This book traces the historical experiences of Highland Scots and American Indians in dealing with colonial powers and with each other. It considers cultural similarities and identifies parallel experiences, and shows how both groups were perceived and treated as tribal peoples. It traces their strategies of resistance and accommodation in dealing with colonialism, cultural assault, and economic transformation; their participation in colonial wars; their involvement and patterns of intermarriage in the fur trade; their dispossession during the era of the Highland Clearances and Indian Removals ... More

This book traces the historical experiences of Highland Scots and American Indians in dealing with colonial powers and with each other. It considers cultural similarities and identifies parallel experiences, and shows how both groups were perceived and treated as tribal peoples. It traces their strategies of resistance and accommodation in dealing with colonialism, cultural assault, and economic transformation; their participation in colonial wars; their involvement and patterns of intermarriage in the fur trade; their dispossession during the era of the Highland Clearances and Indian Removals, and how they responded to new situations and changing attitudes. Highlanders and Indians fought, traded, and lived together. Many Highland Scots were expelled from their lands in the Highland Clearances; children of Highland Scots who had married Indian women were expelled from their lands in the Indian Removals. Highland names are common in Native American and First Nations communities today. In the vast colonial collision of North American history, tribal peoples from different sides of the Atlantic sometimes found much in common and ways to get along. But Highland Scots also settled on Native American lands and participated in empire-building. Their paths diverged as Highland Scots shed their tribal status in the eyes of the dominant society and took their place on the side of history's winners, a transformation in status denied to Indian people.