Thundersticks
Subtitle: firearms and the violent transformation of native America
By: David J. Silverman
Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 371
ISBN-13: 9780674737471
Subjects: Indians of North America; History; Firearms; Warfare; Treatment of Indians
Description: The adoption of firearms by Native Americans between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries marked a turning point in the history of North America's indigenous peoples--a cultural earthquake so profound, says David Silverman, that its impact has yet to be adequately measured. Thundersticks reframes our understanding of Native Americans' historical relationship with guns, arguing against the notion that Indians prized these weapons more for the pyrotechnic terror they inspired than their efficiency as tools of war. Native Americans fully recognized the potential of firearms to assist them in their struggles against colonial forces, and mostly against one another. The smoothbore, flintlock musket was Indians' stock firearm, and its destructive potential transformed their lives. For the deer hunters east of the Mississippi, the gun evolved into an essential hunting tool. Most importantly, well-armed tribes were able to capture and enslave their neighbors, plunder wealth, and conquer territory. Arms races erupted across North America, intensifying intertribal rivalries and solidifying the importance of firearms in Indian politics and culture. Though Native Americans grew dependent on guns manufactured in Europe and the United States, their dependence never prevented them from rising up against Euro-American power. Tribes such as the Seminoles, Blackfeet, and Lakotas remained formidably armed right up to the time of their subjugation. Far from being a Trojan horse for colonialism, firearms empowered Native Americans to pursue their interests and defend their political and economic autonomy over two centuries.--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-351) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: What Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull knew; title: Launching the Indian arms race; title: A vicious commerce: slaves and alliance for guns; title: Recoil: the fatal quest for arms during King Philip's War; title: Indian gunmen against the British Empire; title: Otters for arms; title: The Seminoles resist removal; title: Indian gunrunners in a wild West; title: The rise and fall of the centaur gunmen; title: Epilogue: AIM raises the rifle.