Publication Announcement – Native America: A State by State Historical Encyclopaedia
Last month Greenwood press released Native America: A State by State Historical Encyclopaedia. This new release, edited by Daniel S. Murphee, brings together experts from across the field to author fifty individual chapters which provide a broad overview of Indian history in the United States from the prehistoric era to the modern period. Taking part in this project really was an interesting experience for me because, at the time I became involved, I was still a PhD candidate very much focused on my micro-study of the Kentucky frontier. Sadly for me, the chapter on Kentucky had already been assigned by the time I found the call for contributors but I was able to pen a chapter on the state of Illinois, something which required me to look outside of my specific research field. Of course, Illinois was very much a part of the history I was researching at that time (though it was not the focus of it) and, as such, a jump north of the Ohio River wasn’t particularly jarring. Nor was a focus upon Native American history a particularly big change for me. What was different about this project was the much broader chronology I would have to contend with – whereas I had previously worked on a period covering no more than a few decades I now had to contend with a period of over ten thousand years. That was quite a change.
The state-by-state nature of this work also complicated matters. In Illinois, for instance, the Mississippian culture played an incredibly important role but this group existed far beyond the reaches of the state’s modern borders. Because of this, it was not possible to write a full account of any one people as only part of their history was contained within Illinois’ borders; the Illinois Confederacy, for example, were removed from the state in the 1830s and, because of that, had only one part of their story told within my essay. At times this was a frustrating experience but, taking a step back, I was able to appreciate the benefits of this project’s approach. True, the use of modern states to define America’s aboriginal history may seem problematic but the collected essays in this work help to demonstrate just how fluid and changeable Native American history was, occurring not just in one location but, in some cases at least, across the breadth of the continent. In many ways it seemed a shame that a group I was discussing could only be given a partial history in my essay but the nature of this project meant that a story partially told in one area could be picked up in another area, another essay. Far from limiting, then, I found the experience quite liberating as it forced me to reconsider the relationship between place, people, and chronology. The aboriginal history of Illinois was not the story of a set group of historic actors – it was a history of a place through which various groups passed over a massive time-scale. In this region groups, such as the Mississippians, appeared, flourished, and broke apart only to be replaced by newer tribal groups. In short this was a history of place – the peoples who expressed that history being prone to continuous change and cultural evolution.
Native America: A State by State Historical Encyclopaedia is out now. You can read more about it on Greenwood Press’s website and on Amazon.com
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