Discusses the myth of European control over the Native Americans in the sixteenth century, and claims that Native Americans controlled the majority of eastern North America well after Columbus' arrival, having only to adjust to their presence.

This text is written specifically to address non-science students and to introduce them to astronomy. The emphasis is on explanation and not description so it avoids overwhelming students with encyclopaedic detail. The book contains interchapter essays, tests, marginal notes and observations.

Richter examines a wide range of primary documents to survey the responses of the peoples of the Iroquois League--the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras--to the challenges of the European colonialization of North America. He demonstrates that by the early eighteenth century a series of creative adaptations in politics and diplomacy allowed the peoples of the Longhouse to preserve their cultural autonomy in a land now dominated by foreign powers. (view table of contents)