Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. In 1722, in America, two colonizing fur

traders killed a Seneca hunter in Pennsylvania. It happened during a pivotal time in the relationship

between the Haudenosaunee people and the colonists. Historian Nicole Eustace wrote a book about

the murder and the fallout titled Covered

with Knight, a story of murder and indigenous justice in early America, which won the Pulitzer

Prize in history.

And she talked to hear now Scott Tong about it, and something that I want you to pay close

attention to is when she points out the different approaches to justice the indigenous people take compared to the colonists.

I couldn't help but think about it in the context of this other conversation we've been

having in this country about prison reform versus abolition and the criminal justice system

more broadly and how America's

attitude towards law and order was set in stone at the very beginning.

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So set the scene for the murder that's at the center of this book. It's 1722, five decades before the

Revolutionary War, and two white traders are negotiating a trade deal with a member of the Seneca tribe

and then things somehow go wrong, yeah? Absolutely. So in this period in the early 18th century, the fur trade was economically

very significant for many European colonists. There was a lot of money to be made. And men who

lived in and among native peoples who were colonial in origin were best placed to profit.

...