Behind the Frontier: Indians in Eighteenth-Century Eastern Massachusetts

by Daniel R. Mandell

Behind the Frontier tells the story of the Indians in Massachusetts as English settlements encroached on their traditional homeland between 1675 and 1775, from King Philip’s War to the Battle of Bunker Hill. Daniel R. Mandell explores how local needs and regional conditions shaped an Indian ethnic group that transcended race, tribe, village, and clan, with a culture that incorporated new ways while maintaining a core of "Indian" customs. He examines the development of Native American communities in eastern Massachusetts, many of which survive today, and observes emerging patterns of adaptation and resistance that were played out in different settings as the American nation grew westward in the nineteenth century.

Genres: Native American, History

257 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Behind the Frontier offers a look at the fall of the Indian nations in Eastern Massachusetts during the mid to late 1700's as white settlers encroached on their land and assimilated them into their cultures. Mandell talks a look at a wide range of factors from trade, war, disease, intermarriage, and legal conflicts that changed the tribes in the area reducing their traditional way of living to nothing and showing how they melded in with the culture. These tribes did not disappear in the traditional sense but lived on behind the frontier by assimilating into societies including Boston. This book does work well to dismiss the general myth that Indians simply were wiped out after King Philips War. It is a very specific topic and one needs to be very interested in Indian history of New England or you will quickly find this a dry book. I have a general interest in colonial history and found parts of this to be very slow at times. One thing Mandell does not do well is outline where each of the Indian tribes is living. This book assumes a lot of knowledge about the geography of New England which I did not have as a reader. There is not a single map to give you a frame of reference so be prepared to research online to follow along. Overall a very strong book analytically, but only if you have some background knowledge in New England colonial history.