About This Book

The Role of Native Americans in the Founding of America’s First Major Border Towns

In 1811, while escorting members of John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company up the Columbia River, their Chinookan guide refused to advance beyond a particular point that marked a boundary between his people and another indigenous group. Long before European contact, Native Americans created and maintained recognized borders, ranging from family hunting and fishing properties to larger tribal territories to vast river valley regions. Within the confines of these respective borders, the native population often established permanent settlements that acted as the venues for the major political, economic, and social activities that took place in virtually every part of precolonial North America. It was the location of these native settlements that played a major role in the establishment of the first European, and later, American frontier towns.

In Settling the Frontier: Urban Development in America’s Borderlands, 1600–1830, historian Joseph P. Alessi examines how the Pecos, Mohawk, Ohioan, and Chinook tribal communities aided Europeans and Americans in the founding of five of America’s earliest border towns—Santa Fe (New Mexico), Fort Amsterdam (New York City), Fort Orange (Albany, New York), Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), and Fort Astoria (Portland, Oregon). Filling a void in scholarship about the role of Native American communities in  the settlement of North America, Alessi reveals that, although often resistant to European and American progress or abused by it, Indians played an integral role in motivating and assisting Europeans with the establishment of frontier towns. In addition to the location of these towns, the native population was often crucial to the survival of the settlers in unfamiliar and unforgiving environments. As a result, these new towns became the logistical and economic vanguards for even greater development and exploitation of North America.

Joseph P. Alessi teaches history at Youngstown State University. A retired US Army lieutenant colonel, he earned an MA from Youngstown State University and a PhD in history from St. Louis University. He has taught at the United States Military Academy, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Pittsburgh. He is a contributor to Studies of Changing Societies, The International Encyclopedia of Military History, TheEncyclopedia of American Indian Wars, and Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty.

Praise for Settling the Frontier:

“The importance of Indian peoples to the development of the frontier is perhaps not as undervalued as Alessi contends, but under his examination their unmistakable importance is made clear. Despite that, it is both ironic and tragic that Native American assistance proved so crucial to the success of the Euroamerican urban centers that become the epicenters from which Indian expulsion would emanate. The familiar realization that Indian people would not reap the benefits of frontier development lies at the end of Alessi’s analysis, yet it does not diminish their important place in the shared world of the early American frontier. Alessi has done an admirable job centering Indian contributions in this synthesis, which should prove valuable for both scholarly and popular audiences.”—Journal of American History

“Alessi argues that pre-European population centers in North America ultimately supported the development of later urban centers. In a transcontinental view, he identifies such locales as fundamental to the expansion of colonial urban locations. In ways reminiscent of historian H. E. Bolton’s thesis regarding the importance of studying the US within the broader history of the Americas, the author surveys the expanse of Native American settlements. This volume would be suitable for an advanced undergraduate seminar. Recommended for all libraries with strong collections in Native American studies and graduate programs in American history.”—Choice