First Americans: A History of Native Peoples

Now in its third edition, First Americans has been fully updated to trace Native Americans' experiences through the 2020 election and the Biden administration, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women. This book provides a comprehensive history of Native Americans from their earliest appearances in North America to the present, highlighting the complexity and diversity of their cultures and experiences. Contrasting the misconception that Native Americans were consistently victims without power, native voices permeate the text and shape its narrative, underlining the vitality of native peoples and cultures in the context of regional, continental, and global developments. The new edition highlights the role of Native Americans as agents of resistance and progress, rooted in the perspective that their activism has been instrumental throughout history and in the present day. To enrich student understanding, the book also includes a variety of pedagogical tools including short biographical profiles, key review questions, a rich series of maps and illustrations, chapter chronologies, a glossary, and recommendations for further reading. Spanning centuries of developments into the present day, First Americans is the approachable, essential student introduction to Native American history.

Kenneth W. Townsend earned his Ph.D. in American History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991, two years after joining the faculty of the Department of History at Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In addition to his teaching and university service responsibilities, Townsend served as Chair of the Department of History and established the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Coastal Carolina University, acting as its director for two years. He is the author of World War II and the American Indian (2000), South Carolina (On the Road Histories) (2008), and varied articles.

1. Native North America before European Contact 2. Native Peoples and European Newcomers 982-1585 3. Spanish Borderlands, 1527-1758 4. Europeans and the Eastern Woodlands to 1689 5. Native Americans and European Empire, 1700-1763 6. The Indians' Revolution, 1763-1814 7. Removal, 1801-1846 8. Western Indians and the United States, 1800-1850 9. The Civil War Years, 1861-1865 10. Conflicting Postwar Directions, 1865-1877 11. The Struggle for Cultural Identity, 1877-1910 12. Progressivism and World War I: Charting Their Own Course in the Twentieth Century, 1900-1920 13. Postwar Directions for Native Americans, 1918-1929 14. The Great Depression, 1929-1940 15. American Indians Join the War Effort, 1940-1945 16. Redefining the Status of Native Americans in Post-World War II America, 1943-1962 17. Indian Activism in the Age of Liberalism, 1961-1980 18. Self-Determination to Decolonization: Native Americans into the Twenty-First Century 19. "We're Still Here"