From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540-1715

by Robbie Ethridge

In this sweeping regional history, anthropologist Robbie Ethridge traces the metamorphosis of the Native South from first contact in 1540 by Hernando De Soto to the dawn of the eighteenth century, when indigenous people no longer lived in a purely Indian world but rather on the edge of an expanding European empire and in a new social landscape that included a large population of Europeans and Africans. Despite the fact that thousands of Indians died or were enslaved and virtually all Native polities were radically altered in these years, the collapse of this complex Mississippian world did not extinguish the Native peoples of the South but rather transformed them. Using a new interpretive framework that Ethridge calls the "Mississippian shatter zone" to explicate these tumultuous times, From Chicaza to Chickasaw examines the European invasion and the collapse of the precontact Mississippian world and the restructuring of discrete chiefdoms into coalescent Native societie

Genres: History, Anthropology, Archaeology, Native American, American History

360 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2010

Reviews

[Shrike58 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It turns out that this monograph is another example of a book I put on a reading list sometime ago, but which by the time I got to it I'm not sure it was worth the investment of time. Considering how little time Ethridge spends on the actual Chickasaw Nation, I suspect that you'd be better off just reading Alan Galley's "The Indian Slave Trade" and Charles Hudson's "Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun;" books that Ethridge makes extensive use of and which read much cleaner as narratives.

Apart from that, what Ethridge does best is try to synthesize a mass of archaeological data into a coherent examination of how assorted "Indian" communities scattered and regrouped under the pressure of contact with the European colonial powers, and their "native" mercenaries. The problem there is that I can't imagine that fifteen years after publication a significantly different take might not have emerged; I'm just not aware of what that new synthesis might be! Maybe "The Historical Turn in Southeastern Archaeology," a collection partially edited by Ethridge published in 2020.

So, not a total throwaway, but it might soon be.

Given the option I could be charitable enough to give this a 3.5.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narrative of the region's transformation gets lost in the myriad details of tribe names, archeological sites, etc. The Chickasaw are discussed frequently but they do not seem central to the narrative. Someone looking for a careful analysis of Chickasaw history and culture may be disappointed.. Interesting history, just not very readable.

[Bob Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This treatise describes the impact on the civilizations of the Native Americans in the South and Southeast of North America from the time of de Soto's expedition of 1540 to 1715, when the triumph of English, French and Spanish colonization became inevitable. It is an academic work, but it is more than that. With a little imagination, it might become a history of "first contact" at many places around the globe when two entirely different cultures meet and begin the complicated process of education, trade, competition and conflict that results too often in victory for one or the other. There was an established Indian culture in the Mississippi River valley extending east to the Atlantic when the various Europeans arrived. These cultures shared in various degrees a theology and a pattern of behavior based on agriculture, raiding, and slavery. The Europeans seized on the potential of this culture to exploit Indian rivalries to vastly expand the system of Indian slavery for the benefit of the European colonies. The Spanish wrapped their plans in the spread of their faith. The English focused on commercial profit, their colonies acting as forward entrepots for the spread of European capitalism. The French were the most respectful of the integrity of Indian culture and tried with little success to form alliances with tribes north and east of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to hold off the English and the Spanish. In the end, facing uneven odds and unable to overcome their own traditional rivalries to unite against the Europeans, the Native American culture collapsed. This "shatter" zone was the creation of the Europeans and expanded for nearly two hundred years until the indigenous cultures buckled beneath the onslaught. I guarantee that you will not think of Native American culture and the impact of European contact in the same way ever again. Yes, the book is academic and filled with details that will excite many, but not all. I found the accomplishment superb. It brought together events half a continent wide and lasting for decades to leave an indelible picture. Maps are plentiful and enlightening, better in the hard copy (expensive) than the Kindle version. The book is a profound addition to a history that almost none of us ever heard, thanks to the scholarship of Robbie Etheridge and many others cited in his notes and bibliography.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came upon this book during a visit to the Chickasaw Cultural Center, Sulphur OK. Attracted by its promise of linking the history of the group to its Mississippian culture roots and of the group’s evolution during the period of European colonialism, author/archeologist Robbie Ethridge has filled that promise and far more.
Ethridge provides a comprehensive accounting of the transformation from the late Mississippian era found among native Americans throughout the south-eastern United States through the period of first contacts with Europeans and the development of the “Mississippian shatter zone” and continuing into the period of the dominance by European colonial powers in the early 18th century. The Chickasaw/Chicaza are regularly present throughout the tale, but so are dozens and dozens of other named groups as Ethridge recounts the ebbs and flows of territorial control, the networks of alliances and enemy relations throughout the region and beyond. Throughout, we’re provided a clear picture of the regular shifting of group identities, the processes by which groups transformed or broke apart and were absorbed by other groups – the rise and fall of chiefdoms in the Mississippian era, the fall of chiefdoms accompanying the introduction of European exploration (beginning with Hernando de Soto’s trek through the region draining the resources of hosting chiefdoms along the way, destabilizing the existing inter-group relations) and growing trade relations with Europeans. We see the changing extent of slave-taking from Mississippian-era patterns through simple trade of slaves with Europeans for other goods and into a period of European manipulation of Indian-group relations in service of competing European imperial interests, ultimately speeding the disintegration of many native American groups as the slave trade depleted populations through capture or death during inter-group raids. We see the emergence of a colonial period in which native “nations” or “confederacies” remain in contact with the European colonists - with group names more familiar to most of us than the many we’ve encountered in Ethridge’s summary of the archeological and historical records of earlier days – the “Creek Confederacy, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Catawba, and the Caddo confederacies” (pp. 252-253).
Ethridge has painted for us a picture of the flow of native group memberships and identities, the impacts of a long period of European interaction, and the resulting pattern of native groups in the southeastern part of the continent as the colonial period solidified and the European powers continued to work out their own relations in this far-off land. It’s a fascinating read!

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

expertly researched and well written. The book suffers from decidedly poor quality editing though which detracts from the overall experience of the work.