Washoe County Library System

From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as author Philbrick reveals, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic. The Mayflower's religious refugees arrived in Plymouth Harbor during a period of crisis for Native Americans, as disease spread...

"When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the newly independent United States savored its victory and hoped for a great future. And yet the republic soon found itself losing an escalating military conflict on its borderlands. In 1791, years of skirmishes, raids, and quagmire climaxed in the grisly defeat of American militiamen by a brilliantly organized confederation of Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware Indians. With nearly one thousand U.S. casualties,...

Documents and personal narratives record the experiences of Native Americans during the nineteenth century. Traditional texts glory in our nation's western expansion, the great conquest of the virgin frontier. But how did the original Americans -- the Dakota, Nez Perce, Ute, Ponca, Cheyenne, Navaho, Apache, and others -- feel about the coming of the white man, the expropriation of their land, the destruction of their way of life? What really happened...