Land Pacts

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9Two attractive titles that examine the growth of the United States, and feature numerous full-color maps and reproductions. Indian Treaties details the ways whites used treaties and legal machinations, reinforced by armed action, to seize Indian lands and then remove native peoples as the frontier advanced across the continent. Primary sources document the Indians' plight and the usually deliberate dishonesty and greed of the whites. Gold concludes with 20th-century efforts to address the "Indian problem" and current native efforts to regain at least some of what was lost. This is an interesting approach to this subject, but most of this material is covered more completely and clearly in John Dunn's The Relocation of the North American Indian Lucent, 1995. Land Pacts focuses on the annexation of three major territories: the Louisiana Purchase, the Spanish and Mexican treaties which brought in most of what is now the Southwestern U.S., and the Alaska Purchase. Gold provides background information and examines in detail both the motivations for adding the territory and the often-intense negotiations, which occasionally escalated to armed conflict, necessary to obtain them. Angela Herb's Beyond the Mississippi Dutton, 1996 does not include all three of these areas or this level of detail about their annexation. Land Pacts is a solid choice for reports.Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO