This is a magnificent unfolding of the last 400 years in North America from the point of view of the indigenous nations there as colonists from European countries swarmed the continent seeking new homes, wealth, and LAND. It is impossible to do this book justice in a tiny space here. I waited for the paperback edition so I could make notes and underline with less guilt, because I knew it would be dense with information.Some surprises include how routine slavery has been throughout the continent and the world. Indigenous nations regularly hunted for captives from other indigenous nations, colonists, etc. Indigenous people had European and African slaves as well. Most European settlers paid for their passages to North America by fulfilling contracts as indentured servants. Even the Puritans participated in slave trade in the late 1600s, selling into slavery in the West Indies the indigenous Americans they captured in battles.Colonial Georgia was managed initially by "the Georgia trustees, a group of London reformers and humanitarians" who intended a colony for ordinary European farmers and workers, a home for the destitute. "There were to be no wars, no dispossession of Native Americans, no slavery, no lawyers, and no hard liquor." The governor of Georgia negotiated for protection by the Muskogee Confederacy. Things did not quite work according to the founding vision.Indigenous nations formed alliances and confederacies through kinship and negotiations among themselves and with colonists.Cherokees considered an individual without kin less than a person. "Catawbas called Europeans 'Nothings,' pitiful people who lacked kin ties and did not belong." So much misunderstanding and conflict occurred throughout the early years of contact.Entering into alliances and smoking the calumet, the colonists thought they were subjecting the natives for their kings back in Europe. At the same time the indigenous people thought the colonists were agreeing to come under their protection and become loyal subjects of the native nations.From early conflict in ways of farming, to trading for weapons and tools and horses, the indigenous people and the colonists fumbled their way along. Treaties were made and broken, lines were held and moved, indigenous nations were demoted to "tribes" as English colonists prevailed against French colonists.Smallpox and other diseases decimated great numbers of indigenous people, furthering the European colonial push westward to gain territory and perhaps find a magical passage to China trade.Indigenous people fought alongside European allies against common enemies as often as against one another. And in spite of great genocidal injustices and the superior technology of colonial powers, indigenous people dominated the continent for centuries after the first European arrivals and have retained and protected their own traditions and beliefs.The interactions of indigenous nations and Europeans and Africans produced more of a continent forged in fire than a "melting pot." Both ends of the ancient silk roads connected and made sparks.Oxford University Professor Pekka Hamalainen has written previous histories of the Lakota and Comanche nations, and I hope he continues publishing. In the meantime, his extensive footnotes and bibliography will lead me to further reading. I would love more maps and graphics in this survey. This is a book I will keep.