Assistant Professor of History Natale A. Zappia's new book, Traders and Raiders: The Indigenous World of The Colorado Basin, 1540-1859, was released this summer. Zappia’s newest publication is an expansive study of the complex Indigenous world that inhabited areas of the Southwest and Northern Mexico.
Traders and Raiders examines a vast cultural geography, including southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Sonora, Baja California, and New Mexico, to demonstrate an interior world which flourished for centuries—before and after Spanish contact—“solidifying to create an autonomous, interethnic Indigenous space that expanded and adapted to an ever-encroaching global market economy."
According to History Professor David Igler from University of California, Irvine, "Presented with nuance and style, Traders and Raiders picks up geographically where a number of recent award-winning monographs have left off. Going beyond those earlier works, this project is a major contribution to the fields of Native American history, borderlands history, and early California history."
Zappia, specializes in colonial/revolutionary North America with an emphasis on the early modern borderlands of the Atlantic World, Pacific Rim, and Native America. He has worked with several public history and community-based outreach projects related to California, food systems, and the American West, including efforts to promote the revitalization of the Los Angeles River. Zappia is author of several historical articles and books such as: Reclaiming the Soil: Gardens and Communities in South Los Angeles, and a contributing author of The Many Faces of Edward Sherriff Curtis: A Collection of Portraits and Stories from Native North America.
Click here to read more about Zappia’s book.
