“The Chiefs Now in This City:” Indians and the Urban Frontier in Early America. By Colin G. Calloway

Abstract

The amazing Colin Calloway has produced yet another wonderful—and important—book. This book should and will be used by those teaching courses in Native and colonial history because Calloway brings the two together—in the process, confounding stereotypes and thankfully pushing us ever farther from Turner’s binaries and dividing lines. He notes that “Boundaries between colonial communities and Indian country were porous: people came and went; raided and traded; ate, drank, and smoked together; slept together” (p. 72). Calloway increases the visibility of all. In Chapter 3, Calloway focuses on “the other Indians in town,” those who worked and lived in or near the city—including sailors, traders, slaves. Some became embedded in the urban poor and appeared in court records. The rest of the chapters track visitors to the cities, there for a variety of purposes, including touristic curiosity, but many on diplomatic missions who had been invited by colonial officials. Chapter 4 examines the sad realities of these cities as disease environments in the eighteenth century. Temporary visits could lead to permanent residence in burial grounds. Subsequent chapters cover lodging and dining in both private residences and commercial establishments such as Oeller’s Hotel in Philadelphia. For me, three of the most fascinating moments in the book are the shared Gregorian chant in New Orleans in 1730 between Ursuline nuns and Catholic Illinois Indians “responding in their own language” (p. 150); a frank assessment by Little Turtle (Miami), in conversation with the Comte de Volney in Philadelphia in 1798, on what he would be able to say or do were he to live in Philadelphia (p. 140); and truly unforgettable scenes of Native guests attending events given by Tammany societies in New York and Philadelphia (pp. 164–65). The spectacle of visiting chiefs and society “sachems” exchanging speeches and toasts ought to produce lively classroom discussions about performance and authenticity.