Lakota America

A New History of Indigenous Power

By: Pekka Hamalainen

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

The first comprehensive history of the Lakota Indians and their profound role in shaping America's history

This first complete account of the Lakota Indians traces their rich and often surprising history from the early 16th to the early 21st century. Pekka Hämäläinen explores the Lakotas' roots as marginal hunter-gatherers and reveals how they reinvented themselves twice: first as a river people who dominated the Missouri Valley, America's great commercial artery, and then - in what was America's first sweeping westward expansion - as a horse people who ruled supreme on the vast high plains.

The Lakotas are imprinted in American historical memory. Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull are iconic figures in the American imagination, but in this groundbreaking book they emerge as something different: the architects of Lakota America, an expansive and enduring Indigenous regime that commanded human fates in the North American interior for generations. Hämäläinen's deeply researched and engagingly written history places the Lakotas at the center of American history, and the results are revelatory.

©2019 Pekka Hämäläinen (P)2019 Tantor

Outstanding History of the Lakota People

This is an outstanding and detailed history of the Lakota people from their habitation of the Upper Minnesota Valley in the mid-17th century through their westward expansion to the Powder River Valley and eventual near extermination by bouts of disease such as small pox and war waged by expansionist white populations. The Lakota had a remarkable history of adaptation of horse culture and firearms use that facilitated their expansionist culture and displacement of less aggressive/competitive tribes (e.g., Chippewa, Cree, Crow) as they moved West. Many treaties were made with the American Government along the way that were quickly forgot once more territory was desired for mining/farming by an even more aggressive and technologically advanced white, European-origin culture.

What an eye=opening history

I learned a lot from this well-written and well-read book. The Lakotas were an equal empire to the US until after the Civil War. They succeeded because of their ability to adapt -- to be shapeshifters.

Overall Value

narrator was hard to hear clearly from time to time.. Overall a good value and enlightening regarding the early Sioux Empire and its growth.

good book enjoyed

it is good book enjoyed if a lot..great info. well written. recommend it to any one.

Great audiobook.

A great audiobook that showcases a post-colonial mindset of the Lakota people, who reinvented themselves twice to maintain power in the face of a domineering Imperial power.