Description
Book SynopsisA fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South
In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoplesincluding Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicasinfluenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization.
Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or
