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Thundersticks - Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America (Hardcover)
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Thundersticks - Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America (Hardcover)
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The adoption of firearms by American Indians between the
seventeenth and nineteenth centuries marked a turning point in the
history of North America's indigenous peoples-a cultural earthquake
so profound, says David Silverman, that its impact has yet to be
adequately measured. Thundersticks reframes our understanding of
Indians' historical relationship with guns, arguing against the
notion that they prized these weapons more for the pyrotechnic
terror guns inspired than for their efficiency as tools of war.
Native peoples fully recognized the potential of firearms to assist
them in their struggles against colonial forces, and mostly against
one another. The smoothbore, flintlock musket was Indians' stock
firearm, and its destructive potential transformed their lives. For
the deer hunters east of the Mississippi, the gun evolved into an
essential hunting tool. Most importantly, well-armed tribes were
able to capture and enslave their neighbors, plunder wealth, and
conquer territory. Arms races erupted across North America,
intensifying intertribal rivalries and solidifying the importance
of firearms in Indian politics and culture. Though American tribes
grew dependent on guns manufactured in Europe and the United
States, their dependence never prevented them from rising up
against Euro-American power. The Seminoles, Blackfeet, Lakotas, and
others remained formidably armed right up to the time of their
subjugation. Far from being a Trojan horse for colonialism,
firearms empowered American Indians to pursue their interests and
defend their political and economic autonomy over two centuries.
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