Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural History of Winter in the Early American Northeast

Studies in Environment and History

by Thomas M. Wickman

Snowshoe Country is an environmental and cultural history of winter in the colonial Northeast, closely examining indigenous and settler knowledge of snow, ice, and life in the cold. Indigenous communities in this region were more knowledgeable about the cold than European newcomers from temperate climates, and English settlers were especially slow to adapt. To keep surviving the winter year after year and decade after decade, English colonists relied on Native assistance, borrowed indigenous winter knowledge, and followed seasonal diplomatic protocols to ensure stable relations with tribal leaders. Thomas M. Wickman explores how fluctuations in winter weather and the halting exchange of winter knowledge both inhibited and facilitated English colonialism from the 1620s to the early 1700s. As their winter survival strategies improved, due to skills and technologies appropriated from Natives, colonial leaders were able to impose a new political ecology in the greater Northeast, projecting year-round authority over indigenous lands.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Nature

324 pages, Hardcover

Published September 20, 2018

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book on how colonists from Britain coped with winter in New England. Covers many accounts on coping and survival.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that reconfigures a colonial perceptions of winter through the knowledge and experiences of the Wanabaki Nation. Rather than being a stark period of challenge and hunger as colonists experienced, winter was an opportunity to cultivate and maintain independence and power for Wanabaki people, who could mitigate colonial experiences due to their extensive knowledge of the season. Wickham successfully reframes the early “American” winter as an Indigenous space, where colonists were forced to navigate as opposed to the common held belief in the opposite. Wickman’s argument for the necessity of viewing winter outside of the context of European agriculture over the longue durée in order to understand vast early America, is compelling and convincing.

Well written and excellently sourced, this is wonderful work of environmental history that is sure to become a foundational text in the genre.

[Jakob Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, Wickman does a good job explaining the warfare aspect of the New England Native and English colonists. He covers the technology of Snowshoes, which are super cool and unique, stating how the Natives used them to gain an edge over the colonists, and conquer the snowy New England area. My only issue was towards the later chapters, it seems Wickman repeated these same themes, maybe as a way to wrap the book up? It seemed to drag a bit at the end, but overall a good book.

[dax · Rating 3 out of 5]

emphasizing seasonal mobility as an expression of power, but at times gets away from environmental history methods and findings, more so a revisionist history correcting for a 'vernal bias'