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Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West
American Indians remain familiar as icons, yet poorly understood as historical agents. In this ambitious book that ranges across Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and eastern California (a region known as the Great Basin), Ned Blackhawk places Native peoples squarely at the center of a dynamic and complex story as he chronicles two centuries of Indian and imperial history that profoundly shaped the American West.
On the distant margins of empire, Great Basin Indians increasingly found themselves engulfed in the chaotic storms of European expansion and responded in ways that refashioned themselves and those around them. Focusing on Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone Indians, Blackhawk illuminates this history through a lens of violence, excavating the myriad impacts of colonial expansion. Brutal networks of trade and slavery forged the Spanish borderlands, and the use of violence became for many Indians a necessary survival strategy, particularly after Mexican Independence when many became raiders and slave traffickers. Throughout such violent processes, these Native communities struggled to adapt to their changing environments, sometimes scoring remarkable political ends while suffering immense reprisals.
Violence over the Land is a passionate reminder of the high costs that the making of American history occasioned for many indigenous peoples, written from the vantage point of an Indian scholar whose own family history is intimately bound up in its enduring legacies.
385 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2006
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About the author
Ned Blackhawk
17 books171 followersNed Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) is Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University. The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association awarded Violence over the Land its Book of the Decade Award as "one of the ten most influential books in Native American and Indigenous Studies in the first decade of the twenty-first century."
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October 16, 2014
Ned Blackhawk’s Violence over the Land presents the history of the Great Basin Indians and their interactions with the Spanish, British, and American empires. Blackhawk responds in this book to many harmful myths about the conquest of the American West. Most importantly, he undermines the idea of primitivism by presenting the Great Basin Indians as having a history, developing culturally, acting strategically, and playing key geopolitical roles. This is a dark and compelling history, one which a wide range of historians should read in order to grapple with the causes and legacy of violence in American history.
Blackhawk aims to discredit the idea of primitivism as applied to the Great Basin Indians. Primitivism generally stated that the Great Basin Indians were “peoples without history” and “the least developed cultures in the world” (4). They lived and had always lived “simple unchanging lives as desert wanderers,” trapped in their static culture as historical actors like the Spanish or Americans inexorably overwhelmed them (4). He presents Mark Twain as an early sponsor of this idea. Twain described them as a “silent, sneaking, treacherous looking race” in Roughing It, offering no explanation for their degraded condition other than their own primitive ways (276).
Blackhawk then shows how primitivism took on a more scientific appearance in the first half of the twentieth century under the influence of anthropologist Julian Steward. Focusing on the nonequestarian Great Basin Indians, Steward argued that their static culture and poverty stemmed directly from the simplicity of the desert environment they inhabited. They lacked history because they never changed, remaining timelessly bound to the deprivation and crudeness of their surroundings. Primitivism had concrete negative consequences for the Great Basin Indians. Because Americans viewed them as lacking a history and as exceptionally primeval, they believed the only recourses were to destroy them or convert them to American lifestyles. Even in the 1930’s, Steward argued against the federal government giving reservation land and autonomy to the Shoshones because as primitive hunter-gatherer bands, such modern concepts would merely “baffle them” (279).
Blackhawk undermines the idea of primitivism by portraying the Great Basin Indians as possessors of a dynamic and vital role in the history of the West. In fact, throughout the rise and fall of New Spain, these tribes were the major power brokers of the Great Basin. The New Mexican economy relied heavily on the Indian slave trade. In exchange, Great Basin Indians received transformative technologies such as guns and horses. These new tools led to new military strategies and created a profound imbalance of power between equestrians and non-equestrians. Moreover, the Spanish could not explore, missionize, or project power into the Rocky Mountains without alliances with Indian tribes. Continual Indian raids on Spanish and genizaro settlements meant that for centuries the supposed imperial conquerors lived in continual jeopardy. For most of the time period of this book, the Great Basin was native ground in which outsiders had to adapt to the power and demands of these tribes.
Aside from being the major power brokers in the Great Basin for centuries, Blackhawk shows that these tribes were strategic calculators who employed different geopolitical tools under different conditions. For instance, as the Comanche became too powerful and aggressive in the mid-eighteenth century, their erstwhile allies the Utes switched sides and allied with Spanish in order to balance against the greater threat. In the conflict between the Comanche and the Spanish, the Utes sought to be the balancer, keeping power in their hands by deciding which way the balance of power would move. A century later, as Americans expanded rapidly into the Great Basin, Utes used diplomacy and selective violence to gain concessions and resources. During the Civil War, they allied with the Union, who needed them to block potential Confederate moves westward, and thereby gained more power and resources. By demonstrating their geopolitical acumen, Blackhawk undermines the idea of these Indians as simple-minded or unable to grasp grand geopolitical affairs.
Blackhawk further discredits the primitivism viewpoint by showing that the poverty and degradation people like Mark Twain witnessed among Great Basin Indians were not essential characteristics of a supposedly inferior people, but products of historical processes and abuses. Blackhawk shows, for instance, that the flood of American settlers and trappers drained the area of key resources for the Indian economies such as game or furs. The US government also consistently failed to comply with treaty requirements such as providing resources or preventing settler incursion, often compelling the Great Basin Indians to violence and creating a violent cycle that led to even more Indian disenfranchisement. Reaching even further back in time, Blackhawk argues that the impoverishment of tribes like the Shoshone stemmed from their failure to acquire firearms and horses, which put them at the mercy of equestrian Indians and Euro-Americans alike.
The central point of Violence over the Land is that this impoverishment was a result of historical change, but primitivism denied that change and America’s role in that process. Instead, primitivism conveniently described native decline as an inevitable consequence of their inherent primitiveness, thereby making American conquest and inevitable consequence of its dynamism and advancement. Blackhawk puts the violence of Western history and American expansion onto center stage, claiming “Violence and the American nationhood, in short, progressed hand in hand” (9). By giving the Great Basin Indians a complex and dynamic history, he compels all Americans to wrestle with the historical reality and legacy of imperialism rather than fall back on the comforting myths of primitivism.
Blackhawk aims to discredit the idea of primitivism as applied to the Great Basin Indians. Primitivism generally stated that the Great Basin Indians were “peoples without history” and “the least developed cultures in the world” (4). They lived and had always lived “simple unchanging lives as desert wanderers,” trapped in their static culture as historical actors like the Spanish or Americans inexorably overwhelmed them (4). He presents Mark Twain as an early sponsor of this idea. Twain described them as a “silent, sneaking, treacherous looking race” in Roughing It, offering no explanation for their degraded condition other than their own primitive ways (276).
Blackhawk then shows how primitivism took on a more scientific appearance in the first half of the twentieth century under the influence of anthropologist Julian Steward. Focusing on the nonequestarian Great Basin Indians, Steward argued that their static culture and poverty stemmed directly from the simplicity of the desert environment they inhabited. They lacked history because they never changed, remaining timelessly bound to the deprivation and crudeness of their surroundings. Primitivism had concrete negative consequences for the Great Basin Indians. Because Americans viewed them as lacking a history and as exceptionally primeval, they believed the only recourses were to destroy them or convert them to American lifestyles. Even in the 1930’s, Steward argued against the federal government giving reservation land and autonomy to the Shoshones because as primitive hunter-gatherer bands, such modern concepts would merely “baffle them” (279).
Blackhawk undermines the idea of primitivism by portraying the Great Basin Indians as possessors of a dynamic and vital role in the history of the West. In fact, throughout the rise and fall of New Spain, these tribes were the major power brokers of the Great Basin. The New Mexican economy relied heavily on the Indian slave trade. In exchange, Great Basin Indians received transformative technologies such as guns and horses. These new tools led to new military strategies and created a profound imbalance of power between equestrians and non-equestrians. Moreover, the Spanish could not explore, missionize, or project power into the Rocky Mountains without alliances with Indian tribes. Continual Indian raids on Spanish and genizaro settlements meant that for centuries the supposed imperial conquerors lived in continual jeopardy. For most of the time period of this book, the Great Basin was native ground in which outsiders had to adapt to the power and demands of these tribes.
Aside from being the major power brokers in the Great Basin for centuries, Blackhawk shows that these tribes were strategic calculators who employed different geopolitical tools under different conditions. For instance, as the Comanche became too powerful and aggressive in the mid-eighteenth century, their erstwhile allies the Utes switched sides and allied with Spanish in order to balance against the greater threat. In the conflict between the Comanche and the Spanish, the Utes sought to be the balancer, keeping power in their hands by deciding which way the balance of power would move. A century later, as Americans expanded rapidly into the Great Basin, Utes used diplomacy and selective violence to gain concessions and resources. During the Civil War, they allied with the Union, who needed them to block potential Confederate moves westward, and thereby gained more power and resources. By demonstrating their geopolitical acumen, Blackhawk undermines the idea of these Indians as simple-minded or unable to grasp grand geopolitical affairs.
Blackhawk further discredits the primitivism viewpoint by showing that the poverty and degradation people like Mark Twain witnessed among Great Basin Indians were not essential characteristics of a supposedly inferior people, but products of historical processes and abuses. Blackhawk shows, for instance, that the flood of American settlers and trappers drained the area of key resources for the Indian economies such as game or furs. The US government also consistently failed to comply with treaty requirements such as providing resources or preventing settler incursion, often compelling the Great Basin Indians to violence and creating a violent cycle that led to even more Indian disenfranchisement. Reaching even further back in time, Blackhawk argues that the impoverishment of tribes like the Shoshone stemmed from their failure to acquire firearms and horses, which put them at the mercy of equestrian Indians and Euro-Americans alike.
The central point of Violence over the Land is that this impoverishment was a result of historical change, but primitivism denied that change and America’s role in that process. Instead, primitivism conveniently described native decline as an inevitable consequence of their inherent primitiveness, thereby making American conquest and inevitable consequence of its dynamism and advancement. Blackhawk puts the violence of Western history and American expansion onto center stage, claiming “Violence and the American nationhood, in short, progressed hand in hand” (9). By giving the Great Basin Indians a complex and dynamic history, he compels all Americans to wrestle with the historical reality and legacy of imperialism rather than fall back on the comforting myths of primitivism.
November 29, 2009
There's a lot to say about this book, not least of which is that it's a great survey of American Indians in the Great Basin at the time of colonization. Blackhawk does a solid job of detailing the complex interactions between Indian tribes and colonizers, whether Spanish, Mexican, American, or Mormon settlers. He also brings to light the relationships that existed between different tribes, giving a great overview of Indian slavery, a historical and human fact almost completely missing from traditional history.
If I were to make any criticism of this book, it would be that it errs a little on the academic side of writing. That is, there are thousands of human stories from this period, both wrenching and beautiful, that could be told in more human terms. I would've liked to read in more detail what life meant for, say, the Western Shoshone or Paiute tribes who, not having access to horses or advanced weapons, were left defenseless in the face of repeated onslaughts by settlers and more dominant Indian tribes. Also, it seems to me that any historian writing about this time in American history has to decide how to write about the unspeakable violence of it. Blackhawk backs off of it, and gives a kind of detached treatment of the history here, which seems at odds with the personal connection he describes in the introduction and the epilogue.
Overall a fine book. Definitely worth a read.
If I were to make any criticism of this book, it would be that it errs a little on the academic side of writing. That is, there are thousands of human stories from this period, both wrenching and beautiful, that could be told in more human terms. I would've liked to read in more detail what life meant for, say, the Western Shoshone or Paiute tribes who, not having access to horses or advanced weapons, were left defenseless in the face of repeated onslaughts by settlers and more dominant Indian tribes. Also, it seems to me that any historian writing about this time in American history has to decide how to write about the unspeakable violence of it. Blackhawk backs off of it, and gives a kind of detached treatment of the history here, which seems at odds with the personal connection he describes in the introduction and the epilogue.
Overall a fine book. Definitely worth a read.
December 7, 2016
Here is a story from Native American history that you probably aren't familiar with. Historian Ned Blackhawk studies the American Indians who lived in the Great Basin, from New Mexico to Montana, in the period from the Spanish conquest to the early 20th century. He especially focuses on the Utes and Shoshone, with some mention of the Navajo, Apache and a few others whose stories intersect. As the title indicates, there is violence aplenty, committed by all sides: Spanish, French, Native Americans, and toward the end of the book, Mormons and the US government. It's fascinating because it shows some of the tribes wielding power that we don't normally think of them having. As long as they were useful to the European powers, they were able to negotiate favorable treaties from a position of relative strength. Of course, that usefulness ended, the treaties were generally broken, and the members of the tribes were largely left to live in poverty. That part, you've probably heard before.
November 18, 2020
This is an excellent book. Professor Blackhawk presents a clear, no holds barred, picture of Native Americans in the Great Basin with emphasis on the Utes. The book tells the real story of the violence and tumult throughout the 19th Century.
September 21, 2020
I read this book for an online history course I am currently taking; otherwise, I would not have known of its existence. I greatly enjoyed reading it; it brought to light various aspects of North American history about which I was extremely ignorant. It focuses on the Great Basin region of the North American Southwest and the tribes who lived in the area. It moved at a pretty fast pace for me, despite the large amounts of information contained within each chapter. It was interesting; it was fascinating; even if I were not reading it for a class, I would have had a hard time putting it down.
I think it's "biggest weakness" is that there is some chronological overlap between chapters, and he might jump ahead at very start of a chapter and then go back and fill in the details. Also, he kept discussing how there were very few, if any, Indigenous sources to refer to, so he had to "read between the lines" (as it were) and interpret what was "not" being said in the sources he did use, so it made me wonder about some of the information contained in the book (especially the first couple of chapters). He does list various sources in the "notes" at the end of the book but does not have a Bibliography (perhaps that is changing and not required like it used to be?).
I was surprised to learn that there was an "Indian slave trade" that lasted for as long as it did; I had always been taught that the Native Americans did not make good slaves, which is why Africans were brought over to the New World. So I was shocked to read about this extensive slave trade involving Native Americans and how slaves were sold either to work in the mines in Mexico or for use in the territories themselves (as either house servants or for sexual gratification). Had no idea it existed. I was also surprised to read about how the Utes were so strongly involved in this trade as well; I didn't know that, either.
It was also hard to read about how some of the tribes which had gone to great lengths to remain neutral and even assist the U.S. military during military campaigns (such as the Utes) were then treated so shabbily by the U.S. government, how their treaties took longer than necessary to ratify, and how they were eventually removed from the land promised to them by the U.S. government for the performance of good service on behalf of the U.S. government. I have read about treaties being broken before, but it was still crazy-nuts how it all would go down as described in this book. It is pretty amazing that things were not "any worse" on the frontier than they were, considering how shabbily the U.S. government treated the Indigenous Peoples, the number of promises in the treaties that were broken.
It is a good book. It is a great book. It is a hard book. This book filled in a large gap of knowledge that I both knew and did not know I have always had. When I was K-13, the Spanish colonizing of the Southwestern region of the United States was rarely ever discussed or taught, which is silly because of how long the Spaniards had been on the continent before the other European powers. Yet the focus of most of the "American history" courses I took focused on the English and the French before focusing on American westward expansion. So it was quite fascinating to read about, for example, how the Utes became a regional powerhouse because of their alliance with the Comanche, at first, and then the Spaniards before attempting to create diplomatic ties with the expanding United States. There is a lot of information in this book, and it felt like I had discovered a gold mine, so I am very appreciative that my professor had this as assigned reading.
I think it's "biggest weakness" is that there is some chronological overlap between chapters, and he might jump ahead at very start of a chapter and then go back and fill in the details. Also, he kept discussing how there were very few, if any, Indigenous sources to refer to, so he had to "read between the lines" (as it were) and interpret what was "not" being said in the sources he did use, so it made me wonder about some of the information contained in the book (especially the first couple of chapters). He does list various sources in the "notes" at the end of the book but does not have a Bibliography (perhaps that is changing and not required like it used to be?).
I was surprised to learn that there was an "Indian slave trade" that lasted for as long as it did; I had always been taught that the Native Americans did not make good slaves, which is why Africans were brought over to the New World. So I was shocked to read about this extensive slave trade involving Native Americans and how slaves were sold either to work in the mines in Mexico or for use in the territories themselves (as either house servants or for sexual gratification). Had no idea it existed. I was also surprised to read about how the Utes were so strongly involved in this trade as well; I didn't know that, either.
It was also hard to read about how some of the tribes which had gone to great lengths to remain neutral and even assist the U.S. military during military campaigns (such as the Utes) were then treated so shabbily by the U.S. government, how their treaties took longer than necessary to ratify, and how they were eventually removed from the land promised to them by the U.S. government for the performance of good service on behalf of the U.S. government. I have read about treaties being broken before, but it was still crazy-nuts how it all would go down as described in this book. It is pretty amazing that things were not "any worse" on the frontier than they were, considering how shabbily the U.S. government treated the Indigenous Peoples, the number of promises in the treaties that were broken.
It is a good book. It is a great book. It is a hard book. This book filled in a large gap of knowledge that I both knew and did not know I have always had. When I was K-13, the Spanish colonizing of the Southwestern region of the United States was rarely ever discussed or taught, which is silly because of how long the Spaniards had been on the continent before the other European powers. Yet the focus of most of the "American history" courses I took focused on the English and the French before focusing on American westward expansion. So it was quite fascinating to read about, for example, how the Utes became a regional powerhouse because of their alliance with the Comanche, at first, and then the Spaniards before attempting to create diplomatic ties with the expanding United States. There is a lot of information in this book, and it felt like I had discovered a gold mine, so I am very appreciative that my professor had this as assigned reading.
February 24, 2024
This is a history of the violent impacts of European colonialism in the American West with a special emphasis on the Great Basin and its Native people, most specifically the Ute and Shoshone Indians. Indian groups of the American West and the Great Basin were recalibrated by violent changes brought on by colonialism, even before their lands were sites of direct colonial encounters. This violence was exacerbated by social and ecological disruption and included tortuous patterns of enslavement. Blackhawk refers to this as "pandemic relations of violence" that rippled out insidiously from European colonies. Hundreds of years of struggles of Native Peoples to adapt to and survive through these radical, violent changes are chronicled here. These chronicles are bookended by Blackhawk's own family history and personal reflections.
Blackhawk repeatedly demonstrates that the violent enslavement of these times was "heavily gendered, with adolescent girls among the prime targets." Reading this and similar statements over and over throughout this book, I thought of the current statistics of sexual violence against Native women in the U.S. Over half have experienced sexual violence. At least 1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime (this is likely underreported). 86 percent of these sexual assaults are perpetrated by non-Native men, few of whom are ever prosecuted due to the never-ending maze of jurisdictional complexities and hundreds of years of contradicting laws and policies. And it all started here, with these initial colonial contacts, and spread out like a cancer, still infesting this social body. Endemic. Monstrously, tortuously endemic.
I did quite a bit of research before choosing this book. Blackhawk's study is necessarily finely focused and his writing is lucid and intelligent. The book is highly sourced and includes illustrations and photographs, chronologies, and a decent index. I also chose this book because it is a history of places where I have and currently live. I wanted a better understanding of these places and their original inhabitants. Many of my ancestors were homesteaders and settlers of the American West. I needed to (and still need to) understand the tremendous impact of my family's history on this land and its people.
Blackhawk repeatedly demonstrates that the violent enslavement of these times was "heavily gendered, with adolescent girls among the prime targets." Reading this and similar statements over and over throughout this book, I thought of the current statistics of sexual violence against Native women in the U.S. Over half have experienced sexual violence. At least 1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime (this is likely underreported). 86 percent of these sexual assaults are perpetrated by non-Native men, few of whom are ever prosecuted due to the never-ending maze of jurisdictional complexities and hundreds of years of contradicting laws and policies. And it all started here, with these initial colonial contacts, and spread out like a cancer, still infesting this social body. Endemic. Monstrously, tortuously endemic.
I did quite a bit of research before choosing this book. Blackhawk's study is necessarily finely focused and his writing is lucid and intelligent. The book is highly sourced and includes illustrations and photographs, chronologies, and a decent index. I also chose this book because it is a history of places where I have and currently live. I wanted a better understanding of these places and their original inhabitants. Many of my ancestors were homesteaders and settlers of the American West. I needed to (and still need to) understand the tremendous impact of my family's history on this land and its people.
"Generations have viewed the history of America without understanding let alone appreciation of the continent's original inhabitants, while educational avenues remain hazardous to Indian students. Against such obstacles, the field of Indian history operates.
Yet this is a central battleground for a larger struggle, a contest for reconciliation, if not for coexistence and redemption. Much like a family bereft by tragedy, a nation unable to confront its past will surely compromise any sense of a shared civic culture. National histories need to be shared by all, not imposed from above, and finding ways of celebrating the endurance as well as ascendancy of contemporary Indian people appears a thread from which to weave potentially broader narratives."
January 31, 2025
This reminded me of Comanche Empire but less details which was great. And it was about the Utes mostly instead of Comanche
January 3, 2019
ute slavers show up at mormon settlements, demanding that the mormons buy the paiute women and children they'd captured earlier. mormons refuse out of principled humanitarianism. the utes threaten to kill the captives unless the mormons buy them. so the mormons buy them, release them for a short time and then decide that after all having your own paiute to haul water or cook for you is pretty nice... and years later when a traveler passes through the mormon corridor he remarks "every family had one or two obedient pah-utes in their personal service"
February 9, 2013
An important book that provides a history of the interaction between Native peoples in the intermountain region of the current Western United States and Spain from 1690s to 1850s. Devastating cruelty and Native slavery. By the time 'Americans arrived various Native tribal groups had been radicalized by Spain's violence.
Currently reading
November 13, 2008Still on my to-read list. I really do intend to get to this book!
May 10, 2009
I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in southwestern history. Especially if you are already familiar with the Pueblo Revolt.
December 8, 2009
Read for Alan Taylor's "Early American Encounters"
February 28, 2017
This is a dense and difficult book. Its central thesis articulates how cycles of violence emanating from the colonization of the New World swept through Great Basin Native peoples. The introduction of disruptive technologies (e.g., horses, guns, metal implements) increased the rewards to violence in the Great Basin and Great Plains regions of the US. Some Native peoples responded by becoming powerful equestrian powers in their own right, controlling trade routes for fur and Indian captives and using combinations of diplomatic acumen and military strength to survive and stay powerful from 1590 through the 1830s. Other Native peoples were unable to secure either guns or horses, and become vassal populations subject to raids for captives and supplies. At all times, Native peoples played an active role in shaping the economic and political conditions of the region. Anglo-American settlement ultimately destroyed prospects for Native sovereignty, through destruction of Native economic and ecological systems. Even through this process, peoples like the Utes used diplomacy (and violence when necessary) to gain treaties with the federal government guaranteeing them millions of acres of lands in reservations. Ultimately, these lands too were removed from Native control through allotment policies (e.g, Dawes Act) and encroachment from local whites that was neither prevented nor discouraged by local and state authorities.
Much of what this text discusses is history that is ignored in mainstream accounts of the US (or even Indigenous accounts of the US), particularly the discussion of the Indian slave trade. The lengthy discussions of Shoshone and Paiute peoples, who constituted the bulk of these vassal populations, provided an interesting foray into both intertribal violence and how poverty caused by violence became associated with savagery by white settlers.
The text is organized in a somewhat confusing way. I found many parts of the text repetitive, perhaps due to each chapter intending to be stand alone. The events were neither narrated chronologically nor thematically, making it somewhat difficult to follow.
Ultimately, it is difficult for me to draw strong conclusions from the narratives the author presents, and I am left with more questions than answers (perhaps, the point). What prevented Native societies from acquiring the knowledge of how to manufacture guns or smelt steel? How has the modern Indigenous movement (e.g., AIM) addressed histories of intertribal violence and Natives selling other Natives into slavery? Given that raiding essentially functioned as a tax on emigrants and traders, what prevented Native societies from formalizing agreements with individuals using Native land to pay a tax for use in order to offset ecological damages?
Much of what this text discusses is history that is ignored in mainstream accounts of the US (or even Indigenous accounts of the US), particularly the discussion of the Indian slave trade. The lengthy discussions of Shoshone and Paiute peoples, who constituted the bulk of these vassal populations, provided an interesting foray into both intertribal violence and how poverty caused by violence became associated with savagery by white settlers.
The text is organized in a somewhat confusing way. I found many parts of the text repetitive, perhaps due to each chapter intending to be stand alone. The events were neither narrated chronologically nor thematically, making it somewhat difficult to follow.
Ultimately, it is difficult for me to draw strong conclusions from the narratives the author presents, and I am left with more questions than answers (perhaps, the point). What prevented Native societies from acquiring the knowledge of how to manufacture guns or smelt steel? How has the modern Indigenous movement (e.g., AIM) addressed histories of intertribal violence and Natives selling other Natives into slavery? Given that raiding essentially functioned as a tax on emigrants and traders, what prevented Native societies from formalizing agreements with individuals using Native land to pay a tax for use in order to offset ecological damages?
September 21, 2010
For Blackhawk, it is the “harrowing, violent native histories” which form the foundation of colonial America, and it is within this framework of violence that a larger understanding of American and indigenous history must be reconsidered.
Beginning with Ute-Spanish relations in the 17th century, and continuing with 18th and 19th century colonial encroachments, Blackhawk successfully analyzes not only the violent nature of colonial-native relations, but also the obscured narrative of inter-tribal violence. As Blackhawk unearths these “chronic conflicts”-from slave trading to the Mormon invasion of Utah-the cornerstone of violence as a means for survival and adaptation remain. Structurally, Blackhawk provides a nuanced approach to existing colonial sources by highlighting the American Indian story told within them. At times chronologically disconnected, Blackhawk nevertheless provides a cohesive understanding of early colonial Great Basin peoples, while also challenging the “fixed” histories of the American and Indian. So long to “convenient dichotomies” of white versus native, as Blackhawk provocatively welcomes adaptation, incessant violence, and heterogeneity into the history of America and American Indians.
Beginning with Ute-Spanish relations in the 17th century, and continuing with 18th and 19th century colonial encroachments, Blackhawk successfully analyzes not only the violent nature of colonial-native relations, but also the obscured narrative of inter-tribal violence. As Blackhawk unearths these “chronic conflicts”-from slave trading to the Mormon invasion of Utah-the cornerstone of violence as a means for survival and adaptation remain. Structurally, Blackhawk provides a nuanced approach to existing colonial sources by highlighting the American Indian story told within them. At times chronologically disconnected, Blackhawk nevertheless provides a cohesive understanding of early colonial Great Basin peoples, while also challenging the “fixed” histories of the American and Indian. So long to “convenient dichotomies” of white versus native, as Blackhawk provocatively welcomes adaptation, incessant violence, and heterogeneity into the history of America and American Indians.
February 6, 2013
The writing in the introduction was a bit of a put-off as the pedantic language seemed to be straining too hard to make a point. But, the body of the book flowed quickly with logically paced historical coverage. This is a broad overview of a huge geographical area and its native inhabitants' history. The violence is not, as one might expect, only laid out on the white man's side. Mr. Blackhawk shows how centuries of using violence as a means to an end, usually an economic end, became a pervasive and completely destructive component in the development of all the Great Basin peoples.
I came away with a much better understanding of how what we see and what we judge in a cultural group like, for instance, Western Shoshones and Southern Paiutes, can be colored by benign ignorance of the historical interplay of violent, dominant peoples over unfortunate "others."
I came away with a much better understanding of how what we see and what we judge in a cultural group like, for instance, Western Shoshones and Southern Paiutes, can be colored by benign ignorance of the historical interplay of violent, dominant peoples over unfortunate "others."
March 31, 2022
This book clearly, and with much detail, lays out the conquest of the west by colonial powers of Native Americans. I've read a lot of history but never one that so focuses on the different N American cultures of the west and how important they are in the telling of American history.
It's more than just battles and brief histories of explorers (by non-Natives.) It's more about the impact of colonials on the culture and land of those who tried to save their ways of life and the violence that impacted EVERYONE involved from the 1500s onward. It is not an easy book to read, but it is an important one. It is a story of conflict and the constant adaptations attempted to be able to survive- the Spanish, the French, other Indian tribes, the New Mexicans, and the Americans. It IS a very complex story.
It's more than just battles and brief histories of explorers (by non-Natives.) It's more about the impact of colonials on the culture and land of those who tried to save their ways of life and the violence that impacted EVERYONE involved from the 1500s onward. It is not an easy book to read, but it is an important one. It is a story of conflict and the constant adaptations attempted to be able to survive- the Spanish, the French, other Indian tribes, the New Mexicans, and the Americans. It IS a very complex story.
March 7, 2020
Blackhawk’s Violence over the Land covers the Great Basin indigenous tribes, predominantly the Utes, Paiutes, and Shoshones, and their inter-tribal relationships as well as their relationships with European colonizers and traders in their homelands. While each of the chapters jumps around a bit, from the Spanish-Ute trading and military alliance, to Lewis and Clark’s expedition, to the relationship between Mormons and Paiutes in Utah, Blackhawk’s argument, that violence was deeply influential “as a subject and a method” in shaping the history of the Great Basin borderlands, (as well as early American history as a whole) is cogent and compelling. Blackhawk writes beautifully and this book is an outstanding read.
March 5, 2024
“Though often presented without any mention of Native people, American history emerged from within, not outside of, such encounters.”
Blackhawk’s argument is well-supported. He hits his stride after prefacing the failures of U.S. diplomacy with the intimate cultural understanding of the Spanish-Ute Alliance. National agreements could never satisfy the unique, often oppositional, needs of various Indian tribes scattered across the Great Basins region - decisions that were made by politicians hundreds of miles away. The fact that the failure of US diplomacy had violent repercussions is not surprising, but the lack of reconciliation today truly is
Blackhawk’s argument is well-supported. He hits his stride after prefacing the failures of U.S. diplomacy with the intimate cultural understanding of the Spanish-Ute Alliance. National agreements could never satisfy the unique, often oppositional, needs of various Indian tribes scattered across the Great Basins region - decisions that were made by politicians hundreds of miles away. The fact that the failure of US diplomacy had violent repercussions is not surprising, but the lack of reconciliation today truly is
May 6, 2024
Definitely very dense with an ambitious scope, but overall was very clearly written with a lot of really nuanced insights and descriptions. A part of the main argument (the implication that all of the violence stemmed from the Spanish) made sense but felt like a little bit of a stretch to me.
July 4, 2012
Blackhawk writes a detailed, feeling history about a subject not discussed or taught as often as it should be: slavery in the Southwest.
April 11, 2023
It reads just how the author talks. Love the history. Feels like some parts are repetitive. Just worded differently. All in all I’m proud to own this book.
March 9, 2024
genuinely enjoyable and informative, but i will always remember this as the book i read over a single weekend for an assignment only to then drop the class.
August 12, 2020
I haven't read all that much about the history of the American West. I did read biographies of Fremont and Powell and their travels through the region. In those works, the indigenous people are parts of those stories to a much lesser degree than the scenery. That this is true is a great example of the old saying that the victors write the history.
This book is about the peoples who inhabited the Great Basin region. Many different people lived in the area: sedentary agriculturalists, equestrian nomads, non-equestrians, and so on. Popular culture tends to tell us that these people were all more or less alike. They were not. They had disparate languages, cultures, and economies. And the arrival of Europeans affected them all in different ways.
I found the book very even-handed. I was expecting a no-holds-barred look at the atrocities perpetrated on the native peoples and anticipated that the author might present a bias. But I didn't find any significant biases. Violence was a reality in the region before Europeans arrived, and I'm not sure that their arrival increased the amount of violence. But the violence certainly changed. Some groups took up the horse, some didn't. All were affected to one degree or another by pandemics and diseases.
I know there was a recent movement to rename Kit Carson Peak here in Colorado. I haven't read about him, but I gather that his story hasn't aged well. But in this book, he doesn't come across as a villain. In fact, he comes across as an ally to the Utes. I guess I should take a deeper look into his story.
The tone of the book is a bit ... scholarly. By that, I guess I mean "kind of dry". The subject matter is not dry, and anyone interested in the history of the area would be well-served by reading it. But the reader may have to put in an unexpected amount of effort.
Includes index, notes, and many photographs. Sadly, there's no bibliography. This means I have to pay much more attention to the notes if this book is to serve as a gateway to further reading.
This book is about the peoples who inhabited the Great Basin region. Many different people lived in the area: sedentary agriculturalists, equestrian nomads, non-equestrians, and so on. Popular culture tends to tell us that these people were all more or less alike. They were not. They had disparate languages, cultures, and economies. And the arrival of Europeans affected them all in different ways.
I found the book very even-handed. I was expecting a no-holds-barred look at the atrocities perpetrated on the native peoples and anticipated that the author might present a bias. But I didn't find any significant biases. Violence was a reality in the region before Europeans arrived, and I'm not sure that their arrival increased the amount of violence. But the violence certainly changed. Some groups took up the horse, some didn't. All were affected to one degree or another by pandemics and diseases.
I know there was a recent movement to rename Kit Carson Peak here in Colorado. I haven't read about him, but I gather that his story hasn't aged well. But in this book, he doesn't come across as a villain. In fact, he comes across as an ally to the Utes. I guess I should take a deeper look into his story.
The tone of the book is a bit ... scholarly. By that, I guess I mean "kind of dry". The subject matter is not dry, and anyone interested in the history of the area would be well-served by reading it. But the reader may have to put in an unexpected amount of effort.
Includes index, notes, and many photographs. Sadly, there's no bibliography. This means I have to pay much more attention to the notes if this book is to serve as a gateway to further reading.
June 3, 2025
In Violence Over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West, Ned Blackhawk covers the transformative impact of colonialism on Native Americans living within the American West, particularly focusing on peoples in the Great Basin through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book covers diplomatic relationships between Ute, Shoshone, Pueblo, Ute, and Paiute peoples and Spanish and Anglo-American settlers. Blackhawk argues that violence is a defining feature of European colonialism. Using a mix of colonial diaries, government documents, and news articles, he convincingly argues that European expansion increased intertribal conflicts and conflicts with European settlers. In his coverage of early Spanish alliances with Ute peoples, Blackhawk asserts that although Ute peoples benefitted from trade that came from Spanish treaties, colonial expansion and involvement increased the scope and scale of intertribal violence. The violence that followed Spanish and Anglo-American settlement in the Great Basin contributed to violence by increasing dependence on trading with and raiding colonial settlements that displaced people from their homeland. Violence Over the Land provides contributes to Native American historiography through its convincing argument on the centrality of violence in settler colonialism in the American West. While Sondra Jones Being and Becoming Ute portrays Ute peoples of Colorado and Utah as interconnected in their culture and history, Blackhawk’s frames Colorado Ute peoples and Utah Ute peoples as largely distinct groups.
June 5, 2025
One of my students once stated that Americans put groups of people in buckets. He was describing the process of racial categorization. We often refer to "Native Americans" or "Indians" as if they were one group of people with common goals, values, and characteristics. This book shifts the perspective. it shines the spotlight on the indigenous populations of America's Great basin region. instead of telling the story from the perspective of white ecological improvement, it speaks of the destruction of a thriving culture who's social, economic, and political structures were interrupted and destroyed. the literature speaks of impoverished Indians without a recognition of bloodthirsty, land-grabbing greed reduced a population, disrupted pre-existing trade networks. These practices produced such starvation and psychological desperation that like the inhabitants of biblical Judea under the Babylonian seige, made parents willing to traffic their children for a morsel of bread. The outcry against history being rewritten is cognitive dissonance and emotional blunting to the fact that this history is never included in our textbooks.
November 3, 2025
Ned Blackhawk’s 2008 book, Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West, examines the horrors of settler colonialism by tracing the violent history of the Great Basin in the Western United States. Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) argues and early on seeks to dismantle the “mythic promise of America” (3) by saying violence was a central and organizing instrument of colonial encounters and eventual expansion by the emerging United States. Violence over the Land looks at the often-ignored Indigenous groups of the Great Basin (Utes, Paiutes, Shoshone) that are not placed at the center of colonial and American history, often seen as prehistoric and peripheral groups without a history by anthropological racist distortion, which Blackhawk sees as a glaring absence, as he sees them as agents of change. Violence over the Land’s argument centres on Blackhawk’s methodological claim, with violence as a subject and method central to the book, and outlines four ways violence is structured.
February 21, 2024
This book covers an area and time I never learned about in school. So, it was a good introduction to the history of the Indians of the Great Basin. Each of the six chapters can be a book on their own.
It was very dense in the information and often the timelines overlapped, so it was a little difficult to read.
However, I learned the concepts the author was trying to impart regarding the violence, slavery, and equestrian vs non equestrian tribes. Much came from a whole diverse set of outsiders, but much came between tribes. So a whole new way of viewing Native Americans was revealed to me.
I picked this book because it won a prize as a history by a debut author. It has since been selected as the book of the decade in its category, and the author has won other significant awards.
It was very dense in the information and often the timelines overlapped, so it was a little difficult to read.
However, I learned the concepts the author was trying to impart regarding the violence, slavery, and equestrian vs non equestrian tribes. Much came from a whole diverse set of outsiders, but much came between tribes. So a whole new way of viewing Native Americans was revealed to me.
I picked this book because it won a prize as a history by a debut author. It has since been selected as the book of the decade in its category, and the author has won other significant awards.
May 30, 2018
Native American tribes have a violent history. Utes and Shoshones ate severely affected by New Mexico at first and Europeans later. Their sources to survive depleted by the influx of emigrants. Treaties were formed but mostly were not implemented. Political solutions were rarely followed and ultimately the US forces took many lives in their campaigns against tribes (Beer River massacre)
January 13, 2025
Excellent, excellent book. As I thought, this is the result of a doctoral dissertation on the Utes and Shoshones in the Great Basin from the 1830s to the present. The fact that the Utes made it through the Indian Wars after the Civil War is a monument to the strength of the Utah Nation, and nothing that Samuel Clemens wrote about them in Roughing It is strictly true. Very well done, Ned.
March 7, 2025
Na to, že knižka bola pomerne rozsiahla a venovala sa v celku úzkemu územiu zvanému Great Basin na ktorom sídlili Shoshone, Paiute a Ute, moje očakávania boli predsa len väčšie. Pre neznalého je to bohatý zdroj informácií, no pre znalého sú tu v podstate rovnaké informácie, aké sa dozvie z kníh, kde toto územie je len okrajovou kapitolou.
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