The kinetic empires of Native American nomads

This chapter re-examines the powerful nomadic-equestrian societies in the North and South American grasslands and makes the case for a distinctive imperial formation, the kinetic empire. Kinetic empires were shape-shifting, action-based regimes that turned mobility into an imperial strategy and revolved around mobile activities: long-distance raiding, seasonal expansions, transnational diplomatic missions, semi-permanent trade fairs, recurring political assemblies, and control over shifting nodes. Their governing systems were light and flexible, and they rose and stayed in power by capitalizing on their superior capacity to access and connect political and economic centers around them. The Comanche and Lakota Indians created the Western Hemisphere’s most prominent examples of kinetic empires in the North American Great Plains. In South America the Araucanians frustrated European colonizing efforts, commanded a large and expanding territory, and pulled other Native groups on their orbit, but lacked the Comanches’ and Lakotas’ strong collective identities and political unity.