This extraordinary book is a recasting and retelling of virtually the entire history of the trans-Mississippi West from 1804 to about 1860. Its solid source foundation ranges from early fur-trade documents to the most recent monographs. It is amply illustrated with rarely seen visuals from many archives and replete with scores of real women and men-AngloAmerican, French, Native, and Metis. The focus is on family connections-marital, sexual, social, economic-and the crossing of racial boundaries and networks. Women are never absent, and their agency is evident. Every chapter opens with a vignette about a family member-man, woman, or child

Nugent, Walter

English

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for
Spring 2012
Review of Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of
the North American West, 1800-1860 by Anne F.
Hyde
Walter Nugent
Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly
Part of the American Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, and the United States
History Commons
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It
has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
Nugent, Walter, "Review of Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860 by Anne F. Hyde" (2012).
Great Plains Quarterly. 2765.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2765
BOOK REVIEWS 
Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the 
North American West, 1800-1860. By Anne F. 
Hyde. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 
2011. xv + 628 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, 
bibliography, index. $45.00. 
This extraordinary book is a recasting and 
retelling of virtually the entire history of the 
trans-Mississippi West from 1804 to about 
1860. Its solid source foundation ranges from 
early fur-trade documents to the most recent 
monographs. It is amply illustrated with rarely 
seen visuals from many archives and replete 
with scores of real women and men-Anglo-
American, French, Native, and Metis. The 
focus is on family connections-marital, 
sexual, social, economic-and the crossing of 
racial boundaries and networks. Women are 
never absent, and their agency is evident. Every 
chapter opens with a vignette about a family 
member-man, woman, or child. 
The book has three parts, forming a tightly 
wrought and impressive architecture. The first 
part, up to 1825, opens with a strong chapter on 
the fur trade, centering in St. Louis and extend-
ing northwestward to the upper reaches of the 
Missouri and Mississippi River systems. In the 
process, Anne Hyde achieves a genealogical 
triumph by unraveling the Chouteaus (many 
of the men were named Pierre or Auguste 
or both) and their spouses, both Native and 
white. This chapter alone will be essential 
reading for anyone interested in the fur trade 
in the Northern Plains and beyond. The next 
chapter recounts the history of Fort Vancouver 
and the McLoughlin family, including some 
pages on the Canadian Plains from the Selkirk 
141 
colony on west. The third chapter features the 
Bent family and their fort on the Arkansas, as 
well as Mariano Vallejo and John A. Sutter in 
northern California and Stephen A. Austin in 
Texas. 
In part 2 (1825-1840), consisting of two 
chapters on "The Mixed World of Indian 
Country," Hyde explains the problems caused 
by Indian "removal," which, with John Faragher, 
she candidly and correctly calls ethnic cleans-
ing. She also writes on the crowding of 
"removed" tribes onto land already occupied 
by others; on the Metis; and on the gradual 
shutting down of the fur trade. Intermarriage 
and gift-giving broke down "as land acquisi-
tion replaced trade as the central facet of the 
western political economy." This shift took 
years, but it eventually destroyed the familial 
and economic system of the early years of the 
century. 
Part 3, the final three chapters on "Imposing 
a State, 1840-1865," describes how the Mexican-
American War upset families and brought 
disorder, followed by "border wars" in the 1850s 
from the central Plains to Texas, California, 
and the Pacific Northwest, to the 1862 Sioux 
uprising in Minnesota and the Sand Creek 
massacre in 1864. By 1860 the American state 
"had just begun to use its muscle," and with it 
came "racial definition.... Does it mean any-
thing to be labeled a 'half-breed' or a Mexican 
when you used to be a Bent or a Californio? 
Can you talk or buy your way out of racial label-
ing?" 
The book includes well-crafted pages on 
(to pick a few of many topics at random) 
the Osages, the Comanches, the Mormon 
142 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2012 
exodus from Illinois to Utah, the California 
and Colorado gold rushes and their ruinous 
impacts on family and trade networks, and 
much more. Throughout it all, families reap-
pear-the Chouteaus, Sibleys, and Sublettes, 
Benjamin (Benito) Davis Wilson, the Vallejos, 
the McLoughlins, the Kit Carsons, and others, 
nearly all of them mixtures of Anglo, French, 
Native, and Spanish. Students of the Great 
Plains and the nineteenth-century West in 
general, at whatever level, will be well rewarded 
by a reading of Anne Hyde's fine book. 
WALTER NUGENT 
Highland Park, Illinois 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 


Review of \u3ci\u3eEmpires, Nations, and Families: A History of the
North American West, 1800-1860\u3c/i\u3e by Anne F. Hyde

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska - LincolnDigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - LincolnGreat Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center forSpring 2012Review of Empires, Nations, and Families: A History ofthe North American West, 1800-1860 by Anne F.HydeWalter NugentFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterlyPart of the American Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, and the United StatesHistory CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Ithas been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.Nugent, Walter, "Review of Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860 by Anne F. Hyde" (2012).Great Plains Quarterly. 2765.http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2765BOOK REVIEWS Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860. By Anne F. Hyde. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011. xv + 628 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $45.00. This extraordinary book is a recasting and retelling of virtually the entire history of the trans-Mississippi West from 1804 to about 1860. Its solid source foundation ranges from early fur-trade documents to the most recent monographs. It is amply illustrated with rarely seen visuals from many archives and replete with scores of real women and men-Anglo-American, French, Native, and Metis. The focus is on family connections-marital, sexual, social, economic-and the crossing of racial boundaries and networks. Women are never absent, and their agency is evident. Every chapter opens with a vignette about a family member-man, woman, or child. The book has three parts, forming a tightly wrought and impressive architecture. The first part, up to 1825, opens with a strong chapter on the fur trade, centering in St. Louis and extend-ing northwestward to the upper reaches of the Missouri and Mississippi River systems. In the process, Anne Hyde achieves a genealogical triumph by unraveling the Chouteaus (many of the men were named Pierre or Auguste or both) and their spouses, both Native and white. This chapter alone will be essential reading for anyone interested in the fur trade in the Northern Plains and beyond. The next chapter recounts the history of Fort Vancouver and the McLoughlin family, including some pages on the Canadian Plains from the Selkirk 141 colony on west. The third chapter features the Bent family and their fort on the Arkansas, as well as Mariano Vallejo and John A. Sutter in northern California and Stephen A. Austin in Texas. In part 2 (1825-1840), consisting of two chapters on "The Mixed World of Indian Country," Hyde explains the problems caused by Indian "removal," which, with John Faragher, she candidly and correctly calls ethnic cleans-ing. She also writes on the crowding of "removed" tribes onto land already occupied by others; on the Metis; and on the gradual shutting down of the fur trade. Intermarriage and gift-giving broke down "as land acquisi-tion replaced trade as the central facet of the western political economy." This shift took years, but it eventually destroyed the familial and economic system of the early years of the century. Part 3, the final three chapters on "Imposing a State, 1840-1865," describes how the Mexican-American War upset families and brought disorder, followed by "border wars" in the 1850s from the central Plains to Texas, California, and the Pacific Northwest, to the 1862 Sioux uprising in Minnesota and the Sand Creek massacre in 1864. By 1860 the American state "had just begun to use its muscle," and with it came "racial definition.... Does it mean any-thing to be labeled a 'half-breed' or a Mexican when you used to be a Bent or a Californio? Can you talk or buy your way out of racial label-ing?" The book includes well-crafted pages on (to pick a few of many topics at random) the Osages, the Comanches, the Mormon 142 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 2012 exodus from Illinois to Utah, the California and Colorado gold rushes and their ruinous impacts on family and trade networks, and much more. Throughout it all, families reap-pear-the Chouteaus, Sibleys, and Sublettes, Benjamin (Benito) Davis Wilson, the Vallejos, the McLoughlins, the Kit Carsons, and others, nearly all of them mixtures of Anglo, French, Native, and Spanish. Students of the Great Plains and the nineteenth-century West in general, at whatever level, will be well rewarded by a reading of Anne Hyde's fine book. WALTER NUGENT Highland Park, Illinois                                                                      © 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3774&amp;context=greatplainsquarterly

Review of \u3ci\u3eEmpires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860\u3c/i\u3e by Anne F. Hyde

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