Elusive Empires: Constructing Colonialism in the Ohio Valley, 1673-1800 by Eric Hinderaker

French and British trading and colonialism made the Ohio Valley a site of intercultural exchange, and Native Americans influenced and negotiated the process. Trading transformed Indian towns, politics, and culture, but these towns were often outside of imperial French and British control because trade “served local interests much more effectively than metropolitan imperial ones” (xii). In post-Revolution America, the pursuit of creating “an expansive, open-ended nation” undermined the idea of Native American sovereignty (236).

This photo is from a mural at Camp Marymount in Fairview, TN.