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maximum assistant professor of history at the university of southern california. this is my first in-person conference. since the pandemic. after two years giving a conference paper was basically sitting alone in my apartment at my laptop it's really wonderful to be able to talk to you today. just wants give you on a commenting the different varieties in which people chose to participate that came some logistical challenges. i went to cinque who unfortunately cannot be heree today. who is responsible for bringing us all together today. she conceived of the roundtable is one that will be focused on the civil war and the west.

focuses on about 1862. this is the year in the republican party succeeded in passing some of the original campaign promises abolishing slavery in the western territories as well as passing the homestead act. it achieved legislative victory to help the union when the war like there direct tax act established the first federal income tax. this was the year the fighting in the civil war took a particularly bloodied turn with the battle of shiloh among others. it seemed increasingly likely france or england might recognize the confederacy. when congress recognized with african-americans free and enslaved had known all along this was a war over slavery not just over the union. and of course the war in the west is even more complicated and i'm sure the subject of much

of what we will be discussing in today's roundtable. always decisions events of shape the world we live in today. and i so it seems particularly t 160 years later to think about this year together. as you might notice our ranks are somewhat diminished. have a family emergency and could not come to the conference at all. ndari unfortunately had a flight canceled after winning what airline was it was united. i was not able to get here in time for this roundtable. they both asked me too say how disappointed they are to not be able to be with us today. what we are going to a do the to members of our roundtable to share some thoughts. i will introduce each of them

and then we will open the floor up to a broader discussion. i really hope we will be able to do that as a conversation. first up we have an assistant professor of american studies and affiliated faculty with women's gender and sexuality studies at barnard college she's taught since 2014. his work centers or critique of with a particular focus on antiracism and decolonization for it he teaches courses on the political economy of racism u.s. imperialism and radical internationalism. indigenous critiques of political economy and liberation. he's the author of empires, tracks indigenous nations chinese workers the transcontinental railroad which was published. exhibit two echo thanks to the organizers of w the conference which is a huge amount of work

and also to religion. i feel kind of sheepish feels like from here the big 1862 does not feel so big. i hope we can have a discussion with everyone in the room. thanks so much for taking the time to join us. so, in my remarks today i plan to focus on 1862 as a moment of escalation. linking the wartime expansion of u.s. military w power i'm particularly interested in with military and financial power in the west and its wars and occupation against the s seminos

which up until that point for the most expensive wars the u.s. fought until the civil war and pores of the u.s. was militarily defeated. the war economy arms the deep south. mark the confrontation between northern merchant capitol southern agrarian capitol for the international exports are in short future. insurance capitol based in new york city and the connecticut river valley became paralyzed andio divided of the transition from cotton to a diversified across ranching, agriculture, mining and industry. the victory over the confederacy was a battlefield catastrophes

the legal tender act passed on to every so-called greenback which eventually increased to four and 58 million in additional half billion dollars in war bonds. raising funds to support military power over land and seat which would bery necessaryo defeat the confederacy provide a windfall forct industrial mility contractors launching the careers and becoming. and a further effort to raise war funds in the face of bitter politicalization the revenue act lincoln signed into law july 1, 1862 f would become the irs. these laws in turn set the stage for the national bank act between 1863 in 1866.

given federal government the ability to issue war bonds regulate and tax the commercial banking system. on april 19, lincoln had issued a proclamation i get southern ports. the naval blockade was necessary to stop the flow of capitol weapons and consumer goods into the confederacy. it's a coercive policy to break the alliance of new york merchants and southern planters. which is running goods by nasa, bermuda. begin the civil war with 42 chips in active service. this would increase 384 by the end of the war the u.s. had the largest navy. the navy provide the muscle for expanded monroe doctrine in the decades following the war with active u.s. intervention against caribbean and central

nationalist movements the service of ensuring u.s. returns on investment. and cuba over the coming decades the u.s. would leverage political, economic and military pressure to support and align the agrarian finance capitol of states in america the close of the 19th century the cuban revolution to overturn this pressure. of the legal tender act 1862 a sign of respectable mane and family per gordon was captain of the slave ship which had been apprehended the previous august the mouth of the congo river carrying a cargo african captives. as the first and only time the u.s. executed someone participating in the slave trade six weeks later's u.s. british

concluded negotiation on the treaty which e effectively ended u.s. sanctions for participation in slave trade to cuba and brazil this ended u.s. participation legal u.s. participation and the atlantic slave trade. 1862 saw a transition u.s. assertions of a power over land. on july 1, 1862 the same day as the revenue actth lincoln sign f specific rail act into law the union pacific railroad provided land grants for the union pacific and the central pacific railroad which is chartered in the state of california. these corporate land u grants te u.s. congress violated treaties that it signed with indigenous nations on the path of the railroad. the railroad g companies use lad grants to raise capitol to fund the construction. the rail infrastructure they

built raise capitol to this finance. move resourcest out and move troops in. the rail developments took place on a global stage. the end of the year to the completion the end of 1862 would see the completion of the first rail line and algeria and spread in western india by the british. on july 2 the day after sal the pacific railway act he signed the moral act establishing the structure of the modern u.s. public university of land grants a moral act was another aspect of continental imperialism. by opening university education to small property owners, deep in the collaboration. the analysis of gerald ford. by organizing higher educations

that university produced would train and educate the cadre of corporations in a rapidly modernizing. the political economy of our own era of crisis continues to operate within the constraints set in place by land grants to corporations andrs universities over the two days in 1962. at the end of the year december 26, the u.s. executed 38 the code of prisoners what utremains the largest official mass execution and u.s. history. historical context the rewrite act in the land grab act theer massive execution was assertion of land-based power. this of all the transition writing to north america in the state of war to a state of policing the transition which remains unfinished in our own day. together we see the prioritization of the rights of corporations over and against international treaty obligations. the expansion of the land and

military power was accomplished to the expansion of finance capitol. this in turn set the stage for subsequent development vigilantism and treaty application that provide the context of the massacre of nove. in a subsequent period following the defeat of the confederacy and the demise these finance condensation of u.s. power between the mississippi andif california and in the caribbean. the definitive break in the alliance between northeastern merchant capitol southern slaveholding capitol around shared investments in cotton lead to the development of finance capitol investing in industry. by the end of the 1880s u.s. finance capitol had economic terms controlling the production of sugar and mining operations. thburning down of old-growth fos to establish massive shoot sugar

states "rail and road to transport raw and finish materials and thousands of seasonal workers. i've spoken about two executions with the windows into the transition during that year. i am particularly interested in how the defeat of southern agrarian m-uppercase-letter accomplished a revolution in land relations but instead a new alliance between finance capitol and agrarian capitol. particularly on the plains of nonorth america and in the islas of the caribbean. i want to end by calling our attention to the saudi execution of 81 prisoners this past march 12 followed by the u.s. a shipment of significant number of patriot missiles to saudi arabia on march 21 as reported in the wall street journal. the saudi's report they are unable or unwilling to rapidly increase oil production to offset sanctions and russian oil for consumers in europe.

this has taken place we witnessed rapidly unfolding experiments between countries seeking to trade in currencies other than the u.s. dollar. these recent developments, we can also see assertions of our oversee and plant attempts to stabilize the dollar to project the future of u.s. power. the world humans caught in the work finance nexus. [applause] clicks thank you so much. our next panelist is jimmy. assistant professor of american studies at rutgers' current book project race, welcome mix interest during the decoded and century midwest. analyzes the racial complexityed of american indians of mixed idiot and european ancestry. the focus on kinship, family history, land dispossession and

citizenship. dedicated to indigenous languags revitalization and preservation. research is driven by a need to understand the full effects of american colonialism, on indigenous american and how those consequences influence native people today. doing so with hope of contributing to the continued fight for indigenous sovereignty and the healing of indigenous communities, jimmy? [inaudible] 's a a formal decoded greeting hello my relatives. thank you for coming to this. in my own? is it working now? okay i'll start again. we have the time obviously were short a few people. that's a formal decoded greeting it means hello my relatives. i shake your hands and a goodhearted manner and handshaking is a big deal in

dakotahe culture. when i was invited to this panel i came to talk about the use dakota wharf 1862 which is much closer to my area of expertise. but two of the panels were arty going to talk about that witch h imports are there not even here today. [laughter] but my thinking lately has been turning a bit more broadly from the u.s. decoded word for it more broadly in scope and in i e time. to think more about native people pertinently during the civil war years. so, 1862 the civil war years is a particularly horrible moments for nativee americans i would say. if in this moment the u.s. government really goes all out and makes the full policy to dispossess native people of their lands.

and replace them with white settlers. this was not something new the u.s. and other colonial powers in north america have been carrying out genocide and dispossession of native american people for hundreds of years. but the civil war acted as cover for american lawmakers. too explicitly make policy federal government. we've heard about the congressional acts of that. the homestead act. the pacific railroad act all of these were legislative focus on dispossession of native people. the distant possession of sovereign nations not just individualsei but nations. these are sovereign nations the long predate the existence of the united states.

it's to remove them from their homelands and replace them with white settlers. in the same years during the civil war we also see the creation of a large number of territories. colorado, nevada, the territories were created 1861. arizona and idaho in 1863 and montana and 1864. a huge swath of the american west the government presents with dramatically increased over the huge swath of native american territory. in native american lands. which all these things coupled together was really all about using what was going on in the civil war to dramatic overtake indigenous lands. that has always been the practice of the american government and other it ramped

up in this moment. it ramped up in violence. in 1862. some of these are better known. i mention the u.s. dakota work 1862. was a major war populated the state of minnesota resulted in hundreds of sellers at dead. hundreds of navy native people dead. thousands of native people displaced from their homelands in minnesota. professor gwen westerman was a defendant8 of one of the 38 men at least one of the 38 men executed on december 26. i wish she was here to give what i know is going to be powerful talk about that. that was one of the better-known ones. there is a piece of

historiography of that. the another one is a sand creek massacre in 1864 in colorado. most people have heard of that. there's some sort of literature on that as well. there are many, many, many moments of violence particularly in california under what's known as the california genocide which was going on for a decade or two before the civil war. it was a particularly bloodied time during the civil war. and so for example audits are lesser-known. there's the bear river massacre ande idaho were that u.s. army massacred 280 shoshone men, women, children. there is another massacre around the same. in california sellers it wasn't the military local settlers rose up and murdered probably 300 indians inia california.

these are just to name a couple of the more extreme ones. so many of these massacres going on in the civil war years. many are completely unknown. those particularly in california more expert on california that i thereop is a native population f california's greatly reduced. something like 75 or 80%. >> a broader timeline in the 19th century from something like a 300,000 to three and 50000 something like that. it's largely through this violence going on. but anyway in the aftermath of that general jon a poke was the commander of the new department that was created as a result of the war he wrote to one of his

subordinates and september of 1862. his thoughts about the decoded people. het said quote it is my purpose utterly to exterminate the seal. if i had the power to do so even if it required a campaign last the whole of next year this is two years. he goes on, destroy everything belonging to them, force them out onto the planes there to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts and by no means as people with him treaties or compromises should be made. of course that every army officer had the same views but many did. probably most notably colonel jon who masterminded the creek massacre a few years later. it gets to the thoughts of the military officers of the time. some of the people linked to the

administration. another aspect of the civil war was that it completely devastated indian territory what is now oklahoma. this is where the u.s. government had forcibly removed thousands of people just a generation earlier. i'm now the civil war devastated their new homeland. and so they are, there were thousands of native people that ended ups serving on both sides both of the confederacy and on the american side. us to presidt lincoln is someone who scholars and the public often view as one of the greatest american presidents. but the reality is he did little to nothing to curtail violence towards native people during his tenure. he did nothing to curtail the suffering o >> hef did nothing particularly in indian territory and places like that. anthony blinken some native

people as a threat to settler expansion. he perceived the future of the u.s. as one in which indigenous people would be swept aside and white settlers would occupy their homelands and that's partly why we have the legislation which has the homestead act and so on. his politicalol appointees in te indian service at that time had the indian affairs now called the bureau of indian affairs were largely incompetent and corrupt although that wasn't something from his administration this was quite common in the administrations before and after this, these were political appointees and people that worked as indian agents were directly or washington, d.c. with office of opinion affairs, they were not appointed because of their skills or their abilities to work with native people, or things like that or even the

federal policies of the government in a relationship or the treaty responsibilities of the federal government they were appointed purely for political reasons and so often they had no expertise with nato peopleer whatsoever and they were there to rest and make money. that was a huge problem in the indian service of the. the indian agents and other workerser regularly stole money and still supplies and had to go to native people as a treaty guaranteed supplies or payments were sent to the indian agencies to be distributed to native very often anthony blinken appointees were skimming off the top were sometimes skimming from the top in some cases unfortunately that's what of the causes of the u.s. dakota

were, dakota people starving to death because a lot of the local politicians in the state of minnesota who were also often worked for the government as part of the indian service and some of them had later in office and army officer. they embezzled pretty much all of the money and one of the causes of the u.s. dakota were, this is what is going on during the linking of administration. so lincoln and his appointees were most interested in concentrating people on reservation lands and taking their land for settler expansion. and if authorities or a militia group felt it was necessary to commit genocidal violence to achievee that, they did so and we've seen that with sand creek, bear river and other various

massacres. so often scholars right of lincoln as being too busy of his administration in the civil war to do anything to help native people were to really carry out policies that would be protective of native people in their lands' end those kinds of things. but lincoln was the architect of his administration, he was the architect of the policy of his administration he was architect of the actions that his appointees and people carried out. but anyway, i want to wrap up my comments as a historiographical question here and thinking about this historic literature about this. of native americans during the civil war, i'm looking forward to a good conversation. i think there is a twofold issue

with the historiography. it's a matter of scale. if we need large-scale work and more large-scale work. on the small scale there is a decent literature on the u.s.arn dakota war and there is work on the sand creek massacre and another one of our members who cannot make it today our element has a beautiful book and horrifying in the trauma in their of the sand creek massacre. obviously they have other circumstances and were able to make it unfortunately. , now i lost my train of thought. anywayre there is historical wok on sand creek and the u.s. dakota were for some of the other moments of violence, extreme violence, the massacres have gone under study or in some places not studied at all, we

might know the names of them and that's about it. that is one issue, we really need a lot more work of people to dig intoud these studies and these particular events that were going on in the civil war. another issue, we need more work that takes these events as a whole and gives them broader interpretation andnt understandg of why and how these things happen and how they relate to the civil war and what was going on in a particular period. and just before h this talk i hd lunch with a great feller jeffrey ostler who's in the audience today. he just had a recent r book, surviving genocide which gives the broad overview but up until 1860 inon waiting the second volume which unfortunately says we might be waiting a little while which brings that into a later date, that is one example

of the important work being done but there needs to be a lot more work not only the small scale of figuring out what happened but the broad scale to get more into the meanings of this. of how these episodes relate to the creation of the united states and coming out of the civil war and issues of reconstruction or the lack of reconstruction in many cases when it comes to indigenous people in the west after the civil war. it didn't looking forward to her discussion. [applause] >> thank you both for such fascinating a talk is a lot to think about. i'm going to exercise and ask the first question. after that we will open up the floor to your audience question, a quick reminder to go to the microphone in the middle of the room and take the time to think

about what questions you might want to ask i know this probably going to be a lot. it's reallyse fascinating talk give us and make the case for why study in the west and looking more broadly at the civil war is so important whether is the caribbean or the americango west and i'm going to follow-up on these points or ending about historiography i think both reviews is getting us to think were extensively about the civil war and reconstruction obviously there is a lot of debate among scholars how too o that in the proposed framework of greater reconstruction to think about the west in the south together as a larger. over federal control and they have suggested some limitations

to that so they're arguing about think about the united states as a whole as postwar nation. and i'm curious if you guys have any comments about how we might reach expand upon the comments about how we think about what is happening in the south and what's happening with the textbook depiction of the civil war in relation toea everything else, you pretty talked about that a bit in jimmy, you were talking about the civil war and you are talking about the financial and federal expansion that was prompted by the civil war and the larger effect. i'm curious to hear you reflect more broadly about how we might think about the united states as a whole during this period or whether we should all. >> that is a great question. when i would need to think about

a little bit more. but some comments, obviously what's going on in the west is very different than what's going on in the eastern united states during the civil war. and obviously the civil war per. there is great work in the past couple of decades about the civil war, directly of battles between the confederacy in the united states like new mexico and places like that and there is separate work thinking about, bringing this up of some of the particular moments with native people, there is a growing historiography of the civil war as fought in the indian territory which fought numerous battles. i think it's one of the most fought oveieces of ground in the civil war was a union territory. maybe not in terms of numbers of

troops on the ground but number of firefights and things like that. and jeffrey and get a steele a few of his thoughts, our discussion or deconstructed in many cases. the native sovereign nations were beinged deconstructed on te reservation and at the same time the united states was constructing and expanding their empire on top of thehe other nations and the one place that probably really needed reconstruction was indian territory was not, lincoln had no real interest in helping the

people who are suffering their and were talking about tens of thousands of people who were refugees in the indian country where the indian territory as a result of the war fled into kansas and things like that that he did not care much about, that was really done after that. and i think professor mike it was on the second half of the panel and is e much more of an expert than i then link it in his administration might have more pertinent thoughts. that are some of the things even think about right now in terms of what that looks like. >> i been really interested in turning back to learn from the debates in the 30s among radicals about the interpretation of the civil war as a revolutionary. in debates about the nature of the revolution and what revolution and striking we all know about the analysis of all f

experience in working class organization and out of that moment people are reinterpreting reconstruction not as a proletarian but as the bush revolution, a revolution that fractions of the americant nt capitalist class.ha i think maybe that sounds over the abstract but i think it speaks to the political demands of our moment in some ways, and interesting ways looking into the eviction movement, experiments and mutual aid in food distribution and also with

the lessons that we're learning more broadly hopefully in an digit is history and understanding the history of the indigenous history. i think one question for me, aue central question is a question of land and land of property. if we go with the latter interpretation of the civil war as a bush log revolution, is a revolution between what becomes industrial finance capital in southern a worry is capital so it seems like there's a land and a component to it. there is similar kinds of revolutionary pressures in other parts of the world in developing nation countries that are developing capitalism and cuba by itself in the coming decades there would be a period of time where in industrial capitalist class was in cuba and we try to

answer its own interest and transform a policy, basically tmore protection so there could be more domestic production and by u.s. economic and political and military power. but of course in reconstruction across north america we see a very different patterns in play where there is a strengthening, there is never a question but accepting the pockets of the south thate we learn but a form across the expanded united states is not really onbl the table is opposite, is expansion of the industrial capital and finance capital is achieved throughan the expansion of prive property claims on land in the legal ofnd indigenously and. i'll leave it at that.

>> thank you so much for responding to that. i think the issue of land is really key to think about and to me i love the idea of deconstruction and maybe we need to have a deconstruction a book about deconstruction to go along sign a masterpiece of reconstruction. we will now open the floor to questions from the audience and if you have a question, please go to the middle aisle and ask away. >> i'll be brief. >> thank you. >> after our critique of lincoln and various heroes is pushing a lot buttons that need to be pushed. thank you for your comments. i am wondering about the comet or the observation of civil war was a cover for this, that

implies, now we can do it nobody's paying attention and i want more motivation and more evidence as opposed to coinciding with theit civil war and also there is no civil war but there would still be some of these policies that might still will be taken. the role of the civil war in these policies and as a graduate of a land-grant university, uc berkeley. i am part of the land compensation in the training of engineers in reorienting financial capital and that is all true important observations but it seems to me there are other things that occur, how do we balance the critique of this

holocaust of native americans in the other things that did arise on this progress on this development. thank you. >> i thank you are right, my time and cover was a little too strong of a word. some of the evidence that we do have, for instance of making about it estate in 1964 when it wasn't even near the threshold that i is usually necessary whih i think the number is 50000 or 60000 or something and usually not

institutions. in the united states we looks at this is a really important point, it does create the public institutions that do a lot of good in terms of education of the populace and a lot of people who would never have in the past hundred 50 twomac 170 years never would've had the ability to getnd the education in agricultural education in the early years. so we can look at that and say why would we say aye negative to, so often so many of the things that we look at as a common good is to have extreme consequent this for other people. there was a recent article by high country times, high country

news. sorry. they came out a couple of years ago about the moral act in the schools in the wayd that they possess native people. i teach at rutgers which is a public university of new jersey. i am kind of in the same vote there is a legacy that this university has a little bit and directed not case as opposed to schools out west because new jersey did not have a public land so they basically used land script they did not have direct access to federal lands. that is the well. i'm get a be making some comments there about the declaration of independence and the constitution which we looked at the formative important documents but neither of those had native people in mind and

resulted in inconceivable suffering for indigenous people and the same thing as a moral act, it is good but we also have to recognize of what it did with the position of native people and with dispossession comes a host of other things quite often like starvation and loss of ceremonial sites and sacred sauce. what i'm trying to say like we need to critique some of these things that we uphold american culture as being really important and it doesn't mean we should not see them as important anymore but rather we have to understand that the impacted people in many different ways and negative ways. those are things that need to be explored and need to be addressed and possibly redressed for people today and what that might mean in terms of land back for indigenous people.

>> i'll use the opportunity to give two plugs for the highro countr news article that robert lee wrote a couple of years ago. it's really good about the moral act in the land-grant colleges in the effects on indigenous people and also make a plug if anyone wants to make their way to the center aisle, the book we've been here all the while that does a good look at looking at the land redistribution that happened inri indian territory among and the ways in which that benefited african-americans in the compo get his story that happened in indian territory for those interested in the compo get his story. se a great places to look if you have not already. >> if i could jump in briefly, on the idea thatnk the civil war is covered, for me i understand not necessarily the cover but the civil war context.

to concrete ways i talk about the expansion of the navy but think about the expansion of the army, the number of divisions in the number of officers, not just officers they wanted to keep these careers, many of them and it wasn't going to disband it was a huge racking tool that needed to find things to wreck so to speak and then the investments in the army. all of these small investors who had money, a rational direct interest in getting a return on their investment and that is investing in wars and the growth of thehi military. i think they civil war is the context, maybe not covered but it's a context. a note about counterfactual we can imagine all scenarios but the way that it unfolded happened in this way. it's interesting io to read somf the accounts of the soldiers themselves who were sent into

foreign countries, foreign territory, the territory of other nations and very bitter about sent to these places to ght under very difficult scary for them conditions and they left records we signed up to fight thee confederacy, we signd up to defeat why areat we've ben sent to attack another nation that is not what we're here for. there are contradictions also in historical record. i think in terms of universities there are also contradictions there and i'm not a historian of education. i think it would be very interesting to look at german higher education inhi this. which is also modernizing and developing and of course another state that is rapidly developing advanced capitalist economy which looks very different than the u.s., then what it looks

like in the united states. i think there might be lessons for us in understanding the development of discipline in the development of the universities of these institutions across these two countries. >> what a fascinating comparison. our next question. >> hi, thank you very much for these really, really generative atremarks here. i want to think about 1862 as a decade in which the united states as a nation-state radically transforms kids understanding and exertion of jurisdiction both in the south in the west. in all the things that you talked about from 1862 we take the all the way forward to the end of treaty making a decade later similarly asserting centralized federal authority over critical matters that a been understood to be either

nation toat nation or state-basd or local, in that context also making national citizenship really out of spread elements, citizenship as the aspirational form were constantly coming out of african-american and other community citizenship to conquest at the treaty apparatus in 1850s. the place where the diversion to become truly clear, as you say is land because by the end of this. it becomes clear that while this goes to your point about the forms of capital, while the aspiration of african-american for their own anchors have been forwarded and they relegated into forms of contract wage

labor including sharecropping. in the west and they need to finance capital to reduce the acreage that native claim and the allotment which in a way to cognate but southerners are demanding more from is the tool context rather than the aspirational form, there is a funding contradictory or at least attention the conversation about land in this . . . i would love to hear your thoughts about any of that in thank you for booking any of those ideas. >> i would love to hear you talk more about them. i think is really great connections. this may be random but hearing you talk actually drawls my mind to the questionn of culture, ths

is an area where historians, it is in the defeat of the radical promise of reconstruction in the south and the development of sharecropping and labor that we often associate with the beginnings of thelu blues. and with that that relationship to eclipse radical possibilities. i wonder in the west the patterns that you tracking out and what cultural shifts but taking place that we could track and read alongside the blues that stayed with us. i have an answer for that i am just thinking with you with those comments that you made. i really appreciate the strength that you made.

>> thinking about the contradictions that we've been talking about ine some ways, soe things have a particular good but some have a devastation for other people to them. there is other contradictory moments to get to the mention of citizenship. for my own research, writing about citizenship in the territory in the early states of minnesota, it was so contradictory, particularly in became partisan but where democrats were using native people who acquired citizenship to use them for political purposes, for instance in the organic act in 1849 was created it created a new territory of legislature. one of the first things it did it franchise of nick white and

native ancestors and a lot of those of black and native ancestry. . . . man served in the territorial legislature in the first couple years of the minnesota state legislature. so many there were so many of them and so many of the white legislatures who were married to native women, they were all democrats and so they were called there were so many of them. they were called the moccasin democrats because of their you know their connection to to native people, right and the connection to native people. and it struck their fastening debates by the way with the constitutional convention in 1857. the statehood about these issues, who to franchise and things like that. but anyway, it is very obvious

the democrats were really only interested in franchising because they knew they were on their side and would vote for them. if they were going to vote for them they were going to have an interest in the franchise f. you can see how something that works really good for the native folks was intended to for political purposes. at another 1862 connection -- every session of the territory and state legislature from 1849 until 1862 had at least some native members as part of the legislatures. the u.s. dakota war happens the local populace until the 1930s. that particular moment shifts the thinking we are not going to have native people part of this. we get to i ideas of citizenship

it iss fascinating for these debates racially for purposes and things like that. it's a weird moment of racial creation but is very short-lived and obvious that a political pol purpose. i came to understand that they were only interested and citizenship for those they perceived as civilized. that was actually in the legislation for the native people of mixed ancestry could vote. but only if they were civilized. by doing so they create civilized as legal category what is that mean? very avidly from the writing >> civilized was meant to mean assimilated into the american culture. and a lot these folks played

the part of where your american clothing, cut your hair and things like that. sure, you guys can vote. i do not want to dwell too much on this. it's a side story but it went to see an interest in cases where citizenship grows to mean different things with different people. how it could be using differentn different political circumstances tone the benefit f native people. sometimes contradictory thingsna work for the benefit of native people other times it didn't. in fact going the other way with the reconstruction legislation like the 14th amendment for instance, guaranteeing abirthright citizenship. the supreme court case in 1884 it 1 made a decision while the 14th amendment does not apply to native americans. and so of native people is really in limbo and up in the air and murky until 19204 citizenship act.

there knows who acquired citizen different ways up until then through allotments or through having a father was a citizen who is white or nicks or something by the idea was native people come up with the supreme court date and the idea was we are going to uphold the sovereignty of neighbor people. we can also be a member of the u.s. sovereign nation. very contradictory as before any kind of case where indigenous s sovereignty was a detriment to the nine sites expansion and they would fight it. in this case have worked in the favor to say tribal sovereignty works in our favor to keep native people from doing it sure we will uphold that. the contradictory nature of all of the things that are ongoing. you might get lucky if you are a native person and it works in your favor very often that works in the other way.

i pretty much against you. >> thank you so much for just head right on up to the center aisle, thank you. >> thank you i've learned a lot. i enjoyed your presentations. when we think about historiography we think about writing. obviously we've seen the last two years like words exceeded seekers or water protectors can really shift the way we think about w things. i have stuck on the word massacre. on that one heard massacre is hapless innocence wrinkled for no reason. but in fact indigenous women and children and men too old to bear arms, i partly pose a threat but visiting we don't think of the question from that angle. first with otherays to think about that word massacre which

every time i write it i'm not satisfied. but what other words are worth rethinking if you're going to rewrite the historiography or the narrative of this. and we want that narrative to travel to k-12 and be on the ohh. what are some of the words might be rethinking? what other words could we be using? >> i share i don't want to say our version necessarily. but massacre does not feel like the right term. for the reasons you brought up. there's another way of looking at this as part of a concerted military strategy. this isn't a massacre tell the u.s. fights wars. roxanne dunbar ortiz writes about this.

there is ample evidence of the history of north americahe but also in history of the w u.s. wr and elsewhere. i attack civilian homes. and it attacks their food source and water source. i don't knowgy strategy is a god word to cut and past. with that perspective this is purposeful. >> even in the case according to the federal government. as part of a purposeful pattern. cooked is an important question a few otherhe conversations. i'm not going to wait into that.

leaves a foul taste in your mouth. i think the other case is a counter to the term battle. they would like sand creek but switches that around and like know this is a battle of two opposing military forces who bet on the battlefield. this was a massacre in the sense the u.s. army as you bring up it's their policy. they weren't attacking armies of native americans on purpose. she would kill food su supply. knowing full well that's going to result in the starvation of

noncombatants of children elderly and things like that. that's why it is useful as a way to combat the idea. you are right there probably is a better term. i do not have went yet. as historians we strive to use the best terminology or in the needs more examination. thank you for the comments haveh been thought-provoking. and i wanted to say there's a way to think about what happened in 1848 with the us-mexico war on the march to mexico city as an example of total war are what you want to call it. it is a similar kind of targeting of the siblings and

children in homes and villages and so on. i was very interested the way you are talking about capitalism and theit different forms of capitalism. i feel it one of the themes of this conference has been rethinking 1860s onward as this a moment of federalization of different kinds ofs power. i have heard about it in terms of plenary power federalization of immigration policy. thinking about that in relation to southern colonialism. there something about what you are talking about. with capitalism the different capitalist actors. that help us understand settler colonialism,sm federalization ad part of more broadly thinking about a broader project of imperial exertion of power.

i wonder if maybe you could both talk a little bit about this moment be savvy but we then see come after words? there something particular about enthis moment. the way it changes over time. quick things i really pressured that question both of the questions. and i think theyy are related. they are linked of course. i agree folk at the development of capitalism over time i can help us understand the contradictions that play some of the forces. some of the underlying struggles at play. in the coming. just really set in the civil war era. this huge expansion of military

power accompanied by a huge expansion of not just financial power but finance capitol, investments and the institutions as securities market, all of these. this requires new rationality is, new ways of thinking. people with money have to make these decisions. it's a phrase i hate financial literacy of that time. these are like some of the most wealthy, empowered people. they have developed this aso it got a longs is tied to the university requires all of these new techniques of keeping statistics. keeping accounts. measuring probabilities, measuring the future. this expansion of financece investments on the institution of finance capitol alongside the

expansion of the military instruments. to me explains a lot about the coming in. one of things to me that's very interesting both of the analyses imperialism two boys the african groups of war explaining why wyatt broke out the dividends of whiteness with the wages of whiteness which he writes about in black reconstruction. in the earlier essay he writes about the dividends of white dividends as a financial term. so to me it suggests there is a return on investment. there is a historical transformationo' underway. was really interesting to me as if we look at u.s. history in the history of the united states

imposing itself over north america and expanding into the caribbeanrt had the last quarter of the 19th century see these patterns that plate much earlier than they were assessing them and played in other parts of the world. in some ways in north and north america anticipates pattern taking place elsewhere. 'for example the rail network which i have studied and written about, the rail network is built in the historical period prior to the scramble for africa the scribble for africa maturely took place in the construction of railroads. one of things that's really interesting to me i said in u.s. history north america is how many ways it anticipates what we think of modern imperialism taking place elsewhere. there is also a link there with the historical changes and the structure over time.

if you look to the settler colonies on the continent of africa, algeria and south africa roads explicitly look to the railroad construction taking place across north america as a model for how the british empire in his thinking should capture control over the african continent. those ideas of roads were still being worked out in the rhodesian regime in south africa. arguably they are still being worked out. the people who made their wealth in those regimes are now at the heart of silicon valley here in the united states. anyway, those are some of the ways i would think about those mepatterns. i mentioned this in the comments

i made at the nexus of war and finance. that's a core of how this manifests, thanks for the question. >> this particular moment was about native land. that's was going on 1862 to these other acts to make native lands a s commodity of something that is bought and sold. so many of the treaties between the federal government and various sovereign in nations in the land of session treaties a majority of them were coerced or fraudulent in some way. i was forcing them to then accept cash agreements are the kinds of goods or services or something of that exchange that was very much the part of the

colonial project for the most part they did not come out of either limbs and that way resources just like human beings have all done around the world. for the region i study the midwest in the northern great plains those tribal nations economies were based w on reciprocal kinship obligation. what you could do either through marriage or ceremony. therefore they had obligation to help you out when you needed it them.d obligations at at the very different kind of conceptions of the economic system that did not necessarily, it was notds capitalism of those kinds of things. that is what the relationship was between the united states

was trying to commodified native lands and turn it into a product the u.s. could then make money off and expand. next we have a little bit more than 10 minutes left. those who have remaining questions you come up ensure their questions all at once and have the last 10 minutes or so to be able to put the panelists reflect on those questions. quick super interesting panel. i am curious one of the things the emancipation proclamation and on the grid for that. i would love to hear thoughts about the way in which the emancipation proclamation the tie-in of the army on the defense of the slave owners. what role that narrative played

with a store were hearing about the west? >> any other questions we've got a lot. we'll get through them all. >> in the current environment that we see in addressing complex and controversial history on the national statewide level project we someone likese myself whose professional background is in secondary education if anyone would care to comment on how to address these kind of complaints. >> thank you, anyone else? >> too briefly raise up as the conversation we're having earlier on complexity is incredibly fascinating and i would love to be able to expand

at some point about indigenous on both sides. think the big great piece to hear about. you might also think about tindigenous people as a threat wounded in beta distinctions with u.s. fight against indigenous sovereignties in this. in the fight against the alternative american sovereignties that is the confederacy represent itself as.

these events going on in the west we have so much to learn about have any going on in the east what's played out. lots of interesting questions for last 10 minutes and quickly jump in the max emancipation proclamation will very quickly say it's a very interesting for corporate personhood corporations are people corporations are people in way you and i there were rights of people than most of us d do. that person is directly traced to the 14th amendment.

i comes back to land in a way it's a refusal the lack of addressing the question of land. slavery itself in terms of our property was a form of real estate. you are abolishing or making slavery illegal but you are keeping real estate. your keeping the real estate relationship. the case of southern pacific versus santa clara is about a taxation of the railroad company over expenses over its land. it's a question of what kind of taxes liable for to this county writing along the land they been granted to it. it's a land question its underlying land question. that is related to reconstruction in the south the experiment of black people, the

question of how to address in public education is really profound and a a really beautifl one. in public education i can only guess. comes y back to the question of language you use. from headaches saying the histories? who taught medieval history, observed by teaching a u.s. survey. very critically the purpose of the u.s. survey is to create a shared identity a shared common identity. which in a way i think i was doing just not the shared common

identity. my colic would've preferred me too be teaching their questions for u us. these are questions of language in theory and perspective. and i will stop there. >> a lot of questions to answer of course that's an important question we need to understand how these things affect native people more broadly we need a lot more work on the intersection of african-american and native american history and things like that. it's a great book here. or kyle may's recent book afro yindigenous history. it's a general, there's a lot of work yet to be done i think. kind of making those connections between these communities pray think we would learn a lot and so many important ways if we

have more on that study. the secondary education is one that i have heard quite a bit. last i work of historical commission. conference on indigenous history of new jersey. we got in an ornament number of questions from a lot of educators who showedwe up at the virtual conference but showed up at so many questions how do t we teach this? at least for me i can't speak for anybodyyo else you are not trained in that i was not trained either. i feel horrible i didn't know dw to answer the question. something as academic we should probably be adding to that conversation. i unfortunately do not have those skills. i think that's the fo case for too many academics we don't have the

skills to make things we are talking and accessible to a younger audience. something we all need to work on. the question about native men fighting on both sides. yes there were particulate like an indian territory that jointly confederacy. the last confederate general is cherokee. that happens in other places too. the mixed ancestry men who fought on the u.s. army who joined minnesota volunteer regiment to fight against their own people. some of them join the fight against the confederacy. once the war started there to fight against their own people i

think there's a lot more work to be done there they are a native civil war in some respect you might say that on indian territory they are fighting each other. the native people being a threat to the army of course the u.s. dakota were diverted thousands of troops in a response i had to create a new military department. to send leadership in troops and things like that. the governor ofta minnesota from sending his quota of people for the war effort in the east. i think thaton is a great questn and one we think more about. i do not know exactly how to answer that.

it's why they ar' fighting. they did not need to be a threat. the u.s. did not have to expand on their territory. in the state of the civil war all over the place. maybe in some it should not have been sent at all. that's an important questionht d one that is to be thought about more. to think about things going on in the west and how they impact the east. that's another important question but i don't really have an answer to that. the native connection there certainly native people in the east there the galvanized yankees the confederates were captured and agreed to become union soldiers some interesting

east/west connection inth that sense. but a the really good question i don't quite have an answer to but certainly something to think about. thank you both so much for such fastening comments and to to everyonein our audience for participating in this a fascinating discussion. i don't think we have answered all the questions but we have made a lot of progress here. if you like to stay with us to talk about this even more just to stay around for the next part of themu roundtable, thanks so much. weekend on cspan2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday american history gv documents america's story and on the sunday book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for cspan2 crimes in

cspan2 comes thesetelevision co. including charter communication. charter is recognize when the best providers we are just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications along with these television companies support cspan2 as a public service. text craig nelson and his book v is for victory, reports on the number of casualties from world war ii. according to the u.s. department of defense, the military casualties 1,078,000, born at 5000 were killed. 673,115 were wounded. then according to the bureau of labor statistics, there were over 8.9 million americans and

industry worker category 75 died 8.8 million were wounded between 1942 in 1945. author craig nelson further said across history the arsenal of democracy has come to mean this miracle of manufacturing. when president rooselt often use the term he meant however the miracle of the american people provokes author craig nelson on this episode a book notes a plus. book notes plus is available on the free c-span now mobile app or were ever you get your podcast. next megan is a writer and historian living in lincoln, massachusetts she's written about civil war, u.s. western history and american culture for the "new york times" and "washington post" magazine preservation magazine and civill war monitor. nelson earned her ba from the