In Calvinists and Indians in the Northeastern Woodlands, Stephen T. Staggs analyzes the impact of the Dutch Reformation upon the cross-cultural relations between those living in and around New Netherland. Staggs shows that Native Americans and New Netherlanders hunted, smoked, ate, and drank together, shared their faith while traveling in a canoe, and slept in each other’s bedrooms. Such details emerge in documents written by New Netherlanders like Megapolensis. Author of the most accurate account of the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawks) by a Dutch Reformed minister, Megapolensis provides a window into the influence and limits of the Dutch Reformation upon the dynamic, multifaceted relationships that developed in the early modern Northeastern Woodlands.
Megapolensis came of age when Dutch Reformed theologians looked to the Bible to incorporate Indians into a Reformed worldview. In so doing, they characterized Indians as “blind Gentiles” to whom the Dutch were being called, by God, to present the gospel through the preaching of the Bible and the Christian conduct of colonists, which necessitated social interaction. This characterization ultimately informed the instructions given to those heading to New Netherland, raised expectations among the clergy and lay chaplains who served in the colony, and prefigured the reciprocal, intimate relationships that developed between Indians and New Netherlanders during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Stephen Staggs is an independent historian who holds a PhD and graduate certificate in Ethnohistory from Western Michigan University. His research focuses on the impact of the interactions that took place between Indigenous, African, and European peoples in early modern North America.

''Stephen Staggs, focusing on the Atlantic world, concentrates on a hitherto little-explored aspect: the relationship between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans from various backgrounds and cultures in a specific area (from the Atlantic Coast to the Great Lakes, straddling the United States and Canada) over a broad chronological arc, overturning a well-established canon."
- Michaela Valente, Riforma e movimenti religiosi , December, 2023 (translated from italian)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
NOTES ON USAGE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTERS
I. “GENTILES BY NATURE,” 1566–1626
II. “SO THAT THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES MIGHT GRADUALLY COME IN,” 1627–1642
III. “A CHURCH AND COMMUNITY AMONG THE CHRISTIANS AND THE BLIND GENTILES,” 1642–1652
IV. “WE, WITH GOD’S HELP, HOPE TO BRING THE BARBAROUS TRIBES TO DEVOTION,” 1652–1660
V. “WHO GAVE JACOB FOR A SPOIL AND ISRAEL TO THE ROBBERS?” 1660–1664
VI. “A GENTILE WOMAN, KARANONDO, … NOW CALLED LIDIA,” 1664–1750
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A: DUTCH REFERENCES TO INDIANS: 1609–1664
A. 1. DUTCH REFERENCES TO INDIANS: 1609–1624
A. 2. DUTCH REFERENCES TO INDIANS: 1624–1640
A. 3. DUTCH REFERENCES TO INDIANS: 1640–1652
A. 4. DUTCH REFERENCES TO INDIANS: 1652–1664
APPENDIX B: INDIAN BAPTISMS, PROFESSIONS OF FAITH, AND MARRIAGES IN THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCHES OF NEW YORK: 1690–1750
B. 1. INDIAN BAPTISMS AND PROFESSIONS OF FAITH IN THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCHES OF NEW YORK: 1690–1750
B. 2. INDIAN MARRIAGES IN THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCHES OF NEW YORK: 1690–1750
LIST OF ARCHIVAL SOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX