The Forgotten Awakening

In The Forgotten Awakening, Douglas McMurry provides an enlightening narrative of America's spiritual landscape during the initial contact between whites and Natives in the West. Focused on the Pacific Northwest, this book reveals how tribal prophecies and the teaching of missionaries led to a remarkable--but largely forgotten--season of mutual respect. The story contrasts the journeys of two men: trapper-mapper Jedediah Smith, and Slough-keetcha, the Spokane teenager-turned evangelist and chief, known to the whites as Spokan Garry. These two young leaders crossed the Rockies in opposite directions during the 1820's. McMurry masterfully describes how the awakening's ethos interacted with and transformed the existing indigenous and trapper cultures, emphasizing human dignity and moral responsibility. Drawing from historical accounts, the journals and letters of trappers and missionaries, and tribal histories, the author vividly portrays the heroic and tragic events of this forgotten era.

In this Second Edition, Doug adds his perspective about how this story of beginnings might have implications for today.