Includes bibliographical references (pages 569-596) and index.

This sweeping account traces the histories of the Native peoples of the American West from their arrival thousands of years ago to the early years of the nineteenth century. Colin G. Calloway depicts Indian country west of the Appalachians to the Pacific, with emphasis on conflict and change. Calloway's narrative includes: the first inhabitants and their early pursuit of big-game animals; the diffusion of corn and how it transformed American Indian life; the Spanish invasion and Indian resistance to Spanish colonialism; French-Indian relations in the heart of the continent; the diffusion of horses and horse culture; the collision of rival European empires and the experiences of Indian peoples whose homelands became imperial borderlands; and the dramatic events between the American Revolution and the arrival of Lewis and Clark. The account ends as a new American nation emerged independent of the British Empire, took over the trans-Mississippi West, and began to expand its own empire based on the concept of liberty and the acquisition of Indian land. This book offers a new look at the early history of the region--a blending of ethnohistory, colonial history, and frontier history. It features Native voices and perspectives; a fluid integration of a wide range of oral and archival sources from across the West; a reconstruction of cultural histories; and balanced consideration of controversial subjects and issues. Calloway offers a glimpse at the lives of generations of Native peoples in a western land soon to be overrun.