Customer Reviews

In Mohawk Country: Early Narratives About a Native People (Iroquois & Their Neighbors)

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As a Mohawk historian I am very impressed with this book, which brings together numerous source which may well have taken me years to find otherwise. It offers us insight into what the early colonists thought about as well as descriptions of what they saw and experienced in visiting the Mohawk villages. I would love to see a similar treatment of the other Iroquois nations as well as other aboriginal peoples. While there are a few accounts that may come across as racist to the modern reader, it is nevertheless an opportunity to "time travel" to the old Mohawk homeland. This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to study Mohawk history.

This is probably not a book you will read from cover to cover. It consists of an introduction and the writings of nearly 40 visitors to the Mohawk Valley of New York between 1634 and 1810. The focus is on the Mohawk tribe, the easternmost and perhaps the more important of the five nations of the Iroquois.

The Iroquois held the balance of power between competing French and British interests in North America for more than one hundred years until the French and Indian War ended in 1763. This position gives them outsized importance in American history despite their meager numbers which, after smallpox epidemics in 1635, was barely over 10,000 of which the Mohawk counted about 2,000.

The authors have accomplished a useful service in collecting between two covers this collection of primary sources on the Mohawks. Following an excellent introduction, the selections are presented as written with few notes and little explanatory material. Included are Dutch, French, British, Italian, and American writers. Some of the selections make for good reading; others are probably of interest only to specialists. For the enthusiast about early North American history, it's a good reference book to have on your shelf. I enjoy picking the book up now and then to read one or another of the selections.

Smallchief

I was disappointed by this book. It was difficult to read and offered no historical perspective on the narratives which were included. The narratives were interesting and certainly have a value of their own, but on the whole this book has more utility as a reference source than as entertainment.