Transcripts For CSPAN3 Ned 20240705

Excited for our guests. Speaker tonight. Ned blackhawk is a leading scholar of American History. The howard hour lamar of history and american studies. Yale university. Dr. Black hawk is an enrolled member of the team at tribe of the western shoshone indians, nevada. Like me, he shares that background in in the us west with degrees from mcgill university, ucla and the university of washington. Dr. Blackhawk has published widely in field and won numerous accolades for his work. His first book, 26 violence over the land, indians and empire in the early american west, was, as it was study of the american great basin, and it received more than half a dozen professional awards, including the book of the decade from the native american and Indigenous Studies Association for. One of the most important ten most influential books in native american and indigenous studies in the first decade of the 21st century. Thats huge for a first book. Everybody wishes their dissertation turned into a book. Can do that. He has coedited numerous book series with numerous university. He has served on advisory for the utah museum of natural and he has helped further Career Opportunities for other American Indian students by establishing fellowships at the western Historical Association at yale university. This evening he is here to speak us about his most recent book the recovery of america native, peoples and the unmaking of u. S. History. I invite you all to join in warmly welcoming dr. Ned blackhawk, the athenaeum of philadelphia. Thank you both. That kind and very generous introduction. And for the invitation to join you all this evening to talk about my new book. Im delighted to be here. Philadelphia is full of venerable academic institutional communities, dedicated, humanistic and scholarly and public consciousness and awareness. And the athenaeum is right there at the forefront of those facilities as the american philosophical society, which has a native American Scholars initiative that im very excited. Learn more about. And im actually very delighted have several of their student participants here with us this evening. My new book, the rediscovery of america native peoples and the unmaking of us history, is an attempt to do some academic and potentially social work to reorientate of our longstanding assumptions about the history of the united. And it reflects a really deep kind of personal and kind of intellectual. Interest concern that ive had for much of my essential adult life. I a decision very early in my. Studies as a academic student first and then graduate student to try to make sense in some capacity of the experience of Indigenous Peoples in north. At a time when very little academic infrastructure or even kind of social or popular attention was ever focused on the subject and. It struck me both in my early career as a graduate student, then as a academic instructor, that the field really lacked some of the most necessary forms of academic infrastructure to really take its necessary place alongside other fields of american historical inquiry as central straight or a constitutive. Kind of nucleus of. What should be a kind of broader of america, both its history and its development and even its current form . And if there is a kind of central thesis that i kind introduce in the introduction of the book, again titled the rediscovery of america native peoples in the making of u. S. History. Its that its impossible to the development of the United States or its history without a central focus on the Indigenous Peoples of north america. And so the book structure kind of works towards claim or helps to hopefully substantiate it and is and does so in its structure and form by essentially dividing the history of post contact north American History into two halves. Part one entitled indians and empires. Surveys and six chapters. The dynamic, dramatic and extremely harrowing history indigenous Imperial Relations across the first centuries of postcolumbia and north American History. It ends the drafting of the us constitution. Not too far from here. In 1787 and chapter. The second half of the book. Part two is entitled struggles for sovereignty, and it in six chapters as well, attempts to provide a overview of the place of native americans within the history of the in the history of the United States. After independence, particularly after its constitutional formation, a kind of survey of, not just federal indian law and policy but the reactions, responses ongoing, the determinative at time agency influence and power that native nations and individuals and peoples had have, have had and continue to hold across the north american landscape so as to have certain of the organizing structure of the project. And im going to be sharing a little bit what i think are some of its hopefully particularly revelatory dimensions this evening, particularly around one of the most most heavily missing understood kind of moments of american historical formation that is around the struggle for independence. The United States that the Continental Congress initiates in the of 1776. And we. Ten days ago celebrated independence of our nation and are towards a. 250th commemorative assessment and reassessment and celebration and in the summer 2026, which is not that long from now. So in three years we will look back again at the history of our nation or the birth of the republic, and hopefully we can do so in a slightly more informed, inclusive, capacious way. And so my talk today is really largely going draw from chapter five of my book, which ive the indigenous origins of the American Revolution and my talk tonight might perhaps be well understood or potentially hopefully understood as the Hidden History of the declaration of independence. A Hidden History of the declaration of independence. So i we should all obviously know and study and try to appreciate as best we can the declarations deep and profound visions of a Pluralist Society and the expansion of liberties that have followed since for many of the republics and nations as citizens. But i think we dont fully understand that many of these many of the forms of recognition that have conventionally accompanied studies and assessments of the declaration have failed to kind of recognize how the declaration demonizes essentially our republics always. Its Indigenous Peoples so much so that i dont think its much to say that as a nation might consider trying on some level whether it be pedagogically in our kthrough12 system whether it be institutionally perhaps forums such as these even i wouldnt quite know how to initiate a kind of National Conversation or commission these things. But i think we as a nation and as citizens of it, should be concerned about the vilification ation of native peoples that are found, as well see shortly in the last grievance of the declaration and perhaps think about perhaps best to produce potentially even a reassess many of the declarations, rights and principles that is not mired in what i think is. Potential hatred that has gone unnamed for very long time. So few books around the revolution accurately explain the vilification of native that we will learn about in this evening. And very few have kind of exposed how many of these animosities hardened in the wake of really important conflict that followed the end. The seven years war. In 1763, the seven years war formally or often referred to as the french and indian, is arguably most important understudied conflict, potentially in American History. And the fact that its so known and understudied outside of a relatively small community, professional and academic historians, one famous scholar whos written on the subject, Fred Anderson, in a book called of war, goes so far to call it. The most important conflict of the 18th century. And it is a war that in the interior of north america, this is chapter four of the book, which is on the end of the french empire. Chapter three is on the formation of the french empire in the central city of an indigenous, and particularly iroquois nations, in the formation and and the french empire. But the seven years war, which begins and especially the fateful summer of 1754, when a young colonel by the name washington is sentenced, the interior portions western virginia and pennsylvania to essentially reconnoiter and potentially engage french for a force that has been establishing for new fortified nation near the headwaters of the ohio river right outside what we now call pittsburgh. And thats Fort Duquesne is the site of the second major theater of seven years war. And the next summer in 1755. And the british bring a general in 2000 soldiers to attack Fort Duquesne under the leadership of general braddock and are routed as washington is in a much smaller capacity in the summer of 1754. These are the first two battles in a Global Campaign that will stretch around the world. Subsequent battles are in north america, in the mediterranean and in continental europe. South asia, the philippines, the caribbean. And this is literally a war that engulfs particularly the british french and spanish empires. And it has as its origins contest nations over indigenous traders in the interior of north america who have been essentially trading with english back Country Traders illicitly because they have longstanding commitments and loyalties to the french empire and. So the french are building this for it to keen to essentially try to limit their indigenous allies and to limit the influence of these backCountry Traders who are flooding throughout the trans appalachian west in the late 1740s and early 1750s. This is a very minor or global of in the history of the war world. This initial attempt is a very minor attempt to fortify the fur trade of the french empire. And it turns into this monumentally important conflict, which we cant fully sketch in detail at the moment. But we know perhaps now know that there is this conflict that has a emerge in the 1750s that will stretch not just around the world, but will really stretch englands copper city as an empire to regulate its new possessions. Because in the aftermath of the of the french empire in north america and the spanish who are the french allies and various other theaters, england, more than doubles its territorial claims in north america. It inherits essentially the treaty of paris and early 1763, all of frances territories in north america, which stretch from the mouth of the saint through quebec and ontario, through the great lakes, down the. There are french who have been trading with the mandan nations of the northern plains. This is a world now that british have dominion or claim to that now literally stretches almost the entirety of north america. And there are scholars write about this whom i kind of cite and try to draw from, who make a claim, for example, one could now walk in the aftermath of treaty of paris in 1763 from what was spanish. Florida now inherited or possessed by the english. One could walk from british florida to the hudsons bay and stay the realm of the british newly constituted imperial world. Thats the precursor, i think, an anderson this claim. Thats the as do many other that this is the necessary precursor understanding all the subsequent that occur in the similar regions of Eastern North America ultimately including the American Revolution. So my talk today which will be begin im sorry, which well begin with the the declaration move back kind of looks at the aftermath of the seven years war when Indigenous Leaders community of members soldiers mothers and children are aggrieved not just with the french exit or the dismissal, but with the arrival of new british authorities who lack a familiar familiarity with the region and much of the kind of literature and emphasis on the history of the french empire in north america, which is now relatively canonical and studies of early america have placed a of emphasis on how mutually determined much of the history of franco indigenous became not because of the french to have a more potentially bilateral or kind of consensual political world, but because they were brought into sets of mediation forms of reciprocal and even kinship relationships with Indigenous Peoples and. So the british who take control of a series of french forts starting in the late 1750s and throughout the early 1760s, are not aware of the of protocols of american diplomacy, east or west of the appalachians. And they try as many of us may know, to impose authority through certain types of patriarchal landholding possessions, directives, military even commands that arent wellreceived. And how on how unwell received they if thats a somewhat accurately phrased sentence, theyre so unwell receive that the native peoples organize and attack them and they burn. Nine of the 13 force that the british have inherited in, the greater and central great lakes, in a conflict known as war, which occurs in the summer of 1763. So 1763 is which one of the most determinative of years in American History starts then, with this kind of euphoric british or english kind of colonial victory and word of the treaty of paris, the ports, which just philadelphia its eulogized in puritan boston churches. This is the perhaps most euphoric moment, the history of the english british north american world. Up into point in many kind a celebrating the new king has been a. Established as the british monarch and there is a kind of general kind euphoria celebrating the place of anglophone and settlers in the larger english empire, their largest antagonists, the french often considered, despite absolutist catholic. Perhaps allies of a centralized, are now no longer in possession of much of north america and their indigenous allies are potentially also. Potentially now under the authority of a much more powerful english sovereign but pontiac for redirects many of the currents of power that the british are to establish and very fatefully incites particularly in places like western or central and pennsylvania. It incites this kind of growing antiindian is ideology or antiindigenous political culture that despises what the british are forced do because british are essentially brought back onto the terrain politically, economically, diplomatically with the french and maintained with Indigenous Peoples because of the military power and determination of Indigenous Peoples, particularly of the southern great lakes regions, were allied together. The confederacy, led by the ottawa leader or down leader, pontiac who has kind of this kind of set of prophets who are accompanying him. And many of these details are kind of found in chapters four and five of this book. So that. Of continued indigenous power, a indigenous influence, reshapes the currents of english colonial colonialism in north america, and which is what the how does the British Crown respond . In 1763, they say, well, you know, youre kind of right. You know, we cant control this. And we were going to start allying or or trying to negotiate or diplomatically resolve this conflict. So the British Imperial authorities passed a proclamation in the fall of 1763 that prohibits the settlement of anglophone Settlers West of the appalachians, known as the royal proclamation, 1763. And there are maps and things that are kind of illustrative of this history highlight that the interior is supposed to be reserved for indians and the new of evolving policy of the british monarchy and its parliamentary and north american, british, imperial or english imperial have initiated. So in pennsylvania that country settlers werent very content with this. Resolution or attempted resolution of indigenous concerns and many feared indians above all others. And they pressure the legislation as some of us know here. But i think its insufficiently well known. In 1764 to offer the following bounties for indian scalps. 134 for a man, 130 for a woman, and 50 for a child. There had a massacre somewhat, as we know, in in december 1763 by organized settler militias dissatisfied. The english response to pontiacs. They believed that the kind of Stover Community near lancaster was fueling trade and munitions to pontiac, the most important of those millennial list prophets that i briefly referenced is known the is kneeling, known as the prophet he had. He in many delaware or lenape communities had lived in Eastern North America in and around pennsylvania near colonial settlements, and had seen some of the duplicity and kind of forms of grievance that had led to the dispossessed of their communities lands. And many had retreated into the interior, found alliances with shawnee and other algonquian speaking communities there. And and so this is these are not claims. Many, you know, many of the claims like the ones i just made drawn from Fred Anderson work and others many of the claims in this book are not necessarily mine essentially exclusively but are built on and dependent the works of others. And so it is in this entire world or many have suggested were colonists begin first organizing essentially against english forces. And were a distinctive revolutionary ideology for and that essentially had no place for indians. And forge then in the aftermath of seven years war and following the collapse. New france interior rebels. I think as we should call them, feared a renewed indian war. The last conflict, the seven years war had been monumentally transformative, both in geopolitical terms, as weve discussed, but also in very, you know, everyday forms of social and economic life. And these fears of a renewed war, justified not just the massacre of peaceful indians in 1763 that i mentioned, but subsequent marches on philadelphia, the colonial legislation itself in early 1764 and i was just released astonished to see that Benjamin Franklin has a central role in this history that i had no idea about. I am a western historian by the by initial training and interest, and ive become kind of a native american kind of history of kind of a broader form. But i really no idea that that kind of intensive of these kind of antiindigenous practices that are pervading this region in the 1760s and franklin will pen a very famous indictment of these men of this massacre, january 1764 and circulate it in a pamphlet among many other pamphlets are kind of circulating around the region, some in defense, some in support of what were initially known as the paxton boys who essentially a settler militia. So chapter five and the indigenous origins the American Revolution is called settler uprisings. And so the settler uprisings are essentially taking law and violence their own hands and their targeting not just indians, but theyre also threatening the allies of. So weve learned about the massacre of conestoga. We learned about the marches on the colonial legislature. We learned the passage of scalp bounties in 1764 and then in early. 1765 and further west along the forbes road, which connects philadelphia and eventually no longer duquesne. But a new fort there called fort pitt in the region renamed now pittsburgh militias began attacking both english forts supply trains that are attempting to bring diplomatic resolution to pontiacs and try to have some kind of narrative. Attempt to classify these settler militias not as. Thieves. But as political rebels. The revolutionaries, theyre trying to upset the political structures in the region, and they succeed which is kind of a kind of surprising they are able to evade persecution. And theyre sets of attempts to bring them to essentially justice. And no one and none of the kind of stoga or certain militia members are ever convicted of any of the charges that. Many thought they were should be subject more broadly, these kind of grievances essentially predated concerns about english taxes are more commonly recognized. The kind of origin their origins of anti monarchical sentiments, the colonial world. And they centered more on english policies that attempted diplomacy. Native native nations than other more familiar crown abuses. I do think of it as a hatred because as well see shortly, the language is pretty strong and it informed the. Which has as many of us may know, 27 grievances located within. It lodged against the english crown for a series of what you just called more familiar abuses. But the declaration really builds almost like a crescendo with its most serious grievance against the king of england. A grievance 27 that jefferson. Initially drafted but then was subsequently co all authored by other countries in the Continental Congress members to kind of bring home what they considered to be the most serious grievance that the crown had initiated against the colonial so their communities because the king of england quote has endeavored bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions and. So these terms merciless indian savages, is as well as in habitants of our frontiers, are both in essentially a manifest nations of this antiindigenous ideology that has formed in the aftermath of the seven years war and hardened to an extent that they find their way into the charter in document that declares the independence of the United States. This is a type of history that i think we should all be familiar with. And its a tribal history that complicates somewhat exclusively celebratory or commemorative forms of recognition and too few kind of colonial historians more broadly have really understood should the place these frontier communities within the revolutionary interior or militia have groups known as the black boys who form in the spring of 1765 as well the leaders in nearby towns like carlisle shaped the revolution. They organize the western pennsylvanias First Committee of correspondences. They helped draft the pennsylvania constitution and someone went, oh, the leader of carlisle named james wilson signed the declaration itself in the field, often preoccupied with sea port leaders and virginias gentry classes, many have failed to see the centrality of Indigenous Peoples and the relationships, revolutionary leaders and a kind of broader form. So this is one example. Or if we take a kind of familiar paradigm or moment of american Historical Development and look at it through the lens of indigenous history, we see perhaps a new perspective on kind of more familiar forms of u. S. History. And thats really the broader kind of effort or ambition of this project to try to rework redress this type of what we might call erasure, because its more than a to not know these things. It represents really a continued kind of inability to imagine our country in a more pluralistic and inclusive way, to really see some of the kind of humanistic enlightenment principles that the declaration itself is establishing in a more complicated and perhaps capacious way. I mentioned, for example, that franklin abhorred these militias, feared their wanton use of violence and his 1764 pamphlet, which is entitled a of the late massacre. He expresses this discomfort, but also does so in a way that exposes his stead. Loyalty to the crown. So those who initially condemning the paxton boys, the black boys, are the colonial legislative leaders are themselves very committed to the authority of the english monarch. But subsequent developments across the colonies is increasingly conjoined eastern or sepia based atlantic critiques of english policies with those of these backcountry settlers who protested earlier english diplomat efforts. So interior rebels eventually compacted with the eastern leaders like franklin to form spirit of 76. More broadly and a Clear History of these compromises remains to be written. And im kind of ive been here for a few days as part of a series academic conferences around early american, including the society for the history of the american earlier american republic. And ive, you know, perhaps a perhaps can use this moment a kind of invitation to my more broadly in these fields try to think about rewriting the revolutionary era to emphasize more essentially the growing unification of the divergent concerns the english crown across colonial regions that include these interior antiindigenous behaviors, practices and ideologies i think the declaration actually provides us a road map for seeking to understand the oppositional and revolution formation of savages versus frontier. And its really interesting because, the frontier, as many of us may know the most kind of celebrated paradigm of american Historical Development, the significance of the frontier, the essay by Frederick Jackson turner in 1890, delivered at the american Historical Association of 1892 and published shortly thereafter, is the most famous essay not just in American History, but many scholars. It the most famous historical essay ever written that identify as the kind of generative kind of thesis of american Historical Development that sees American History forming, not in centralized. Sometimes hierarchical, urban environments, but these frontier communities where a way from the constraints of a centralized religious or political or Economic Authority individualism can kind of form. And so the kind of celebratory kind of history of frontier america is one of the most, if not the most kind of emblematic paradigms for. Understanding the american spirit or the growth of american and the term frontier has is my colleague Patrick Patrick spero has written in a book that is heavily influential upon this argument it becomes first used in these backcountry communities at this time. So appearance in the declaration means something to us in a way that we have yet to think fully and the disdain of native peoples fueled many conflicts throughout, not just the revolution era, but as many of us may know in the decades followed, returning much of the what was then known as the old northwest to a recurring state of war. So this small moment of of from chapter five, i think, invites us to revisit certain kind of classical formative moments of u. S. History and perhaps do so in ways that we might try to excise of the language of into. Peoples as we prepare for 2026, when we will celebrate. The declarations 250th anniversary or many continue to see it as a stunning rhetorical feat and an extraordinary act of political courage has more than one contemporary limitation. Its failures include, not only its ability to, in halting of slavery, but also its legislative mitigation of indiscriminate violence against. Interior indians. The declaration, one might conclude, authorizes the vilification of native americans, which, like slavery, are failed to resolve. And many profited from the violence that countless indian lands into the republic. Thereafter. So this is a somewhat sobering subject that isnt the only thing of project, and i kind of wanted to kind of end in a slightly, perhaps more contemporary and. Perhaps dynamic historical landscape in which Indigenous Peoples themselves responded to the challenges of your american expansion and settlement dominion and refashion of the imposition structures and challenges that were brought to their communities by various, particularly federal initiatives in. The late 19th and early 20th centuries and so the last chapters of this book, chapters 11 and 12 offer an overview of and perhaps some sustained interpretive analysis of the ways native americans responded to a series of intrusive federal policies that attempted to radically reorientate the fundamental conditions and premises within their societies. And this is as the era of assimilation, as many of us may know. Again, pennsylvania has a and carlisle has a kind of Central Place in larger history. Its in 1879 that the First Industrial Indian School opens there that has a good support of the federal government to, forcibly reeducate American Indians by removing their children and bringing them for extended duration to these government facilities. And its run former u. S. Military officers, including captain Richard Henry pratt, whose famous at carlisle and public such as these was that his goal was to kill the indian order to save the man. And this process of individualization, which is at the heart, an assimilated design by the federal throughout the 19th and early 20th century, is one of the most onerous periods in native american. Historical experience, because ultimately while the federal government subsidies indigenous reservation lands broke countless commitment is enshrined into treaty law and. Took possession or helped others possession of indigenous resources like water game, timber and other later mineral resources. It ultimately native children were the tribes greatest resources, and so the loss of these Community Members for extended periods is really the most emblematic moment of the kind of assimilation campaign. So starting the early 20th century, native. Leaders began forming National Political associations that attempted to reverse currents in chapter. Which is subtype over, involves the mythology of indian disappearance kind identify some of the ideologies and strategies that native leaders began develop in and forming kind of National Political association in 1911, known as the society of American Indians inaugurates really a century or nearly an entire century of 20th century native american political activism. That isnt, i think, sufficiently well recognized or incorporated into so many kind of conventional understandings of modern america. And there is a native american political essentially that is central to the evolution. Obviously not just native American Communities, but also the United States more broadly. And so id like to close that very briefly with a kind of sketch this this two chapter portion of this larger study that highlights this indigenous is agency and activism. And i did i came to this in part in many ways. I. Was drawn to this because of the institution will locations that ive been in and some of the students and communities who have shaped them. And i joined, the faculty at yale and with summer of 2009 and knew at the time that there was a growing native american student there who had been confronting these types of erasure within courses and within the administrative life of the institution. And there was a kind of common, i think, administrative misunderstanding that they sometimes encountered that said, well there arent that many of you here and there arent that many. And we dont know of any important alumni from your community and alumni have a Important Role to play. Sometimes in these ivy league institutions. And so the students kind of heroically went about exposing several prominent native is exposing the history. Several prominent native american alums, including arguably of the most influential educational leaders of the later 20th century, named sam deloria, who graduated from yale in 1963 and helped run a prelaw Indian Summer institute at the university of new mexico almost 40 years. I think that trained that has trained this Summer Institute has trained over 1000 Indian Lawyers. In 1970 or so i believe there are less than 20 barred Indian Lawyers in the country. And now there are several thousand. This program has played a central in that process. So much so that the term indian and lawyer seemingly were like opposition magnets that could never be kind of put together like indian lawyer. Come on. Or this is a kind of almost inconceivable subject. In 1964, 65, when deloria was kind and as i write in later part of the books, lawyers and law become, as well see very shortly central to this subject. So sam deloria was the first recognized member of of the yale native American Community to receive a medal known as the henry rock medal because henry rock cloud was also a yale winnebago indian from nebraska, whose communities been historic displaced from wisconsin, where he had been teaching ten years and had many hochunk colleagues, friends and students the winnebagos are, also known in wisconsin as the hochunk nation in 1994. I believe they reconstituted a redraft of their constitution and renamed themselves as the hochunk nation of wisconsin and henry cloud graduated yale in 1910. And it turns out. He was one of the founders of the society American Indians, and he met his for his his wife, Elizabeth Bender cloud and, ojibwe educational leader. At a subsequent meeting of the society shortly thereafter and together they formed the first American Indian preparatory academy, a country known as the American Indian institute in wichita, kansas. And so graduating from yale in 1910 at a time before its expansion, if you were to know the history of the institution, know there was a very much smaller college than it is now, is obviously all men at the time. Very few people of color in real cloud graduated and near the top of his class. One debating awards was a member of the most exclusive kind of social societies on and it was very Close Friends with a classmate. Named robert taft, who was a future senator from ohio who nearly won the republican nomination for president in 1952. And ive seen the class yearbook from 1910 that has their photos and, small biographies, and it lists at bottom their home addresses. And anyone know robert harveys home address was in 1910. Whats that . This was his home address. White house. The white house. Why is that . That his dad was, president of United States. So henry real cloud was not just classmates but friends with arguably the most powerful political family or one of them in the country. And he could have used that relationship that entry into the kind of leading educational and perhaps some kind of economic strata of American Society for self betterment or economic attainment of various kinds. He didnt do that. He decided to make educational policies that Richard Henry had established. Carlisle, the target of his political and educational efforts. And so they built he and elizabeth thundercloud as indian preparatory academy, known as the american institute. And we have a photo here. I got a photo placed into the volume. And so hes one of many native american educators and leaders who understood that this policy that the federal government had to be changed. And this chapter 11 chronicles his and others kind efforts to modify and reform federal indian policy and ultimately culminates with the indian new deal of the 1930s, which is the most important kind of policy reorientation in American Indian history. When the federal government finally, for the first time, reverses its policies of essentially destroying tribal communities and attempts to provide certain forms of selfgovernance. Vernons, through a series of statutes and laws and in establish selfgoverning native American Communities under indian reorganization act of 1934. This is the legislative achievement of the new deal era for indian affairs, and it lasts into the cold war era, but is radically reoriented in the aftermath of the cold war. When new, more assimilated political policy laws are reinstituted that try to subdivide native American Communities not by individual land, but by juristic orientations that turn tribal communities and over to state governments. And so this policy known as termination, is an attempt to abrogate the federal trust or doctrine and relationship that the federal government has established with native American Communities. And its accompanied by a series of similar similar designs to subsidize the one way urbanization of American Indians, urban communities known as relocation. And theres a very almost kind of chilling component of Child Welfare also involved in which the federal government is essentially trying to turn native american Child Welfare and social services over to the states who are then enlisting the services of private adoption agencies to essentially remove indian children and place them into white. That practice becomes challenged by a series of native american activists throughout the cold war era and culminates in the passage. 1978 of the indian Child Welfare act. And some of what we know that the supreme court, i believe last month in a72 decision, upheld the constitutional quality of that law in a case called harlan v brooking. And i was actually very fortunate to have been moderately involved in some of the amicus briefing that went into this case. So those are the kind of dimensions of native American History that link past and present at invite us perhaps to see native American History as a central theme of American History more broadly and potentially position us as a kind of collective generation of American Scholars and citizens and educators to move past some of the limiting frames of analysis, but also damaging and hurtful suggestions that are embedded in some of the most important moments of native American History, because claims that native people, civilization or reason remain among the nations oldest mythologies. As either noble or, merciless savages, native peoples and their governments occupy a political status that is less than other u. S. Citizens. A legacy of earlier centuries of not just potentially injustice, but also entry to indigenous centered it thank for your sustained attention this evening. I look forward to any questions or concerns that some of you may. Hear in the front and then next we have a mic thats might be helpful for our audio participants. Oh, youre going are you going to just hold this for me . Yeah. Okay. Please. Oh, yes. So i fortunately have not yet your book, which i something i expect to remedy soon but i was interested in your analysis of the jacksonian period in in reference to these things because that seems to be another in which you this sort of western rural Political Movement that involves both displacement of of the of the Indigenous Peoples in radical forms and the battle with the eastern establishment particularly over broader Economic Issues related to the development of the country. Right. Another thing that occurred around the locke here with the with the second bank you know we i think failed to understand the the history of our country often because we see it in somewhat uniform unified or simply simplified form. And so even the revolutionary and we just talk briefly about franklin and having a really deep animosity towards these settler militia members and so even within the colonial world, there are deep tensions about how to organize or various undertakings. And similarly in the jefferson a jacksonian administration, theres a indian. Removal act of 1830, which is his legislative centerpiece of his administration. Only passes by four votes. And those four votes really matter in the history of the subject. Its not how he would have reacted that because we may also know the jackson removal crisis the 1830s in which the executive branch is essentially encouraged and state governments to violate federal treaty law or allowing that occur is a constitutional crisis. And the most important law case that establishes the doctrine of federal law in which tribal communities have jurisdiction of their in partnership with the federal government outside the jurisdiction of states, the states cannot pass laws that interfere with that dominion or the selfgoverning, inherent recognition or sovereignty that case is essentially not upheld by the executive branch in the national government, even though the supreme court. Authors an that says that the state of georgia cant pass laws imprison u. S. Citizens are upon the cherokee lands and there of the state. This is the famous where serving georgia and so this is a contested moment of history just like many moments are contested and there are opposing views on any kind of moral, ethical debates where should policy is in laws and efforts move. And so i think its really important all of us as. Concerned citizens about our nation and its past to see a much more varied topography that isnt strictly divided into siloed or sometimes simplified actors and native American History. I provides one of the most kind of illuminating and textured subjects within the kind of american historical experience that requires us to see past polar treaties or binaries to see a kind of really multiracial, multilingual and kind of inherently non simplify, able historical experience so that an important moment in their black. On a global level. Two things for two things. First of all, anyone who is not of the walking purchase of 1737 do go google that because right here in within a few miles here, there was a major a major displacement of the lenape people. Right. Thats a thats very famous on another. You dont have to go to carlisle for an Indian School just half mile from here was the lincoln institute. Right. Mary mchenry cox, who had been it was a wealthy woman. Benevolence had set up a a a school for civil war. And when she ran out of civil war orphans, she started stealing sue and chippewa children and bringing them to philadelphia to put them into to. I just sat through a session this morning which someone was making the claim that we need to re period. I actually had someone of former students cleo Anthony Johnson of Wesleyan University sharing some his work and imploring us to read period is American Indian educational history so that the boarding schools arent seen as the beginnings of this essentially child Removal Program and that even throughout the colonial and not just antebellum, but predating the revolution a missionary schools or Mission Schools were established throughout new england that this form of benevolence, that ultimately extend to pre existing anglophone and european continental programs, of educating minor children away from theyre either poor or ethnically diverse. Irish kind of families so that they could become incorporated into a more anglophone, protestant and christianize. So thats really achieving a visit to the reservation and a trip to a little sphere. Didnt see the irony of putting those two titles in one, and she was horrified that these beautiful children had reverted to their ways, starting speaking their own language. I mean, she was just horrified that. Her good works had gone to naught. We have many questions. It looks here and then in the front, but we may not have time for more than more than those two. Hi. Elaborate on the bounty for scalps. Who paid it . How did they get the money and how successful or unsuccessful was . You know, i. I think that history has not been fully excavated and i, i, im a little mindful that a lot of the examples i use in this book are drawn from other studies that are often not, often extremely thorough. So in a sense, this is like an example that ive drawn from another work. Alan taylor is an American Revolutions book that cites to a series other studies that make a similar recognition. So there are such scarce studies and scholars that have worked on these. Histories of bounties im using all of these examples in kind of larger mosaic that doesnt have the kind of portraiture, if we want to use an artistic metaphor for that, one might be want. And so i would can point you to the works that have explored the subject in great detail, but dont know the exact outcomes essentially of the legislative bounties that were established. Other than that, the Legislature Passed them waiting for. Thank you here. Yeah. Okay. And i dont know if you had heard of this, but i read years ago pick ashby. Have you heard of it . I havent. It was the violence statistics person for the of virginia. Okay. And so he tried to eradicate native americans or indians out of virginia. And so he created a form that you could only be white or black. You cannot be indian. The other part of that was that pocahontas had married john rolfe and she had many descendants and many of them were the first families of virginia. So they all have because he said anybody who has one drop of indian blood should leave state. So that included the first families of virginia. So then he had to make an exception but he was trying to eradicate indians right off the right off of the right off of the documentation that are a native american. There are a lot of examples of censuses. Would say you take ashby and my name is ed. Oh okay. No relation. Okay. Im a descendant of a land ap say hill, monmouth county, jersey, very nice to meet you. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed doctor. See, theres an example in that chapter that i mentioned about native activists formed the society of American Indians of an American Indian. Ironically, lawyer named mary louise, who was active in the society of American Indians and worked in washington and. One of the cities of her recent studies of life has kind of indicated when the census takers to her home and i think the census in 1910 or perhaps 1920, i cant which one to enumerate or her kind of but since the standing she informed them that she was indeed an American Indian and had no space in the census. And what i write in here a little provocatively is that there was no space not only in the census, but in the imagination of. Its taker for native american and to actually live in in an urban environment so that are we all have time thank you so much again. Im happy to talk further