Mark van de Logt: Between the Floods: A History of the Arikaras

Between the Floods: A History of the Arikaras — Mark van de Logt — University of Oklahoma Press —Paperback — 9780806194905 — 384 pages — $29.95 – October 1, 2024 – ebook versions available at lower prices

During the past couple of years, I’ve read several really good books that recast the history of indigenous Americans both prior to, during, and after the invasion of North America by Europeans, first by explorers, fishermen and traders, and later by colonizers. Almost everything most of us learn about this part of the history of the Americas has been told and taught from the European perspective. Academic studies have similarly been mostly conducted by white Americans with indigenous people seen as subjects for interrogation and study by what is proposed to be a more “accurate” form of science, rather than treating indigenous people as equals, with practical knowledge, historical awareness, and actors with full credibility in the telling of their own histories and practices.

Mark van de Logt’s excellent book Between the Floods, purposely challenges the way the history of an indigenous people is studied and understood. Mark gives credence from the outset to the oral storytelling of the Arikara people, that sets forth their history in an oral tradition, which he then supplements with other forms of knowledge to expand them.

The Sahnis, or Arikara, as they are best known, were at one time a powerful independent nation, who likely migrated from the southwest hundreds of years ago, and settled in the Missouri River region in what is now mostly Nebraska (though today, the tribal lands are the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.)

The Arikaras, like their Hidatsa and Mandan neighbors on the northern plains, were both farmers and hunter-gatherers who thrived as corn growers and successful buffalo hunters. The arrival of Europeans, even hundreds of miles away from them brought pressure on their villages from other indigenous nations, notably the Lakhotas, whose larger population and more successful military forces caused displacements and relocations, and contact with Euro-Americans brought devastating diseases and other problems for the Arikara as well. Their important location on the Missouri River brought them into contact early on with French fur traders, the Spanish, and especially Americans after Lewis and Clark, often with damaging effects on their tribe.

Between the Floods creates a historical narrative of a resilient semi-sedentary people in their migration and settlement as they confront the colonialist era, endure many tribal conflicts, experience terrible diseases, and incorporate horses and metal tools into their culture. Arikara oral traditions and histories provide an entry into their past and current culture that at its core has survived intact despite so much suffering at the hands of their enemies and the conquering American society.

Mark uses information from archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology to enhance native storytelling, and the book is illustrated with Native maps and ledger art, along with historical photographs and drawings. There is no better way to understand this important tribal nation that likely is known to very few Americans today.

This is a terrific book. It’s well written, well-researched, and demonstrates throughout a deep appreciation for the Sahni people, their lifeways, history and traditions. This kind of history-telling is really important not only for the tribe but to all of us who know so little about their past and present lives. And Mark deep knowledge and broad field of study makes him a terrific interview subject.

Mark van de Logt is Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University of Qatar, teaches in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at Radboud University, and is also the author of War Party in Blue: Pawnee Scouts in the U.S. Army (2010) and Monsters of Contact: Historical Trauma in Caddoan Oral Traditions (2018). Between the Floods was awarded the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize for best book in Ethnohistory from the American Society for Ethnohistory. His current research involves linking oral traditions to historical events. His articles appeared in the “Journal of Military History,” the “American Indian Quarterly,” the “American Indian Culture and Research Journal,” and “Wicazo Sa Review.” He is (co-)editor of the University of Nebraska Press’s “Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indian” series.

Buy the book here.

There is an interesting interview with Mark about the Arikara scouts for “The Friends of Little Bighorn” here.

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