The Tribes and the States is a history of the indigenous peoples of New England and the effect they exerted on the governments and civic systems that emerged in pre and post revolutionary America. Written by child prodigy William James Sidis, the book contends that American democracy has been shaped largely by the various native peoples European colonists encountered as they settled the continent. Completed in 1936, The Tribes and the States is still a unique, progressive and under-acknowledged history of the United States.