Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America

Richter opens Facing East from Indian Country with a description of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. Built in the 1960s by Eero Saarinen, the modernist structure is meant to evoke the idea of St. Louis as a gateway to the Western United States, a position it actually held for 19th-century settlers. Richter uses this symbol to reorient the reader toward the Indian point of view on the Euro-American settlers: Instead of standing, metaphorically speaking, on the eastern side looking at the West through the arch, Richter proposes standing on the Western (Indian) side and looking toward the East. From this perspective, westward expansion was not an inevitable fulfillment of destiny but the result of real human choices—choices that often resulted in destructive racial antagonism between Whites and Indians. 

Wampum are tube-shaped shell beads on strings or woven in belts or decorations. Before the arrival of the white settlers, Indians used wampum for ceremonial purposes, but after Europeans developed ways to mass produce wampum, it became a medium of exchange and currency. Its value derived from the skill involved in making it, its aesthetic appeal, and its sacred character.