The first of Blackhawk’s two key theses is a methodological one. He challenges the customary use of the word “discovery” to describe European arrival in North America at the turn of the 16th century. “Encounter,” he suggests, is a more accurate descriptor since it acknowledges the dynamic of cultural collision that characterized the first meetings of Europeans and Native Americans. He articulates this claim in the Introduction:

Encounter—rather than discovery—must structure America’s origins story. For over five hundred years peoples have come from outside of North America to the homelands of Native peoples, whose subsequent transformations and survival provide one potential guide through the story of America (15).

This theme is most prominent in the book’s first chapters, which deal with various European empires and their relationships with Indigenous tribes during the early years of colonization. Blackhawk underscores the cultural diversity among both Indigenous and European groups rather than simply lumping them together along racial lines. Spanish, English, Dutch, and French communities approached Native peoples in distinctive ways according to their specific cultural values. In turn, Native peoples responded to the European presence in unique ways depending on their tribal context. For example, the origins of Spanish aggression toward Native peoples can be found in Spanish history: “The rapaciousness of Spanish colonialism originated in the centuries-long consolidation of monarchial power in Iberia during the Reconquista” (38).