, as a form of peaceful exchange, was the outcome of interaction between people who were related to one another." 75
"The Jesuits and the Anishinaabeg believed in a world that was animated by spiritual power." 79
"Anishinaabewaki was not a national identity with exclusive claim to occupy a particular physical space. It was instead a constellation of lived relationships." 89
"For the Anishinaabe peoples the reality of lived experience revealed the necessity of metamorphosis. Any animate being might shape-shift, or assume another life form, in order to make its way in the world. This same logic applied to human beings gathered together to form a collective social body. Communities came together, and they came apart." 90
"As the refugees and the fur trade moved into the west, the Dakota, the Anishinaabeg, and the French found themselves entangled in a web of relationships that turned increasingly violent. The story of this violence was the story of the overlap and collision of the Atlantic and Native social worlds that made up the New World in North America." 120
"Archaeological evidence suggests that that Dakota emerged as a distinct social formation in the forested marshlands at the head of the Mississippi River valley in the fourteenth century. Dispersed throughout this region in small bands during the winter months, the Dakota mobilized large-scale hunting parties during the spring and summer. These hunting parties moved onto the grasslands to the southwest along the lower Mississippi to hunt buffalo when the herds congregated in large numbers to mate. The large size of the herds necessitated communal hunting, which meant that bands that lived apart during the winter needed to come together as a larger social unit." 164
"Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Mdewaknaton bands effectively policed the flow of people and goods between the indigenous west and the colonial east at annual trade fairs in their territory that brought together allied bands from the west and east, and traders from Louisiana, St.Louis, Hudson's Bay, Michilimackinac, and Montreal. The sheer size of the alliance, and its control over the flow of people and goods between the Atlantic World and the indigenous west made the Dakota one of the most dominant social formations on the continent." 166
"The story of the Ojibweg, who also called themselves Anishinaabeg, like the story of Nanabozho, involved a lot of shape-shifting. Ojibweg is the plural form of the word Ojibwe, a name that nineteenth-century Americans mispronounced as Chippewa. This was, however, only their most recent appellation The Ojibweg entered the historical record in the midseventeeth century as the Sauteurs, the French word for "people of the waterfalls" used to describe the people resident at the village they called Sault Sainte Marie, or the falls of Saint Mary (Bow-e-ting). The term Anishinaabeg could be translated as first or original human beings, but by the nineteenth century speakers of Ojibwe translated this word more simply as Indian. The Ojibwe language or Anishinaabemowin was spoken with mutually intelligible dialect variations across the Great Lakes and its hinterlands. Anishinaabeg was a collective identity shared by a number of peoples, speakers of Anishinaabemowinan, who inhabited the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi Valley including the Odawa, Boodewaadamii, and Mississauga, as well as numerous smaller groups living in the interior north of Lake Superior and west of Hudson's Bay. The French referred to these linguistically related peoples collectively by the designation Algonquian." 13-14
"An Infinity of Nations attempts to tell the story of the parallel development and eventual convergence of these two emerging social worlds-the Atlantic New World and the Native New World." 21
"The indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes and the northern Great Plains however, presented European empires with a different kind of social formation. The peoples of these regions lived largely as hunter-gatherers with a habit of seasonal migration. The patterns of this movement and the social structure that made it possible resulted in a social adaptability that European observers interpreted as politically unformed and culturally primitive." 27
"The more traders and missionaries learned about this other world, however, the more it became apparent that Anishinaabewaki, the land that French colonists thought of as the pays d'en haut, was not a wasteland rapidly filling up with refugees. It was instead a rather sophisticated arrangement of social relationships organized around village centres, trade routs, ritual ceremonies, hunting territories, and resources like fish runs and rice stands." 48-49
"Increasingly, the colonial officials of New France learned from experienced traders to think of the pays d'en haut, or the upper country, not so much as a physical space belonging to a particular Native nation but rather as a set of relationships that bound Native peoples to one another. Political alliance was expressed as kinship. Trade, as a form of peaceful exchange, was the outcome of interaction between people who were related to one another." 75
"The Jesuits and the Anishinaabeg believed in a world that was animated by spiritual power." 79
"Anishinaabewaki was not a national identity with exclusive claim to occupy a particular physical space. It was instead a constellation of lived relationships." 89
"For the Anishinaabe peoples the reality of lived experience revealed the necessity of metamorphosis. Any animate being might shape-shift, or assume another life form, in order to make its way in the world. This same logic applied to human beings gathered together to form a collective social body. Communities came together, and they came apart." 90
"As the refugees and the fur trade moved into the west, the Dakota, the Anishinaabeg, and the French found themselves entangled in a web of relationships that turned increasingly violent. The story of this violence was the story of the overlap and collision of the Atlantic and Native social worlds that made up the New World in North America." 120
"Archaeological evidence suggests that that Dakota emerged as a distinct social formation in the forested marshlands at the head of the Mississippi River valley in the fourteenth century. Dispersed throughout this region in small bands during the winter months, the Dakota mobilized large-scale hunting parties during the spring and summer. These hunting parties moved onto the grasslands to the southwest along the lower Mississippi to hunt buffalo when the herds congregated in large numbers to mate. The large size of the herds necessitated communal hunting, which meant that bands that lived apart during the winter needed to come together as a larger social unit." 164
"Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Mdewaknaton bands effectively policed the flow of people and goods between the indigenous west and the colonial east at annual trade fairs in their territory that brought together allied bands from the west and east, and traders from Louisiana, St.Louis, Hudson's Bay, Michilimackinac, and Montreal. The sheer size of the alliance, and its control over the flow of people and goods between the Atlantic World and the indigenous west made the Dakota one of the most dominant social formations on the continent." 166
April 8, 2020
Infinity had a number of strengths which one likes to see in a scholarly publication. It was based on an extensive review of primary and secondary sources, some of which are in French no less. There was no bibliography but its 50 pages of annotated footnotes meant that one could get a clear sense of where Witgen got his information from. There was also a 3 page glossary at the end of the book which helped one try to sort out all the various indigenous terminology and tribal names which were in the text.
Additionally, the author constructed a comprehensive, finely textured, and highly nuanced narrative of the various ways which the large number of NA tribes lived and interacted with each other as well as how they managed to sustain their autonomy from the French and British colonists and later on the American settlers from the late 17th well into the 19th centuries. The physical terrain covered was vast and the numbers and diversity of the tribes were equally wide ranging. Thus, the book contained a tremendous amount of information.
Unfortunately, IMHO, its comprehensiveness was also a weakness. There were so many different tribes and different names for the same tribe which the author used interchangeably that it was difficult to keep track of them all. There were also so many key figures in the storyline (Indigenous, French, and British) that these, too, were a challenge to recall.
I agree with one reviewer who noted that some better editing might have helped. For example, an active editor might have prevented Witgen from making the same argument far too many times. While the chapters were nicely organized into subsections, the prose was not what I would call reader friendly. Lengthy, complex, compound sentences in conjunction with all of the different tribal names made it slow going.
To his credit the author included some maps depicting the region at different times over the more than 2 centuries covered. But these were in a handwritten script that was very hard, if not impossible at times, to decipher. And the majority of the villages, outposts and forts, and lakes and rivers noted in the text could not be found in the maps provided. It would be an understatement to note that it got tiresome to keep googling various places to try to get a sense of where these actually were located.
Despite the vast amount of information that Infinity provided I would have to say that, given its flaws noted above, I was as much relieved as I was satisfied by the time I finished it. Maybe it is an example of someone publishing his dissertation without having consolidated and edited it carefully enough. Thus, I would regretfully give it a 3 star rating: pretty good but it could have been much better.
Additionally, the author constructed a comprehensive, finely textured, and highly nuanced narrative of the various ways which the large number of NA tribes lived and interacted with each other as well as how they managed to sustain their autonomy from the French and British colonists and later on the American settlers from the late 17th well into the 19th centuries. The physical terrain covered was vast and the numbers and diversity of the tribes were equally wide ranging. Thus, the book contained a tremendous amount of information.
Unfortunately, IMHO, its comprehensiveness was also a weakness. There were so many different tribes and different names for the same tribe which the author used interchangeably that it was difficult to keep track of them all. There were also so many key figures in the storyline (Indigenous, French, and British) that these, too, were a challenge to recall.
I agree with one reviewer who noted that some better editing might have helped. For example, an active editor might have prevented Witgen from making the same argument far too many times. While the chapters were nicely organized into subsections, the prose was not what I would call reader friendly. Lengthy, complex, compound sentences in conjunction with all of the different tribal names made it slow going.
To his credit the author included some maps depicting the region at different times over the more than 2 centuries covered. But these were in a handwritten script that was very hard, if not impossible at times, to decipher. And the majority of the villages, outposts and forts, and lakes and rivers noted in the text could not be found in the maps provided. It would be an understatement to note that it got tiresome to keep googling various places to try to get a sense of where these actually were located.
Despite the vast amount of information that Infinity provided I would have to say that, given its flaws noted above, I was as much relieved as I was satisfied by the time I finished it. Maybe it is an example of someone publishing his dissertation without having consolidated and edited it carefully enough. Thus, I would regretfully give it a 3 star rating: pretty good but it could have been much better.
May 11, 2017
A thoroughly researched corrective to Richard White's middle ground concept. I appreciate the way he strips aside expectations and myths from colonial documents (and interpretations of these sources) to find Indigenous voices and agency. I would have liked some editing to tighten the writing and more information about the eighteenth century -- seems like a bit of a chronological gap that he has in this monograph. But overall, this is an exceptional piece of scholarship.
February 21, 2025
A very comprehensive study of Native North America based on extensive research of primary and secondary sources.
I felt that it was hard to follow as there were so many different tribes and different names for them to keep track of. The amount of key figures was also difficult to keep track of and the interchangeable use of Native terminology and colonizer vocabulary was confusing.
I also felt that Witgen had a habit of making the same argument and repeating himself far too frequently.
I felt that it was hard to follow as there were so many different tribes and different names for them to keep track of. The amount of key figures was also difficult to keep track of and the interchangeable use of Native terminology and colonizer vocabulary was confusing.
I also felt that Witgen had a habit of making the same argument and repeating himself far too frequently.
April 14, 2020
Really good historical work.
November 17, 2024
Good information, but very repetitive.
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August 30, 2013970.0049 W821 2012
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews