A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815

Gregory Dowd provides an interesting look at how native Americans banded together against Europeans and the United States in his book A Spirited Resistance. This book tracks the major gatherings and prophets that met to try and unify Indians across familial and tribal lines. While many were not successful there was interregional collaboration which provided a new dimension to Indian affairs. One of the unique aspects of this book is that it shows the European classification of each tribe as a nation may not have been necessary as the Indians began to redefine their own place in society. While the book places the majority of the reasons for pan-indianism as religious it is very clear that they were primarily realpolitik calculations. They would be almost entirely realpolitik calculations expect for the almost unexplainable fact that they continued to fight with bows and arrows despite the access to guns. Dowd tracks the major events well in this book and if you are starting out looking at Indians and the government than this is a very good place to start. While it is not ideal for looking at individual tribes (see my other reviews for books on tribes portrayed in the book) it does provide an excellent view of how the Indians found common ground with one another. The book is easy to read and covers a wide range of years in a short amount of pages. If you are looking at the correlation of disparate tribes coming together than this will help tremendously in gaining an understanding of how culturally different peoples come together. It tracks tribes from the great lakes to the gulf coast and is truly an amazing feat given what is necessary to understand all of these groups. Overall I think more attention could have been paid to other explanations than religion which is why the book is a four out of five. Still very interesting and well worth a read.

Public school teachers like Tecumseh. He's one of those "Noble Redmen" (along with Chief Joseph, Cochise, Osceola, etc.) that social studies teachers and textbooks always include. However, most elementary, junior high, even high school teachers know little of Native American history in any serious depth. We tend to jump from the culture group to the heroic individual and the terminal event (e.g., battle, treaty) with no stops inbetween. "A Spirited Resistance" provides a excellent context for events of the late colonial, revolutionary, and early national eras of U.S. history. In a modest 200 pages, Dowd provides an intellectual background that makes possible a deeper understanding of figures such as Tecumseh & Black Hawk and events such as the battles of Fallen Timbers & Tippecanoe. I strongly recommend the book, not only to teachers but to history buffs in general.

In his book, A Spirited Resistance, Gregory Evans Dowd sheds new light on a familiar subject, the Native American plight during Colonial and early American history. Through reinterpretation of historical events and a close examination of native spirituality, Dowd argues that Native Americans struggled for and nearly achieved intertribal unity in their fight against Anglo domination from 1745-1815. While most scholars, and even the general public, consider Native Americans to be an extremely religious people, historians focus on more secular factors to define native motivations and the underlying causes of events. Dowd builds on the work of other historians who focus on a narrow subject to create a new broader view that he categorizes as a "New Cultural History" (Dowd xxiii). In so doing, Dowd's work becomes an excellent companion text for classic works such as Jennings' three-volume masterpiece. Dowd concludes that nativist movements ultimately succeeded and failed because of opposition by accomodationist factions. He supports this seemingly contradictory statement through extensive research and persuasive examples. Nativist prophets and adherents gained followers because they could point to the failures of accomodationist policies. While the movement started on the fringes of various tribes, it spread until it almost achieved dominance. The natives fulfilled some of their aims, but they remained unable to eliminate the opposition within. As Anglo efforts increased, the accomodationists restrengthened their monopoly on Native American followers. As Dowd says, the opposition doomed the nativist movement. The great tragedy, of course, is that both movements failed to safeguard the native lands and lifestyles. While intertribal unity may have eluded the natives during the time and regions that Dowd's book covers, the work foreshadows later efforts--both the failed Great Plains movement to expel the whites during the late nineteenth century and the current native activists' efforts for equality and improved conditions. Beginning in the 1960's, the American Indian Movement (AIM) began massive efforts to unite Indians all across the nation to regain their lost power. Dowd's text illustrates how important intertribal unity is for the sacred power to return. (Rebecca McMurrin)