Indians and emigrants

"In the first book to focus specifically on relations between Indians and emigrants on the overland trails, Michael L. Tate shows that such encounters across cultures were far more often characterized by cooperation than by conflict. Having combed hundreds of emigrant diaries, journals, and letters, as well as Indian oral traditions, Tate finds Indians and Anglo-Americans continuously trading goods and news with each other. Indians provided various forms of assistance, from giving directions and food to helping emigrants cross rivers."--BOOK JACKET.