American Indians in Early New Orleans

In studies of urban history, the role and presence of American Indians is often neglected, reflecting an assumption that indigenous Americans completely relinquished their possession of land and sovereignty early in U.S. history. Daniel Usner challenges that misunderstanding by exploring one particular city--New Orleans--which quickly became, and continued to be, a place of indigenous sovereignty as much as a place of imperial aspiration.

The Crescent City's development depended intricately on French relations with American Indians throughout the Mississippi Valley. Following France's retreat from North America, the partition of the Lower Mississippi Valley between Spain and Great Britain even enhanced for a while the American Indian nations' bargaining power between empires. Along the way, elaborate indigenous rituals of political action, diplomatic exchange, and cultural representation significantly impacted New Orleans society. In later decades, the city became part of the passage for many Seminoles and Creeks forcibly removed from their homelands. Meanwhile, nearby Choctaw Indians on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain continued through the 1800s to maintain their creative relationship with the city by regularly vending crafts and plants in the French Market.

Usner strives to foreground the American Indian perspective and experience, paying close attention to the motives and observations of non-Indians and breaking through their biased language. As the city now enters its fourth century, this book offers an overdue consideration of the importance of indigenous Americans to its history.