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, t