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The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent. By Kathleen DuVaI. Early American Studies. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, c. 2006. Pp. [x], 320. Paper, $22.50, ISBN 978-0-8122-1939-5; cloth, $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8122-3918-8.)
Kathleen DuVal offers us a new interpretation of the history of Indian peoples and colonists in North America and an examination of one of the least-studied regions of the continent. Her thesis and her subject will challenge scholars to rethink Indian-colonist encounters and challenge the strict geographical constructions we call South and West. In Du Val's hands the Arkansas River Valley is a region unto itself, full of contradictions and surprises.
In the introduction DuVaI distinguishes her concept of a "native ground" from historian Richard White's image of a "middle ground." She also reminds us that the concept of a middle ground has limits-a point White made in a recent William and Mary Quarterly essay (3rd ser., 63 [January 2006]). Tribal cohesion is one of the distinctions DuVal makes...