Calloway, Colin G. 1953–

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Calloway, Colin G. 1953–

(Colin Gordon Calloway)

PERSONAL:

Born February 10, 1953, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England; son of Ronald Keith and Anne Elizabeth Calloway; married Marcia S. Bezanson (an attorney), December 28, 1980; children: two. Education: University of Leeds, B.A. (with honors), 1974, Ph.D., 1978.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Dartmouth College, Native American Studies Department, Sherman House HB 6152, 37 North Main St., Hanover, NH 03755. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Historian, educator, writer, and editor. Wakefield College of Technology and Arts, Wakefield, England, part-time lecturer, 1978-79; College of Ripon and York, St. John, England, lecturer in history and American studies, 1979-82; Keene State College, Keene, NH, adjunct lecturer in history, 1982-83; high school teacher in Springfield, VT, 1983-85; Newberry Library, Chicago, IL, assistant director and editor of D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, 1985-87; University of Wyoming, Laramie, assistant professor, 1987-91, associate professor of history, 1991-c. 1995; Dartmouth College, visiting assistant professor, 1990 and 1991, professor of history and Samson Occom Professor of Native American Studies, and chair of the Native American Studies Program, beginning 1995, Organization of American Historians lecturer, 2007-08. Consultant to New England Foundation for the Humanities.

MEMBER:

American Society for Ethnohistory, Organization of American Historians, British Association of American Studies, Western Historical Association, Wyoming State Historical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1983; fellow, Newberry Library and Vermont Historical Society, 1984; Ben Lane Award, Vermont History, 1984 and 1986; grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, 1985, 1987, and 1989; fellow, David Library of the American Revolution, 1989; visiting fellow, Beinecke Library, Yale University, 1989.

WRITINGS:

Crown and Calumet: British-Indian Relations, 1783-1815, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1987.

(Editor) New Directions in Indian History: A Bibliography of Recent Writings in American Indian History, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1988.

The Abenaki (young adult), Chelsea House (New York, NY), 1989.

The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1990.

(Editor) Dawnland Encounters: Indians and Europeans in Northern New England, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1991.

The Indians of the Northeast (young adult), Facts on File (New York, NY), 1991.

North Country Captives: Selected Narratives of Indian Captivity from Vermont and New Hampshire, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1992.

(Editor and author of introduction) The World Turned Upside Down, St. Martin's Press (Boston, MA), 1994.

The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

(Compiler, with Jay Miller and Richard A. Sattler) Writings in Indian History, 1985-1990, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1995.

(Editor and author of introduction) Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West Was Lost, Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press (Boston, MA), 1996.

(Editor and author of introduction) After King Philip's War: Presence and Persistence in Indian New England, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1997.

New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1997.

First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History, Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press (Boston, MA), 1999.

(Editor, with Gerd Gemunden and Susanne Zantop) Germans and Indians: Fantasies, Encounters, Projections, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 2002.

One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 2003.

(Editor, with Neal Salisbury) Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience, Colonial Society of Massachusetts (Boston, MA), 2003.

The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

The Shawnees and the War for America, Viking (New York, NY), 2007.

White People, Indians, and Highlanders: Tribal Peoples and Colonial Encounters in Scotland and America, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor of articles and reviews to history journals. Editor, Meeting Ground and Occasional Papers in Curriculum, 1985-87.

SIDELIGHTS:

Although English by birth, historian Colin G. Calloway has specialized in American history and Native American studies and written and edited numerous books on the topics. For example, Calloway relates eight accounts of settlers captured by Indians between 1744 and 1783 in his book North Country Captives: Selected Narratives of Indian Captivity from Vermont and New Hampshire. "Calloway's selections show examples of Indian actions that undermine stereotypes of ‘savage’ captors, as well as other insights into Native-settler relations on the Canadian-new England frontier," noted Neal Salisbury in the American Indian Quarterly.

In his book New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America, Calloway focuses on the contact between Native Americans and European settlers and how this contact brought about changes in both groups and influenced a distinctive new culture in America. Calloway begins by writing of the European "idea" of America and examines various influences on the cultures of European settlers and American Indians, including religion, war, disease, food, slavery, and migration. Writing in History: Review of New Books, Charlotte M. Gradie noted that "the author's contention [is] that the Native American and European peoples who encountered each other on the American frontier created a new way of life as they traded and fought, allied and loved, and more often than not, learned to live together." Gradie went on to call New Worlds for All "a well-written, engaging introduction." Journal of American Ethnic History contributor James Drake commented that the book "fills an important niche in the historiography of early America."

In One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark, Calloway explores the culture of Native American tribes and groups, primarily focusing on their history before the widespread advance of American pioneers moving westward. The author writes of the origins of American Indians and how they adapted to the many environments they found in America. He also examines many of the cultural and social aspects of Indian life, including Indian creation myths and stories. "The book is historical and cultural, providing readers with an understanding of Native American relations with each other and newcomers," wrote Clifford E. Trafzer in History: Review of New Books. Trafzer also noted that One Vast Winter Count "provides a new synthesis and interpretations that older works … fail to share." Referring to the book as "enthralling and brilliant" in Booklist, Jay Freeman added that the author "masterfully integrates the disciplines of archaeology, anthropology, environmental science, and history."

Calloway is also coeditor with Neal Salisbury of Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience. Featuring essays culled from a conference held by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts at Old Sturbridge Village in 2002, the book focuses on the legacy of the European "invasion" of America and its effect on various Indian tribes of New England. Michael Leroy Oberg, writing in History: Review of New Books, commented that "the authors bring together in one volume the best of the historiographical trends that have reshaped the writing of New England Indian history." American Indian Quarterly contributor Gary C. Cheek, Jr., predicted the collection would have wide appeal, as "the book presents pertinent arguments and analyses of colonial Indians' experiences and the impact of the ‘foreign,’ whether animals, political structures, slavery, religion, or writing. It also provides lessons that will benefit scholars of any historical field."

The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America explores the aftermath and consequences of the French and Indian War as the author focuses on territorial changes and the impact they had on various people. Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, commented that The Scratch of a Pen is "imbued with cultural erudition and diplomatic insight." Referring to the study as "lucid," a Kirkus Reviews contributor also called the book "a welcome contribution to the history of America before the War of Independence."

Published in 2007, Calloway's The Shawnees and the War for America addresses life for the Shawnee in the United States during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, a period during which the U.S. government repeatedly forced the tribe to move to new patches of land, giving up whatever area they had settled in previously in the name of westward expansion and progress. The area most affected was Kentucky and the Ohio Valley, fertile, lush countryside that the United States government refused to allot to the Shawnee when there were far more lucrative and nationalistic purposes they could apply to it. Calloway looks at the tribe's way of life and the profound effect that moving had on their traditions and their daily activities. He also delves into their religious and spiritual practices, discussing the rise and fall of the pan-Indian religion that was revitalized briefly during this time, and focuses on the Tenskwatawa brothers, two Shawnee who were often referred to as Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet. The brothers successfully banded together with a group of approximately thirty tribes to maintain a hold on their lands, but ultimately their efforts were unsuccessful. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews dubbed the book "an illuminating overview of Shawnee-white relations." Deborah Donovan, writing for Booklist, found the book "enlightening and meticulously researched."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Indian Quarterly, winter, 1994, Neal Salisbury, review of North Country Captives: Selected Narratives of Indian Captivity from Vermont and New Hampshire, p. 97; summer-fall, 2005, Gary C. Cheek, Jr., review of Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience, p. 720.

American Scholar, winter, 2004, Andrew Burstein, review of One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark, p. 144.

Atlantic, September, 2003, Benjamin Schwarz, review of One Vast Winter Count, p. 138.

Booklist, September 15, 2003, Jay Freeman, review of One Vast Winter Count, p. 196; March 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America, p. 57; May 15, 2007, Deborah Donovan, "The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears," p. 16.

History: Review of New Books, spring, 1998, Charlotte M. Gradie, review of New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America, p. 128; spring, 2004, Clifford E. Trafzer, review of One Vast Winter Count, p. 101; spring, 2005, Michael Leroy Oberg, review of Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience, p. 104.

Journal of American Ethnic History, fall, 1999, James Drake, review of New Worlds for All, p. 105.

Journal of Social History, winter, 1999, Gary B. Nash, review of New Worlds for All, p. 491.

Journal of World History, spring, 2000, Harry A. Kersey, Jr., review of New Worlds for All, p. 129.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2006, review of The Scratch of a Pen, p. 119; May 15, 2007, review of The Shawnees and the War for America.

Library Journal, September 1, 2003, Nathan E. Bender, review of One Vast Winter Count, p. 183.

New York Times Magazine, November 24, 2002, Dirk Olin, "Tribal Recognition: How to Define American Indians Has Been a Loaded Issue for Centuries, Only the High Stakes Are Much Different Now," includes brief comment by author, p. 35.

Oregon Historical Quarterly, fall, 2004, Theodore Binnema, review of One Vast Winter Count, p. 518.

Publishers Weekly, September 1, 2003, review of One Vast Winter Count, p. 78.