Indigenous Continent

The Epic Contest for North America

By: Pekka Hamalainen

Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab

Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

There is an old, deeply rooted story about America that goes like this: Columbus "discovers" a strange continent and brings back tales of untold riches. The European empires rush over, eager to stake out as much of this astonishing "New World" as possible. Though Indigenous peoples fight back, they cannot stop the onslaught. White imperialists are destined to rule the continent, and history is an irreversible march toward Indigenous destruction.

In Indigenous Continent, acclaimed historian Pekka Hämäläinen presents a sweeping counternarrative that shatters the most basic assumptions about American history. Shifting our perspective away from Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, the Revolution, and other well-trodden episodes on the conventional timeline, he depicts a sovereign world of Native nations whose members, far from helpless victims of colonial violence, dominated the continent for centuries after the first European arrivals.

Hämäläinen ultimately contends that the very notion of "colonial America" is misleading, and that we should speak instead of an "Indigenous America" that was only slowly and unevenly becoming colonial. Necessary listening for anyone who cares about America's past, present, and future, Indigenous Continent restores Native peoples to their rightful place at the very fulcrum of American history.

©2022 Pekka Hämäläinen (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A Good Overview of History and decent performance

The author gets a few details wrong here and there, but overall gives a pretty good overview of the history of Indigenous peoples and their interactions with European and later powers, with care given to the Indigenous point of view.
The narrator pronounces a lot of non-English words wrong, including Spanish ones, and it gets very distracting later on when he keeps saying "pee-cos" but his performance is decent.

Great Listen, bringing forward many native perspectives

This listen describes many of the precarious situations native nations faced throughout history, and does not always favor colonists. Great illustration of relationships between warring nations in contest over possession of land. It has many good illustrations of the disproportionate violence that was inflicted on tribes. It went chronologically in many instances which made it easier to follow.

An Indigenous view of American history

Great book overall, well overdue. My only criticism is the reader mispronounces many Native words and names. Easy for non Natives to miss (or mispronounce) but the author took the time to get the names correct, and I wish the narrator would’ve as well.

indigenous Continent

This is an in-depth history of the relations between the many Indigenous tribes of North America and the European explorers and settlers. It's a welcome antidote to the simplistic story of "Settlers vs Indians", taking into account the differences between Indigenous Nations and the varying approaches of the different European nations. I have a major problem with the audio book reading. The reader consistently and spectacularly mangles the many French names and places, And there are a lot. Seriously, nobody sat him down and gave him a phonetic guide to the French terms in the book? And his mangling isn't even consistent. Every time he says the name of the town Sault Ste Marie, he pronounces it differently. This is a major flaw and with a book of this importance seems inexplicable.

Good Overview - Huge Scope

Very large scope of time and geography. Basically anything native related from the original populating of the North America continent up through the 20th century. It covers all geographies and people from east to west. I thought it was well done and fairly engaging for what it is - it would be a great initial or early read on these topics. As it doesn’t have the time to get really deep into any one story there are a variety of other books that obviously get more deep and thorough with specific topics

An Outside Perspective

Hanalainen did the research required to give this history a fresh perspective. He gave voice to previously unknown Native leaders (especially 17th century) by finding and then including their interactions with the various European. This broadens the reader’s (oops, listener’s) contextual understanding of a period that has been decidedly unilateral.

Comprehensive

A good comprehensive review of Euro/Native interaction. Should be taught in primary schools. It does bounce around, so not one you can casually listen too.

A modicum of truth in the hazy past of colonialism.

My eyes are opened wider to the brutality of European ideas of conquest, domination, and ownership. And it pains me further.

Mostly very good

Most of the book was fair and factual. The last quarter or so of the book was told with little view from the victims of Indian atrocities. The Minnesota massacre portion does not align with contemporary books for instance. The disputed reason for the start of the Wounded Knee massacre is left out but included by Black Elk and other books. Makes this book opinion and not a resource. Too bad an effort of this magnitude didn’t curate the truth.
The narration is very staccato which became annoying.

Panglossian Fantasy

I don’t believe PH has spent much time on a rez or around the incredibly racist areas around them? If he has and still comes away with this fairytale ending, well then he’s delusional.