running in the past

Nabokov, Peter. “Running in the Past: Trade Networks and Messengers.” Indian Running: Native American History and Tradition. 1981. In “Running in the Past: Trade Networks and Messengers,” Peter Nabokov illustrates the importance running has played in the ability of Native Americans to keep up communications by showing the importance of runners in the Pueblo revolt in 1680, the reliability of the Cocomaricopa “newsboys,” as well as the efficiency of the Iroquois messengers. In 1680, a Pueblo uprising was …

…of Mexico using just runners. The Iroquois nation used the 240 mile “Iroquois trail” to keep its confederacy together. The Iroquois employed the relay tactic to improve efficiency, range, and time. They usually traveled in pairs and as Lewis Henry Morgan said, “took their way through the forest, one behind the other, in perfect silence.” The 240 miles of the Iroquois trail took up to 70 hours to navigate, some times done by the constellations of the stars.