Scan barcode
Reviews
Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West by Anne F. Hyde
pearseanderson's review
4.0
A really strong history I connected with and learned so much with, even though many of the specific characters were lost in the large cast or slow churn of the decades. Very emotional read that I'm glad I picked up.
aignerloren's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
geolatin's review
4.0
I couldn’t finish the book when I got to the wholesale genocide of the native peoples. That doesn’t mean this isn’t an excellent book. If only the kinship and cooperation of the earlier times hadn’t been destroyed by the greed of the early United States.
mepresley's review
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.75
A meticulously researched book with an interesting and worthwhile premise: exploring how intermarriage between Native and White or mixed-blood people were integral to social and economic success from the 1600s through the 1900s, and also how these same intermarriages shifted from being unproblematic to criminalized as the United States and White settlers took over more and more of the land.
At the beginning of the period, the fur trade took over the US and these intermarriages were crucial to success; they served a diplomatic function, and kinship was a protective and mutually beneficial decision, though it came at a cost to Native women who took risks in forging these connections. By the end of the period, intermarriages were viewed as problematic and in need of eradication to right the order of the world (white supremacy, the white man’s burden, “civilizing” the “savage”): Indians should only marry other Indians and they should serve the White world, but live separately from it. Blood quantum was used to determine land parceling on reservations (allotment), how much supervision a Native had from their guardian, and whether they could ever be on a path to US citizenship. It was also, of course, complete crap and many agents just guessed the fraction of Native blood based on appearance or did creative math with no basis in science.
Over the course of the narrative, white men working for the US government made bad treaties with the Natives, treaties which were broken over and over again regardless of Native behavior. In addition to blatant land grabs, and failures to provide promised rations of food and money, US troops purposefully attacked peace villages. Neither war nor peace could keep Natives safe across much of the US, and I was shocked by how much war there was during the period—certainly nothing I remember ever hearing about in school.
She chooses 5 families to follow: the Johnstons, who lived around the Great Lakes in Michigan; the McKays, who started in what is now Saskatchewan and ended up in Oregon; the Fontenelles and Drips, who began on the Missouri River in St Louis and went on to the Rocky Mountains; and the Bent family on the southern plains, near Mexico. War, business, and being pushed onto reservations meant that these families didn’t stay in one place, but her choice of families and locations allows her to explore different tribes and paint a fuller picture of what the US was like for Natives and mixed families during the period.
She does a nice job painting a picture of what the fur trade and day-to-day life were like, and also of the larger social-political background. She has chosen a lot of interesting events and stories, culled from many records and sources, and what could be a bit dry or boring instead gets brought vividly to life.
I enjoyed the maps and pictures, but I would have appreciated family trees. There are a lot of names, spanning multiple generations, and a handy reference would make reading easier. I’d also have liked a timeline—the kind that academic anthologies or editions of classic works of literature put at the beginning. I don’t think there was a better answer, but the organization of the book was imperfect; hopping from family to family in her roughly chronological approach often meant having to jump back in time a bit or interrupted the flow of the narrative when I was invested. It’s hard to be able to keep so many dates in your head, too.
At the beginning of the period, the fur trade took over the US and these intermarriages were crucial to success; they served a diplomatic function, and kinship was a protective and mutually beneficial decision, though it came at a cost to Native women who took risks in forging these connections. By the end of the period, intermarriages were viewed as problematic and in need of eradication to right the order of the world (white supremacy, the white man’s burden, “civilizing” the “savage”): Indians should only marry other Indians and they should serve the White world, but live separately from it. Blood quantum was used to determine land parceling on reservations (allotment), how much supervision a Native had from their guardian, and whether they could ever be on a path to US citizenship. It was also, of course, complete crap and many agents just guessed the fraction of Native blood based on appearance or did creative math with no basis in science.
Over the course of the narrative, white men working for the US government made bad treaties with the Natives, treaties which were broken over and over again regardless of Native behavior. In addition to blatant land grabs, and failures to provide promised rations of food and money, US troops purposefully attacked peace villages. Neither war nor peace could keep Natives safe across much of the US, and I was shocked by how much war there was during the period—certainly nothing I remember ever hearing about in school.
She chooses 5 families to follow: the Johnstons, who lived around the Great Lakes in Michigan; the McKays, who started in what is now Saskatchewan and ended up in Oregon; the Fontenelles and Drips, who began on the Missouri River in St Louis and went on to the Rocky Mountains; and the Bent family on the southern plains, near Mexico. War, business, and being pushed onto reservations meant that these families didn’t stay in one place, but her choice of families and locations allows her to explore different tribes and paint a fuller picture of what the US was like for Natives and mixed families during the period.
She does a nice job painting a picture of what the fur trade and day-to-day life were like, and also of the larger social-political background. She has chosen a lot of interesting events and stories, culled from many records and sources, and what could be a bit dry or boring instead gets brought vividly to life.
I enjoyed the maps and pictures, but I would have appreciated family trees. There are a lot of names, spanning multiple generations, and a handy reference would make reading easier. I’d also have liked a timeline—the kind that academic anthologies or editions of classic works of literature put at the beginning. I don’t think there was a better answer, but the organization of the book was imperfect; hopping from family to family in her roughly chronological approach often meant having to jump back in time a bit or interrupted the flow of the narrative when I was invested. It’s hard to be able to keep so many dates in your head, too.
melanierae's review against another edition
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
mugs_it_is's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
More...