Volume 42, Number 15 · October 5, 1995
An American Tragedy
By Bernard Bailyn
The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities
by Colin G. Calloway
Cambridge University Press, 327 pp., $59.95; $16.95 (paper)
The American Revolution in Indian Country is an important and frustrating book, at once original and derivative, scholarly and polemical, subtle and obvious. It is a searing account of the impact of the Revolution on Indian life. The prologue, conclusion, and epilogue are highly readable, broadly interpretative, and moving; as independent essays they form a blistering indictment of the destructive effect of the Revolutionary War on the native peoples and of the racism of the nation that emerged from it. But the main, substantive chapters of the book are choked with detail and intricate narratives, meticulously glued to the documented sources and the innumerable writings on the subject. One has to struggle through dense and tangled episodes—of tribal factionalism, divided allegiances, microscopic shifting alliances, skirmishes, raids, captivities, devastations, and atrocities. Some of the complex accounts of borderland warfare during the Revolution throw clear light on major historical developments, but some prove to be dead ends—efforts that got nowhere and made little difference to the overall story of the Revolution's impact on the native American population, or vice versa.
Review, 3368 words
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