Matthew Dennis, “Seneca Possessed: Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in the Early American Republic” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010)

New Books in Indigenous Studies · May 1, 2012 · 59m

The birth of the American republic produced immense and existential challenges to Native people in proximity to the fledgling nation. Perhaps none faced a greater predicament than the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (popularly known as the Iroquois). Divided by the U.S.-English conflict, their landbase ransacked by American soldiers and speculators, their once considerable political power reduced, and their culture threatened by an influx of zealous missionaries — such is what historian Matthew Dennis in his powerful new book, Seneca Possessed: Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in…