Surviving Genocide in the American West

A sweeping history of U.S. expansion west of the Mississippi through the end of the Civil War showing that American empire was built on systemic violence and genocide against Native nationsReframing the United States’ westward expansion as a continental empire-building project, historian Jeffrey Ostler shows how the country orchestrated a genocidal campaign against Indigenous populations across the Trans-Mississippi West through treaty coercion, massacres, forced removals, starvation, and the destruction of land and lifeways. As he debunks many long-standing myths, Ostler• Describes how genocide unfolded across diverse geographies and colonial histories in the Pacific Northwest, California, Texas, the Great Plans, the Southwest, and elsewhere• Documents the many forms of colonial violence beyond warfare that decimated populations in ways not always visible in traditional histories• Highlights Indigenous agency and resilience, from voices that illuminate the lived experience and consciousness of genocide to Native nations’ diplomacy, resistance, and adaptation• Breaks new ground on the Civil War’s western dimension and the ways that it intensified genocidal violence in the West, reshaping the region and Indigenous nationsThis gripping history challenges myths of the “winning of the West” and illuminates Indigenous survival against overwhelming odds, making it essential reading for understanding America’s past and its enduring legacies.