41 pages • 1 hour read
Daniel K. RichterFacing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Richter contends that after a long period of relatively peaceful coexistence between white settlers and Indigenous peoples, the Revolutionary generation created a “racialized world” that fostered division. Based on the book, what key political, cultural, and economic factors led to the establishment of this “racialized world”? What impact did this development have on future generations of Indigenous people in North America?
Richter quotes J. Hector St. John de Crévecoeur, who represented the archetypal American “new man” as “neither a European nor a descendant of a European.” In Richter’s view, what made American identity distinct from European identity? At what point in early American history did European colonists become American, as opposed to European?
What were the key differences between British-American and French-American colonial relations with Indigenous people? In what ways were these colonizers similar?
Richter speaks of “Indian country” as a contiguous network of cultures that was disrupted and fragmented by European colonization. Does this framework neglect the differences and even animosities between Indigenous groups? To what extent does a unified Indigenous identity emerge as a response to colonization?
What are some examples of Indigenous social practices that might have seemed “savage” to the European settlers? (Think in particular of practices during wartime or times of crisis like epidemics.) What are some European social practices that might have puzzled the Indigenous community?
Compare and contrast Pocahontas and Kateri Tekakwitha. How did they adopt or adapt to European ways, and how were their legacies treated after their deaths?
Discuss the main differences between Indigenous and Euro-American views of ownership and cultivation of the land. Was there any common ground between the two views?
Richter concedes that Apess’ Eulogy is “exaggerated, one-sided, propagandistic” (251) but no more so than some accounts of American history by white authors. What parts of Apess’s work might be viewed as exaggerated or one-sided? How does Apess offer a useful counterpoint to hagiographies of white historical heroes?
Describe the period of the Long Peace. What were the factors that led to it, and what events led to its dissolution?
On Page 251, Richter quotes Thomas Paine: “The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom.” Richter states ironically that “receive it many of that race did” and goes on to speak of “the new White Man’s republic.” Richter engages in a kind of wordplay here, shifting the meaning of the word “race” toward its modern sense, implying that Paine’s universalizing sentiment soon came to be explicitly restricted to white men. At what point did this shift in meaning occur? What political factors brought it about?
