Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians out of Existence in New England

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Those in Native American studies wrestle with the frequent inability of non-Native people to recognize the presence of contemporary Native Americans: "Why are non-Natives apparently blind when it comes to recognizing their Native American neighbors?" Jean O'Brien's Firsting and Lasting presents a compelling answer as she traces the myth of "Indian extinction" to the very origins of colonial America. In a tantalizing historiography drawing upon New England's local histories, commemorations, maps, monuments, and orations from 1820 to 1880, O'Brien reveals the creation of blinding ideologies that allowed non-Native New Englanders to claim themselves "native," even while the indigenous inhabitants remained and politically defied New England narratives of "vanishing Indians."

Firsting and Lasting breaks into four main chapters, "Firsting" and "Replacing," which depict the rhetorical tactics non-Natives used to declare both...