Indigenous Borderlands - by Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez

About the Book

Hemispheric in its scope, unique in its approach, this work significantly recasts our understanding of the important roles played by Native agents in constructing indigenous borderlands in the era of European imperialism.

Book Synopsis

Pervasive myths of European domination and indigenous submission in the Americas receive an overdue corrective in this far-reaching revisionary work. Despite initial upheavals caused by the European intrusion, Native people often thrived after contact, preserving their sovereignty, territory, and culture and shaping indigenous borderlands across the hemisphere. Borderlands, in this context, are spaces where diverse populations interact, cross-cultural exchanges are frequent and consequential, and no polity or community holds dominion. Within the indigenous borderlands of the Americas, as this volume shows, Native peoples exercised considerable power, often retaining control of the land, and remaining paramount agents of historical transformation after the European incursion. Conversely, European conquest and colonialism were typically slow and incomplete, as the newcomers struggled to assert their authority and implement policies designed to subjugate Native societies and change their beliefs and practices.

Indigenous Borderlands covers a wide chronological and geographical span, from the sixteenth-century U.S. South to twentieth-century Bolivia, and gathers leading scholars from the United States and Latin America. Drawing on previously untapped or underutilized primary sources, the original essays in this volume document the resilience and relative success of indigenous communities commonly and wrongly thought to have been subordinated by colonial forces, or even vanished, as well as the persistence of indigenous borderlands within territories claimed by people of European descent. Indeed, numerous indigenous groups remain culturally distinct and politically autonomous.

Hemispheric in its scope, unique in its approach, this work significantly recasts our understanding of the important roles played by Native agents in constructing indigenous borderlands in the era of European imperialism.

Chapters 5, 6, 8, and 9 are published with generous support from the Americas Research Network.

Review Quotes

"The book provides compelling evidence for the "new" Native American history that focuses on Indigenous resilience, resistance, and adaptability rather than the "traditional' assessment that Native Americans were passive victims with limited agency and collapsing autonomy. The authors also make a convincing case on the desirability of and necessity of employing a multidisciplinary approach to amplify Indigenous voices and to throw fresh light on new types of evidence."-- Pacific Historical Review


"Although intended for an academic audience, this provocative volume provides general readers, as well, with a welcome introduction to ongoing scholarship, illuminating the active role of indigenous actors in the colonial history of the Americas."--The Roundup, Western Writers of America


"Hemispheric in its geographic scope, broad in its chronology, and interdisciplinary in its methods, this landmark work immerses readers in diverse indigenous societies, economies, and borderlands from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. The authors use new sources and approaches to highlight the active role of indigenous peoples living within and beyond the purview of empires and nations across the Western Hemisphere."--Yanna Yannakakis, author of Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico


"This collection of essays by eminent scholars gives us an up-to-the-minute state of the field of Native American studies from a breathtaking continental perspective."--Andrés Reséndez, author of Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery