In Mohawk Country: Early Narratives of a Native People

by Charles T. Gehring and William A. Starna

For centuries the history of the Mohawk Valley has been shaped by the complex relationships among the valley's native inhabitants, the Mohawk Indians, and its colonists, starting with the Dutch. In Mohawk Country collects for the first time the principal documentary narratives that reveal the full scope of this Mohawk-settler interaction. Some of the sources have never before been translated into English, and several have not been previously...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815604106
• ISBN13: 9780815604105
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

40 visitors to the Mohawk Indians

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

An important book on Mohawk history.

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.