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Native Americans in the Susquehanna River Valley, Past and Present (Stories of the Susquehanna)
Author(s): David J. Minderhout (Author)
- Publisher: Bucknell University Press (UK)
- Publication Date: 23 May 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 244 pages
- ISBN-10: 9781611484878
- ISBN-13: 1611484871
Book Description
This first volume in the new Stories of the Susquehanna Valley series describes the Native American presence in the Susquehanna River Valley, a key crossroads of the old Eastern Woodlands between the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay in northern Appalachia. Combining archaeology, history, cultural anthropology, and the study of contemporary Native American issues, contributors describe what is known about the Native Americans from their earliest known presence in the valley to the contact era with Europeans. They also explore the subsequent consequences of that contact for Native peoples, including the removal, forced or voluntary, of many from the valley, in what became a chilling prototype for attempted genocide across the continent. Euro-American history asserted that there were no native people left in Pennsylvania (the center of the Susquehanna watershed) after the American Revolution. But with revived Native American cultural consciousness in the late twentieth century, Pennsylvanians of native ancestry began to take pride in and reclaim their heritage. This book also tells their stories, including efforts to revive Native cultures in the watershed, and Native perspectives on its ecological restoration.
While focused on the Susquehanna River Valley, this collection also discusses topics of national significance for Native Americans and those interested in their cultures.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Native Americans in the Susquehanna River Valley, Past and Present differs from earlier published works about the Native Americans of Pennsylvania.
It is about projectile points and petroglyphs, but it is also about family histories, the ongoing efforts to reintroduce native languages into Pennsylvania and the spiritual values many contemporary Native Americans embrace. Its authors thus appropriately come from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, including anthropologists, historians, psychologists, enthomusicologists, and community leaders, many of whom have native heritage with roots in the Susquehanna country.
About the Author
David J. Minderhout is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania. In addition to his work with Native Americans in Pennsylvania, he has conducted research on creole languages in the southern Caribbean, African American English in the Washington, D.C., public schools, and Pennsylvania German traditional medicine. He is the coauthor of Invisible Indians: Native Americans in Pennsylvania and numerous scholarly articles.
