Muddy Ground

John William Nelson is assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University.
For more information about John William Nelson, visit the Author Page.

"This groundbreaking study brings to light the importance of Indigenous space at a crossroads of the Great Lakes and the Great Plains."—Western Writers of America's Roundup Magazine

“Nelson provides an insightful perspective on the spatial transformation of the Chicago Portage as a gateway to the North American interior. . . . Muddy Ground leads the push for future studies of Native geography, diplomacy, and intercommunal relations in the dynamic spaces that connect coastal and interior waters.”—Ethnohistory

"Muddy Ground is a brilliant synthesis of Indigenous and environmental history, illuminating the importance of Chicago as a crossroads linking the Great Lakes and the Great Plains. Nelson provides a compelling narrative showing how first Indigenous people, and subsequently the American settler state, mastered space and mobility in order to make this muddy space a gateway to the west."—Michael J. Witgen, author of Pulitzer Prize–finalist Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America

"This amazing new book reconsiders Chicago as an early American place. Framing Chicago as the continent's most important portage, Nelson recenters early American history around the swamps and wetlands of the future metropolis, exploring important currents in Indigenous history, borderlands history, environmental history, and the history of colonialism."—Robert Morrissey, author of People of the Ecotone: Environment and Indigenous Power at the Center of Early America

"This book helps to shift the paradigm in how we understand the long history of Indigenous space, its conquest in the nineteenth century, and the ramifications ever since."—Kathleen DuVal, author of Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution