Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America is a work of Native American history by historian Daniel K. Richter that investigates the settlement of North America by Europeans from the perspective of American Indians.[1] The book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002.[2]
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Facing East begins by exploring, through available facts, possibilities of American Indian scenarios that have not been part of European-centered imaginations about American Indians. Richter goes on to show the active participation of American Indians in relations with European settlers, particularly their responses to "abstract material responses" brought about by European colonization. The figures Pocahontas, Tekakwitha, and Metacom are brought together in an analysis that shows their similar but varying deliberate involvements with Europeans. Richter relies on spiritual autobiographies and conversion narratives on American Natives by European colonists to elucidate an Indian point of view. Richter argues that American Indian participation in the Atlantic economy and warfare was essential and that Europeans and American Indians depended on each other. According to Richter, with the increasing animosity between American Indians and colonists, both groups developed their mindsets about each other.
Facing East received generally positive reviews and was praised for its writing style and argumentation.[3][4] Gail D. MacLeitch in the Journal of World History, notes the importance of the work in addressing a lack of research on Native American history from their perspective and praises the book's subtle, adept and imaginative writing style.[5] In the Journal of Social History, Nancy Shoemaker writes, "Facing East from Indian Country will appeal to non-specialists, a general public, and students as well as to scholars in the field. It is precisely the kind of book that could succeed at realizing Richter’s longstanding crusade to earn for American Indian history a vital place in the larger narrative of American history."[6]
Emerson, Thomas E. (2004). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". The Historian. 66 (1): 159–161.
Shoemaker, Nancy (1 March 2003). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. By Daniel K. Richter". Journal of Social History (Review). 36 (3). Oxford University Press (OUP): 808–809. doi:10.1353/jsh.2003.0069. ISSN 0022-4529. S2CID 142583499.
- Axtell, James (June 2002). "Daniel K. Richter. Facing East From Indian Country". The American Historical Review (Review). 107 (3). Oxford University Press (OUP): 872. doi:10.1086/ahr/107.3.872. ISSN 1937-5239.
- Barr, Juliana. (2003). [Review of Facing East from Indian Country: A Narrative History of Early America, by D. K. Richter]. The Florida Historical Quarterly, 82(1), 87–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30149279
- Birzer, Bradley J. (June 2005). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America by Daniel K. Richter". Indiana Magazine of History. 101 (2): 183–184.
- Carlos, Ann M. (2003). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. By Daniel K. Richter". The Journal of Economic History (Review). 63 (4). Cambridge University Press (CUP): 1169–1170. doi:10.1017/s0022050703362576. ISSN 0022-0507. S2CID 155055765.
- Carson, James Taylor (2002). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 110 (1): 101–102.
- Cobb, Daniel M. (1 July 2005). "Getting There (Non)Eventually: Recent Historical Scholarship on Encounters in Native America Before 1815". Ethnohistory. 52 (3). Duke University Press: 635–641. doi:10.1215/00141801-52-3-635. ISSN 0014-1801.
- Gernhardt, Phyllis; Richter, Daniel K. (2003). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". Journal of the Early Republic. 23 (1). JSTOR: 103. doi:10.2307/3124988. ISSN 0275-1275. JSTOR 3124988.
- Hackel, Steven W. (2003). "Facing East, or Looking Outward and Inward". Reviews in American History. 31 (2). Project MUSE: 184–191. doi:10.1353/rah.2003.0031. ISSN 1080-6628. S2CID 144600130.
- Hauptman, Laurence M.; Richter, Daniel K. (1 April 2003). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". The Western Historical Quarterly. 34 (1). Oxford University Press (OUP): 82. doi:10.2307/25047219. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 25047219.
- Hinderaker, Eric; Richter, Daniel K. (2002). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". The Journal of American History. 89 (3). Oxford University Press (OUP): 1018. doi:10.2307/3092358. ISSN 0021-8723. JSTOR 3092358.
- Marsh, Ben. (2007). Facing West, South, and North, as Well as East, from Indian Country [Review of The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent, by K. Du Val]. Reviews in American History, 35(2), 176–183. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30031636
- McMichael, Andrew; Richter, Daniel K. (2002). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". The New England Quarterly. 75 (3). JSTOR: 507. doi:10.2307/1559796. ISSN 0028-4866. JSTOR 1559796.
- Merritt, Jane T. (2003). In Facing East, We Find Ourselves [Review of Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, by D. Richter]. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 70(4), 439–444. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27778575
- Mullin, Michael J. (2002). Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. By Daniel K. Richter. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 26(3). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p59h6qz
- Pointer, Richard W. (2003). Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Fides et Historia, 35(2), 177.
- Pulsipher, Jenny Hale. (2003). [Review of Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, by D. K. Richter]. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 127(1), 104–106. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20093603
- Sabo, George; Richter, Daniel K. (2002). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 61 (3). JSTOR: 300. doi:10.2307/40028036. ISSN 0004-1823. JSTOR 40028036.
- Shannon, Timothy. (2003). A Critique of Daniel K. Richter’s Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America [Review of Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, by D. K. Richter]. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 70(4), 445–449. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27778576
- Starna, William A. (2001). [Review of Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, by D. K. Richter]. New York History, 82(4), 389–391. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42677801
- Theilmann, John M. (2004). [Review of Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, by D. K. Richter]. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, 105(1), 59–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27570671
- Williams, James Homer (2003). "Daniel K. Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America". Itinerario (Review). 27 (3–4). Cambridge University Press (CUP): 326–328. doi:10.1017/s0165115300021057. ISSN 0165-1153. S2CID 163967082.
- Wood, Peter H. (1 July 2003). "Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America by Daniel K. Richter". William and Mary Quarterly (Review). 60 (3). JSTOR: 672. doi:10.2307/3491560. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 3491560.
