Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hamalainen
The first comprehensive history of the Lakota Indians and their profound role in shaping Americas history
Named One of the New York Times Critics Top Books of 2019Named One of the 10 Best History Books of 2019 by Smithsonian MagazineWinner of the MPIBA Reading the West Book Award for Narrative Nonfiction
All nations deserve to have their stories told with this degree of attentiveness.Parul Sehgal, New York Times
A brilliant, bold, gripping history.Simon Sebag Montefiore, London Evening Standard, Best Books of 2019
Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull are iconic figures in the American imagination, but in this groundbreaking book they emerge as something different: the architects of Lakota America, an expansive and enduring Indigenous regime that commanded human fates in the North American interior for generations. In this first complete account of the Lakota Indians, Pekka Hamalainen traces their rich and often surprising history from the early sixteenth to the early twentyfirst century. He explores the Lakotas roots as marginal huntergatherers and reveals how they reinvented themselves twice: first as a river people who dominated the Missouri Valley, Americas great commercial artery, and thenin what was Americas first sweeping westward expansionas a horse people who ruled supreme on the vast high plains.
Deeply researched and engagingly written, thishistory places the Lakotas at the center of American history, and the results are revelatory.
Named One of the New York Times Critics Top Books of 2019Named One of the 10 Best History Books of 2019 by Smithsonian MagazineWinner of the MPIBA Reading the West Book Award for Narrative Nonfiction
All nations deserve to have their stories told with this degree of attentiveness.Parul Sehgal, New York Times
A brilliant, bold, gripping history.Simon Sebag Montefiore, London Evening Standard, Best Books of 2019
Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull are iconic figures in the American imagination, but in this groundbreaking book they emerge as something different: the architects of Lakota America, an expansive and enduring Indigenous regime that commanded human fates in the North American interior for generations. In this first complete account of the Lakota Indians, Pekka Hamalainen traces their rich and often surprising history from the early sixteenth to the early twentyfirst century. He explores the Lakotas roots as marginal huntergatherers and reveals how they reinvented themselves twice: first as a river people who dominated the Missouri Valley, Americas great commercial artery, and thenin what was Americas first sweeping westward expansionas a horse people who ruled supreme on the vast high plains.
Deeply researched and engagingly written, thishistory places the Lakotas at the center of American history, and the results are revelatory.