About which greg spoke here a few years ago. His newest book, the subject of todays lecture, native southerners indigenous history from origins to remove. Please give a warm welcome to our friend greg smithereens. Let me begin by acknowledging the Traditional Land owners of this region. Members of the chief them and people. Thank you for that kind introduction, and to graham who organized todays lecture, thank you. Its much appreciated. Its lovely to be back here. At the Virginia Museum of history and culture. Im going to begin today by talking a little bit about the artwork on the cover of my new book. This is a piece by a a cheap who passed, and he was a chickasaw and choctaw chief, born in 1921 in oklahoma. If anyone knows anything about that part of the world, in the 19 twenties and thirties, you will know its not an easy place to be native american. So he grew up seeing lynchings on a fairly regular basis, of about native and African American people. He grew up experiencing impoverishment, vicious racism. Almost on a daily basis. You had to be tough, had to be resilient, you had to have something of a sense of humor. It seems that his parents did have such a sense of humor because they named their child chief. Which utterly confused white people throughout oklahoma. As he grew to manhood in the 19 thirties and forties. He was never actually a cheap of his people, but he did it grow up to be a wonderful native american artist. He served briefly in the Second World War and when the war was over the gi bill helped him attend the university of oklahoma where he pursued his education and passion for art. Its at the university of oklahoma that cheap learns the rudiments of cubism, surrealism. Artistic methodologys, trends that were popular in the early 20th century. These helped chief perry engage with traditional native stories he had grown up hearing relatives and Family Friends telling him about. In particular surrealism, influencing this piece here, entitled the warrior, is a piece that evokes an attempt on the part of the warrior to step back, to find a portal, a passage to another series of stories, another time and place. Another level of consciousness. All the teams that are very much in keeping with traditions of surrealism. Anyone who knows anything about art history. Also keeping with many of the narrative, oral narrative traditions within native culture. Particularly the native south. It is a different set of stories that ill share with you today. A different set of stories and that place the American South as we know it today in a very different light. Im going to use a different lens to talk about the history of the southeast. Some of this may come as something of a shock. What stories do we emphasize when we cease to take a euro American Perspective for granted . When we look at southern history from and indigenous series of lenses . Wet stories matter, wet events matter . As will see over the next 35 minutes or so, theres a very different perspective that emerges. It sometimes overlapping with the euro american, African American perspective on southern history. But it is none in the last a different perspective that native people bring to its history. I should begin by emphasizing, and this will rock your socks, and that virginia is not part of the south. What . [laughs] at least not all of virginia. Now the southern culture zone that native americans called home prior to contact, indeed after with europeans, begins roughly around the not away peoples and their river. What is today southwestern virginia. That was typically cherokee hunting lands in those lands where cherokee warriors in particular had contact in virginia. The geography of the south changes when we take a native perspective on southern history and its something ive developed and explain in a more detail in the book. In addition, the stories and the way we talk about the stories of the south change as well. Let me talk about someone who you probably have all heard of before, a young girl in the 17th century by the name of pocahontas. She is often thought of as a friend to the english. Marries john wolf, saves john smith, these are mythologies. These become historical truisms overtime. They become embedded in the mythology of not only virginia history but southern history, American History. They tell us far more about european americans in the history of colonialism than they do about pocahontas, the people. They tell us a story about American National myth making. Its those mythologies and trying to work against here in this book. Im not trying to necessarily throughout all of those out with the bathwater as it were. But to provide a little bit of Historical Context from a native perspective. The reason i want to do that in the reason i want to share some of those stories with you today is because theyve been for too long relegated to the margins of American History. For native people in particular, not just in the native south, but elsewhere, stories are hugely important to constructing a sense of community, of kinship, of politics. I want to read you this quickly if you will indulge, the paragraph, the first of the book. It underscores where im coming from and how im trying to tap in into the importance of stories in native American Culture in history. Stories matter. Stories tell us about our ancestors, about ourselves, and about our communities. Storytelling is a gateway to meaning. Stories help us to understand individual and collective experiences. And they add layers of meaning to a sense of place or home. In short, stories inform our world views, our identities. This is particularly true for natives. Its not this a stories remain static and dont change. Its quite the opposite. Stories do indeed involve change. They are invaded overtime. We see that throughout the native south from the time of contact, even through to the president. There are many stories i can share with you this afternoon. Im going to jump into the year 700. Im going to begin by talking about stories of the architecture of the native south. What stories, what messages do they convey to us . The first thing you notice is that the map of the south looks a little bit different. Roughly overlaps with what we might recognize as the southeast today. But what you see on the screen there are representations of different culture zones throughout the south, the mississippi, up into what we call today the midwest. And the dots you see represented on the screen there, they are indicative of some of the best and most thoroughly studied archeological sites. Its one site in particular that im going to emphasize. Its this place. Its a special place. This, this is moundville. Its located outside of what is now tuscaloosa, alabama. Its a society that grew in prosperity, in influence, regional influence. About the year 1000 in the common era. It begins to see population growing, growing quite dramatically at the site archaeologists have referred to as this town over the next century. By 1150, we see monumental architecture emerging. Many hundreds, possibly thousands of people call this place home. Its a diverse economy that these people are cultivating, an Exchange Economy with outside native communities. And a society that engages in both warfare and diplomacy with non kin members. By 1150, moundville has entered into an era that will last 200 or so years of cultural productivity and prosperity. Story is told both early and it with dance, and with architecture, begin to mark the landscape. The mountains you see still to this day at the moundville site, tells the story in and of themselves. These amounts indicated a sense of social rank and order within society of mount ville. There were approximately 29 mounds that were constructed. They were constructed to last. This is truly monumental architecture that were talking about here. I was mentioning to someone as i came in this afternoon talking about mounds, mound construction to the southeast, when you drive in to the moundville state park, your breath is taken away. Its truly phenomenal that this soaring structure is billed so many years ago now. Almost a millennium ago. Still standing. That was indeed the intention of those chiefs and elders who had these quite extraordinary structures constructed. They were constructed to last and to present kykykmbto outsida sense of strength in power. Of the moundville community. They were designed to remind people who resided at moundville, of their place within society. Chieftan societies dominated the southeast from about 700 to the 15th century. They begin to decline and shift into a new phase of their history. At about the same time that europeans began invading this out east zone. Before that happens, the people of moundville are enjoying a three century long period of prosperity, just as other mound Building Societies are enjoying. The societies look for all intents and purposes to be well established and utterly permanent in nature, not only in architecture, but their social structures. But this sense of rigidity, permanence, actually belies the malleability, fluidity that exists within native communities throughout the southeast. Mound Building Societies indeed chieftain societies as we have no historians referred to them, sort of imprecise scholarly language, ranged in degree of sophistication and political structure. But they all had in common was this dynamism in which nothing could be taken for granted, relationships had to be continually cultivated. Nurtured, people that had to live up to ideals of represent paucity. To ensure balance and harmony within a Community Like moundville this. But also to ensure balance, harmony, all in diplomatic relationships with societies outside of your immediate can, your community. We do see members of these societies breakaway. They break away and form their own societies for a variety of reasons. It may be and that the societies, many of which grow quickly, people on the periphery of them feel marginalized. That should sound familiar to some of us. Marginalized people dont like being marginalized, do they . So they break off. They tried to form their own societies. They were new kinship relationships, cultivate new kinship relationships with other communities. This was happening before european contact and it continues to happen at a greater pace and repeatedly after europeans began invading throughout the southeastern culture zones in the 16th century. Today we commemorate sites like moundville as examples of indigenous social, cultural, political civilization. All of which preexists european colonization and many of the societies far and away more prosperous and culturally sophisticated, socially dynamic then in many european counterparts. Like london, paris, madrid. These are extraordinary places. They fell, as i mentioned, because they are deceptively fragile. Perhaps a better put, they are more dynamic than outer appearances give them credit for. Moreover native southerners covet and value quite highly the constant cultivation of relationships and alliances. Additionally factors such as Climate Change begin to impact native communities throughout the southeast and throughout Eastern North America during the 13, 14, and 15 hundreds. Those impacts, the impacts of Climate Change, had a marked impact on agriculture and economic activity. They were exasperated by the disease and violence than that tended to follow europeans, spaniards, the french, the english and others. What emerges are new societies. Just as a native people had always cultivated, innovated their cultural traditions, theres a sense of kinship and community. How do we cultivate and hold on to a sense of balance, of harmony . How do we maintain tradition . That often requires change, innovation, adaptability. Thats where we begin to see a current more on rapid speed and on a regular basis from the 16th century. In the book, i referred to a term that we at the historians use, anthropologists use it also regularly, coalescence. When it begins to happen is the people like those people from the once powerful amount of civilization beginning to migrate throughout the south eastern cultures, they become refugees. They become migrants looking for a new home. For a new place to settle. New relationships, new bonds. They innovate. They adapt. They coalesce with other groups of people who are also experiencing the same sense of displacement, of ruthlessness. They recreate their roots in the context of these many changes i alluded to. Climate change, political structures, pressuring, breaking apart. The arrival of rude europeans, often violent europeans. The impacts of disease. But we see developing over the course of the 16th century, into the 17th century throughout the native south are dynamic, multi link will, multi ethnic communities in which old traditions are reinterpreted a new. Who can societies form around town, and regional identities. These communities come overtime to be known, and you may know some of these names, the charities, the creeks, the chickasaw, the choctaw, the lumbee,s the largest native American Population in the u. S. Today without federal recognition. And the qatar by people. Formed out of the core of the mighty nassau people of the southeast, neighbors to the charities. They formed relationships with both the fragments of older chief them heiress a sideways and formed relationships with other new societies that are coalescing and coming into existence as political forces, as military forces, over the course of the 16th and 17th century. You get a sense of those relationships from the map that you see on the screen here and this is a map that dates to 1721. It is the deer skin a map, and at the center of the nassau people that formed a cultural core of the tribe. What you see branching off from the central political identity are the lines connecting other communities that have taken shape throughout the southeast. Also you might see down on the bottom here that square box it is where virginia is. Virginians are on probation. Let me tell you why. Virginians were intrusive, they were rude. They tended to break agreements they had formed with native southerners, both trade and diplomatic agreements. Could think none of this has continued. And they were violent. The violence ran the spectrum from Sexual Violence against indigenous girls and women to violence against young men and warriors, and indeed peaceful communities. Who found themselves suddenly abiding by these backcountry settlements. For that very reason native people didnt turn virginians away, but they kept a close eye on them. They tried to remind their opinions they had to constantly live up to the responsibilities of the agreement that they had forged, the reciprocity at the core of identities, economic and political in nature throughout the southeast, throughout the south and north of north america. You wanted to ensure them that the white path of peace was open. If these paths were to become broken, or you do not find yourself on this map, the chances are you will work out for. Its likely that catawba cheap present the english with a copy of this and your skin a map to remind them of their responsibilities and they had gotten into with the catawba people. The less you become delinquent virginians on your agreements, there is a very real risk of you being erased from this map. Native peoples then in their cartography, the stories and they are telling with cartography, our stories of relationships, friendships that need to be constantly nurtured, lest those relationships splinter apart and end in war. This map you see on the screen tells a similar story, it is a chickasaw disconnect from about 1728. Again, it places, in this case, the chickasaw at the center of the story. And indicates, tells the story of who we have diplomatic and economic relationships with. Cant emphasize a struggling enough, you want to maintain the white path of peace. You do it not simply by speaking without talking, that is writing, anguish did it a lot. It didnt work out so well. Although native people didnt want treaties, and they did push for them. They lobbied for terms, favorable to their communities. You had to demonstrate through actions, through words. You had to perform the relationship on a regular basis. Very important. So, some of the stories ive shared with you thus far reveal how native American History, most especially the history of native southerners, is not a static story. Its very much a dynamic, moving story. There is not one singular version of native history in the southeast. There is not one singular native american identity in the southeast. There is not simply one way, then as now, to be and authentic indian. There are many ways. Native southerners create, recreate, they continue to create a vibrant and dynamic cultures and identities throughout the southeast. As i wrote about elsewhere in the diaspora. These are rich stories. They are dynamic stories. They are stories that continue to keep in various identities alive and meaningful. In the 18th century, as them up on the screen is getting towards here, as im about to allude to hear, things do indeed begin to change, to turn, in which the dynamic inactive qualities of the southeastern native American Cultures will be tested, tested quite seriously over the coming century. The native south, its important to emphasize, is a map on the move. Native people are not static. The communities are not static. Their Belief Systems are not static. They dont exist as europeans like to try and create an image of the authentic indian. They dont exist outside of time. They very much are within history. They have a different version of it. It emphasizes community, the cyclical nature of time in place. But they are very much attuned to the importance of constantly innovating in adapting, moving and shifting their identities, their community, their sense of solidarity when necessary. Responding in a creative and proactive way. Thats what we see in the native south. Thats the example im going to share with you as it relates to a group of people who some of you may or may not have heard out, the yemen sea indians. That was their experience in the late 17th century and they became refugees, migrants in what is roughly today the border between georgia and florida. They joined a series of refugee and resettlement movements that were beginning to take place over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries. As the maps ive shared with you on the screen attempt to indicate. These are maps that were made by jack forbes back in the 19 seventies. Jack was a historian at the university of california davis where i received my ph. D. He grew tired by the time i got there. He remained incredibly influential to how i thought about native American History. Jack, for the record, charted his heritage back to virginia, to the native americans. When he was trying to do with these maps that i shared with you today is to indicate this very point, native people are not static. Native people respond to the world around them in creative and interactive ways. You see it in magnified form from the 1700s, the 18th century. Native people, not only in the native south, but throughout Eastern North America responding, moving, resettling. Really crafting their communities. This is indeed what was the people who come to be known at the 17th century and were engaging in. This exercise in creation and recreation. The beginning to sell stories about how they create a meaningful sense of existence for themselves, for their children, and indeed spiritual and important number in native culture, seven. Seven generations from now. At the midpoint of the 17th century. Refugee indian communities began traveling across but it becomes, but had become, excuse me, florida. Thats roughly as i mentioned the borderland of modernday georgia and florida. Many of the refugee communities, native southerners, were playing violence. They were fleeing disease. They were fleeing the increased violence of captive sleigh raids. These are slave rates being conducted by other native american communities, up in from the north, and from the west of the people who come to be called the gamma c. Among the most feared we are the chico meco indians. They target the peoples of other tribes. Too bad i dont have a laser pointer. They are located here in modern day in georgia. As a result of these captive raids, members of these chiefs dems begin to migrate towards the coast. And coincidentally there are a number of native peoples who are among them moving away from the coast themselves. This movement of peoples from the inland, from the coast, they are moving for different reasons. The groups of people who are moving inland away from the coast are trying to move away from the impacts of disease, contact with french english, spanish pirates. From the england fragmented communities beginning to emerge, they are trying to get away from these captive or slave raids fueling the european demand for labor. So so these cheap dems begin to relocate their communities towards the atlantic coastline. By the 16 sixties, spanish documents indicate that peoples known as the yamasee have coalesced. Around an area located just towards the savannah river, just out side of the waters of the savannah river. They formed, the yamasee, about a dozen new towns. Its important. Native identities that are forming, coalescing during this period are coalescing in town formations. So these are decentralized political identities that are taking shape. And thats a very much unlike the most centralized cheap dumb of culture and political societies that existed prior to this. This decentralization is both a strength and a weakness of native communities as they begin to reform political identities at least over the course of the 17th and 18th century. And as i mentioned one of the more influential groups of the yamasee form a town away from the coastline, away from them out of the savannah river. Not far from there, excuse me. Which some of you may know from her civil war history. Theres a famous battle that happened there. Other people who call themselves yamasee seek protection among the omissions, in the late 17th century, under the protection of spanish catholic missionaries. Some of the yamasee sikh out this protection. They form a new island communities under the protection of the gall in macomb missions. They never, to the frustration of the spanish, the catholic missionaries in particular embrace christianity. They refuse to build churches. In their communities. And the absolutely refuse to erect a christian cross. They want a diplomatic and economic relationship with the outsiders. But they dont want the cultural believes they are trying to sell. This utterly infuriates missionaries. Not only throughout this time, but throughout the remainder of the 18th century. It indeed to cause periodic tensions. And by the 16 eighties the embassy communities continue to develop, some are continuing to move, to relocate, to reestablish. Again, its because of french pirates for example. English slavery day along the atlantic coast. Taking native peoples out of their towns, forcibly relocating them to the slave plantations of the english caribbean. The yamasee are experiencing a mixture here of refugee movements and resettlements by the 16 eighties, as we move into the 60 nineties. So some, some of the communities are in desperate search for stability. They begin to move inland, into the carolinas. Some other communities, at least one from cohen records, as we, know grows to about 8000 or more. So these communities are beginning to take root, theyre beginning to form relationships, economic and otherwise, with both english traders and native american traders. By 17 108th what weve seen over the decade of the 16 nineties, its something quite extraordinary occurring. The yemen sees, the people who had formed the yamasee communities, were telling stories with their feet, forming new communities to evade disease, violence and slavery. Over the decades, 60 90 to 1700, the yamasee seem to become slave traders. In 1700, for example, the yamasee provide the english in carolina with 200 indian slaves. By 1710 the number had grown to over 1500. There are reasons why in the yamasee might be selling other native people to the english. I can talk about those if youre interested in the queue and a. I talk about it more in the book. One of the most important rationales or explanations for this is that native people in the southeast are not a homogenous political block. They have preexisting rivalries. It is a fabulous opportunity to try and undercut the political and economic power of some of their rivals. Now lets move into the 19th century quickly here. This is where the story begins to really escalate in a negative way for the yamasee. The engage in this trade of slaves, begin to rack up a whole bunch of dads. They are selling slaves to the english. They are buying manufactured items from those english traders. They cannot seem to get terms of trade that get the yamasee communities out of indebtedness. Those stats continue to rack up as we move through the 18th century. There is a delicate economic balance that is existing here in the early 18th century. Its delicate both for the yamasee and for the english. What we have here, yamasee are tied to a Global Economy at this point. Certainly transatlantic. Theres Global Dimensions to the economy in slaves, in manufacture goods that the yamasee find themselves, not unlike other native southerners, increasingly tied into the course of the 18th century. The english themselves are fully cognizant of this. This is a quote you see on the screen here by george ross, a georgia colonist who in may of 19 recognizes, makes the recognition that if this province, georgia, were lost, the whole continent would suffer. As a recognition of the regional interconnectedness then of the yamasee, then native southerners, and generally with colonists. Every once paid is tied up increasingly together. So tensions in this contacts are beginning to rise. So that by the 1713, 1715 period, yamasees are increasingly expressing frustration with the english, increasingly annoyed they are getting ripped off by english traders, and increasingly upset with the disadvantageous terms of trade they are experiencing. So the gentleman on the screen here, decides in 1714, april of 1714, hes going to trouble down and go try to smooth things over with some of these influential yamasee members. April 1715. He sits down, its april 14th. Actually, to be exact, the man sits down to break bread and discuss the issues that are troubling yamasee chiefs and elders. The meal was pleasant enough. Conversation did at times become heated. There is a lot at stake. The stakes are quite high for yamasees and for traders like nairn, who was also acting as an indian agent for the carolina colony. Nairn nonetheless went to bed that april 14 evening, fairly satisfied that talks had gone well enough. Some sort of understanding had been reached and we could make progress on this in the following days. It is april 14. Goes to bed the night of april 14. He is not going to see april 15. Why . Why . Unbeknownst to nairn, another indian agent by the name of john wright is also there that april, and it is safe to say that wright and nairn really cant stand each other. They are competitive, constantly trying to undercut one another politically and economically, and so wright is in town that april 14 to try to undermine nairns activities and negotiations. He is doing it in a way that sends a shudder of absolute fear and dread down the spines of yamasee chiefs and elders. Wright promises to enslave the yamasee if they dont agree to his terms. Doesnt sit well with the yamasee. So here is what happens. Nairn and wright are dragged out of their lodgings that evening. Nairn is a fixed to a pole in the town center. He is confused. He has been slapped around a little bit, so he is probably quite scared, as you would imagine. He probably gets a look around, tries to get his bearings. He no doubt saw wright being dragged out of his lodgings, and wright is terminated fairly quickly, killed with very little ceremony. Nairn wasnt quite so fortunate. He was, as i mentioned, affixed to a pole at the center of town and tortured for several hours, at least. According to one english source, a great number of pieces of wood, to which they set fire, punctured nairns body. This was a slow, painful death, which indicated the story that the yamasee are telling here is that nairne is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. They dont trust him, so your body is not only going to be ended, but your spirit, your soul, is going to be destroyed to ensure you cannot in any way undermine or destabilize yamasee society into the future. This incident sparks what comes to be known as the yamasee war. And it initiates a change in colonial policy among the english and a rethink among europeans as well. Certainly in terms of the nature of slavery and the role of indian slavery in this region. But what it does emphasize, i think, this particular story, very clearly, is that towns and town elders and chiefs took the lead in negotiating with europeans, and this remains the case throughout much of the 18th century, this decentralized diplomacy, which didnt serve the more centralized economic and political purposes of european colonialism very well at all, actually. But served native southerners and their political interests reasonably well, for much of the remainder of the 18th century. Things do begin to change and the strength of this decentralized system would begin to come under increasing strain by the midpoint of the 18th century. The seven years war and through the revolutionary war period. So much so that there is a major rethink beginning to go on throughout the native south and among native southerners, how do we respond to the emergence of the United States . Do we persist with a decentralized model or do we embrace some sort of centralized political and diplomatic system . To answer that question, you will have to buy the book. [laughter] happy to take questions. You described a situation with nairne, what he was thinking about or his attitude when he went to bed, and later his death. What were the sources for this information . Very good question. One of the wonderful things about the 18th and 19th century and even into the 20th century is that people cap diaries. They wrote. For a historian, that is much more useful than this modern era. I cant imagine being a historian 100 years from now trying to piece together peoples thoughts based on tweets, which are usually illegible anyway. We had personal writings from nairne leading up to this event and we have accounts from other english officials who reported on any time like this happens, official reports had to be filed. It doesnt mean those reports are strictly speaking accurate, and indeed you need to read those colonial sources with a good deal of skepticism, as you need to ask questions about all historical sources. We get some of our information from those types of sources, then from the oral traditions that have been passed down and kept alive about this story among yamasee people, we also get those accounts and those versions of the story as well. It is a combination of written and oral stories that we rely upon to try to approximate what the past looked like. In your introductory remarks, you talked about some of the myths around our understanding of indigenous people. You mentioned pocahontas specifically. Could you elaborate briefly on what some of those misconceptions are . I talk about this in other works and do a lot of talking about it with my students. One of them is here today and has been with me all semester, so she is probably sick of hearing me talk about this. One of the things that emerges throughout the colonial experience, from very early in the 16th century, is europeans, even before they encounter native peoples, have a sense of what they think they are going to find. They are nothing short of fictions drawn out of their own imaginations about what they imagine they will find noble savages, ecological indians, people who are in touch with nature and can communicate with wildlife and flora and fauna, for example. These stories help european colonists during those early centuries give some sort of meaning and purpose to what they are doing, a logic and rationale to what they are doing, in what in most cases is an invasion and conquest, and to rationalize how these are people who exist outside of the civilized realm that is, christian realm. They are savages, they are pagans. To frame them in that way and then engage in war with some of those immunities is sorry communities is indeed just because they have been constructed as being outside of that christian civilized norm. You see this littering written sources from all european communities. That is some of the earliest stuff. These stereotypes and mythologies evolve over time. When i will say quickly in the interest of time is that you do see an appropriation that begins to gather momentum at various moments through American History that reflects a longing on the part of european americans to assert some sense of their own indigenity and political legitimacy over what they are calling north america or the United States. Whether it is dressing up as indians and dumping chinese tea into the Boston Harbor during the revolutionary war, whether it is white southerners during the 1840s and 1850s declaring they are the true indigenous descendents of cherokee princesses, who also happen to work these slave plantations, or whether it is Marketing Companies in the late 19th and early 20th century who tried to sell butter and soap and football teams by appropriating native iconography, then we see this there is a lineage you can chart, and you can date it back, as i do in my courses, to those earliest mythologies. That is a thumbnail sketch of a very big question that i could go into more detail with for days. Some readings like these books, 1491, or is it 1391, it seems i remember they placed Larger Population numbers on the natives than what you did here. 1491, maybe, 1493. Some of the population numbers i gave you were town specific, so i am breaking them down into granular rather than macro figures. The population figures that we have in general for the americas in total and north america in particular, we still have quite substantial ranges in Population Estimates that are based on a number of factors, such as archaeological evidence, from some of the estimates of early european contact with native communities, and so you will still see some quite dramatic macrolevel estimates of how large the native population of north america was in 1491, 1492. What i can say about that is populations do decline and decline quite dramatically in the early 16th century, typically as a result it is not just disease, as most people usually think, although that does have a major impact. It is violence with both europeans and the increasing violence among native southerners thats exacerbated as a result of pressure from europeans entering into the region and heightening preexisting tensions. That leads to intensification of violence between different native groups. Then the impact during the 16th, 17th century into the early 18th century of indian slavery. We see native people moved around throughout the American Continent and into the caribbean and places like cuba as well. All of these factors lead to major at dramatic demographic changes over the centuries immediately after the european invasion. Greg will be in the lobby to answer any other questions you have. And also to sign copies of his new book. So one more round of applause thank you. Its really my great pleasure now an honor to introduce the lunch in speaker. In january of 2018, the standing of Harvard University ascended when philip j. Deloria departed from michigan and settled into his role as