Indigenous Continent Quotes

“North American Indians had experimented with ranked societies and all-powerful spiritual leaders and had found them deficient and dangerous. They had opted for more horizontal, participatory, and egalitarian ways of being in the world”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“power is defined as the ability of people and their communities to control space and resources, to influence the actions and perceptions of others, to hold enemies at bay, to muster otherworldly beings, and to initiate and resist change”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“The Dutch had begun to develop an imperial mindset—a toxic blend of ambition and arrogance, all fueled by fear.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“Just as the Reconquista had prepared the Spanish for conquests in the Americas, so, too, did the English carry into North America an experience of conquest, accrued during the long and violent Tudor conquest of Ireland.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“fighting on their homelands, the Indians did not need to win battles and wars; they just needed not to lose them.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“Although the Calusas knew what to expect, Ponce de León knew very little about the land and people he meant to seize through the doctrine of terra nullius, “empty land” or “no-man’s-land.” In reality, Florida was home to some 350,000 Indians.1”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“Their ideal society was a boundless commonwealth that could be—at least in theory—extended to outsiders, infinitely.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“This sweeping retreat from hierarchies, elite dominance, and large-scale urbanization may have turned North America—along with Australia—into the world’s most egalitarian continent at the time.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“By 1500 BCE, the Indigenous worlds in North America were flourishing, built on kelp, acorns, hunting, and fishing, and laying the foundation for later civilizations.16”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“It is certain that before Christian Nations visited this continent, we were the sole Lords of the soil.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“shortgrass grazing. They literally shrank—over millennia—to survive the shifting conditions in the arid West, becoming lighter, faster, and more mobile.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

“Their tactics were altogether hideous, and many Whites recoiled in disgust.”
― Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America