>> oswald is brought into the basement of the building and transported to the jail. then in full sight of million s of television viewers, a man named jack ruby surges through harvey d and shoots lee oswald dead. >> next we talk with the president of the western history association which held its annual meeting in san antonio, texas. he describes current areas of study for western historians and how the field of native american history has changed over the past decade. his is about 12 minutes. steve: joining us from san antonio is a history professor at arizona state university, a graduate of the university of oklahoma, and for the purposes of our conversation today, the president of the western history association. we have gathered in san

antonio. explain that the organization is all about. >> the western history organization is scholars and students who are very much interested in the american west. we have been coming to this conference around various parts of the country. it was established in 1961 in santa fe. we have been meeting ever since. steve: explain some of the topics you have discussed, the speakers, panels and presentations. donald: there are about 120 sessions at this conference. a rather large conference. there are 830 people in the registration. we might get close to 1000. that is a lot of sessions. the sessions are on water and mining, the military, women's subject matter, and also eaching.

it is a variety of topics about the american west. steve: let's talk about the theme, race and ethnicity in the west. donald: the president of the organization gets to choose the topic when you're president. i chose reimagining race and ethnicity in the west. i thought of that topic because the last 12 years we've had an increase in racial violence. a lot of protests involving people of color. i thought it was a very timely topic and that is why i chose that topic for this conference. steve: maybe you can elaborate. explain the role of native americans in the course of america's history, most notably in the 19th and early 20th centuries. donald: the role of american indians is that they have been in a situation of responding to

history, but what we have seen is where the indian population has really decreased to less than 238,000 by the year 1900. there was a very popular belief of the vanishing race. when you look at the last 100 years, the population has increased to over 5.1 million. at the time of the arrival of columbus, we were estimated at 5 million overall. our estimates are like 10 million, 15 million. the american indian population has rebounded. it is increased to perhaps even larger than what it originally was. steve: where do you go for information? where do you travel? donald: you can travel widely, throughout the entire country and perhaps even museums and

archives overseas. largely in the u.s. and the university archives, the private archives like the newberry library in chicago, the huntington library, and just about every major city has a museum involving american indians and the national museum of american indians in washington, d.c. steve: do we educate americans enough on the role of native americans? their influence and impact on our history? donald: i think we need to educate our public and everyone more about american indians because people get so busy in their lives that they really -- they don't see american indians at all. they see in a very narrow way. american indians are there and

we have always been here. is there organizations and conferences like this one that we see that presence. this association has more sessions on american indians than other history organizations. steve: do you have any thoughts on how native americans are characterized of the big screen? notably the western movies with john wayne and others. that that damage have americans generally view native americans? donald: indeed. american indians have been portray by hollywood, and it is kind of a stereotyped image of american indians. scholars like myself and people who study american indians for accuracy, we try to correct hat. it is an uphill battle trying to correct those images. i have counted the stereotypes.

there are 36 that are negative. there were over 1500 wars and battles skirmishes against native people. there are six positive stereotypes and six negative stereotypes. steve: can you explain your own background? donald: i have from oklahoma. on my father's side, i am creek and seminole. i'm another side i am shawnee. how do the stretch come ogether? it was due to indian removal in 1830 during the andrew jackson administration. that is some ancestors came to the area which became oklahoma in 1907. steve: let me explain two of your books. "call for change: the medicine ways of american indian istory." what did you learn researching t?

donald: it was a book i was working on for a long time. when we look at history and american indians, we are looking at american indians from a non-indian point of view. there have been over 30,000 books written about american indians, but it is from a non-indian point of view. when you look at the history of native people, it is about relationships with the white world, the government for example. i refer to that as a second dimension. it is the third dimension from the american indian point of view -- the comanches have a logic, the navajo have their own ethos. we don't think about american indians that way. it is the first to mention to them. there are 567 federally recognized tribes. you have men and women having different perspectives. that is a lot of perspectives trying to teach one course when there are only 195 countries to

the world. it is really collocated. steve: "the american indian mind n a linear world." what was that all about? donald: that is a book because i was always wondering, who spoke or the indian people like my grandparents and my father he really spoke the native language? and because i grew up in that see them sitting close to the ground and drawing on the ground with their fingers or a stick and they were talking in their native language, that is a perspective in which you are close to your traditions, you are more visual and you think in terms of circles. if you think in terms of circles because of circularity and patterns of rotation like day and night and the rotation of the sun and all of that being circular, that is more circular in your way of thinking. when i began to teach as an

assistant professor and taught in a circular, repetitive way so people would understand in a linear situation, most of my students being non-indian, that was a very different way of approach and they did not understand what i was saying. when it was teaching a long time ago as an assistant professor, one student said, how come you don't put your notes in the black board and go across? i put my notes right in the middle of the blackboard. another one like a spoke to a wheel. how can you not misunderstand? it is a general way of having to relearn teaching. that kind of circularity visuality. people say i'm an artist and they think in terms of visuality

too. steve: what a surprise to the most from those non-indian students as you teach your classes at arizona state niversity? onald: what is surprising in the beginning is how much lack of knowledge about american indians may have. american history books, u.s. history books really devote maybe two chapters to american indians in the 1960's and the plains indian wars. it goes way beyond that. my courses are rather large. they will say something like i

did not know that. why wasn't i taught that? i trying to get them to see things from a native point of view and from a non-native point of view which they already have. it is a balanced history i try to bring to them. steve: this may be in a possible answer, whether it is arizona, oklahoma or somewhere in the u.s., if there was some place you recommend people to travel to to better understand american history, where should they go? what is the best place to visit? donald: i would think maybe my home state of oklahoma, because oklahoma was once called indian territory, which usually included kansas and nebraska. when the kansas-nebraska act was passed, the reduced the size of indian country to the state of oklahoma.

about 60 tribes were removed from different parts of the united states to the indian territory but about half a dozen indigenous tribes already. there was compression of indian people from various parts of the country that were forced to march to the indian territory. you see a complex indian community there of plains tribes and tribes from california, the great lakes area, and from the eastern and southeastern part of the united states. they are having trouble governments. there are now 39. all these trouble governments were sometimes working together and sometimes against each other. steve: you are meeting in san antonio. what about next year? donald: next year we go to las vegas. last year we were in san diego. after las vegas then we go to albuquerque. steve: thank you for being with

us on c-span3's american history tv. onald: thank you, steve. >> who was martin van buren? >> good question. a lot of people -- we need to ask that question. van bure en was the eighth president of the united states forgotten.ften his presidency was only four years long. >> sunday on q & a. the biography of president martin van buren. >> he spent a lot of time with aaron burr. there were rumors persistent throughout his life that gore vidal planted them in his novel burr that he may have been the ill legitimate son of aaron burr. we will never know. john quincy adams once wrote in

is diary that martin van buren looks a lot like aaron burr and cts a lot like aaron burr. announcer: sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q & a. c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is broug to you by your cable or satellite provider. when the new congress starts in january, there will be more than

100 new house and senate members the democrats will control the house. the republicans the senate. new congress, new leaders. watch the process unfold on -span. >> each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic laces to learn about american history. in 1619, 35 english settlers arrived in berkeley, virginia. upriver from jamestown. we talked to graham woodlief, descendent of the group's leader, captain john woodlief, about how these colonists celebrated the first english thanksgiving in america. later, archaeologists marquart and describes his current project, looking for artifacts from the settlement to determine is exact location. graham: hi, my name is graham woodlief and i'm president of the virginia thanksgiving festival, an organization devoted to the history of the first thanksgiving.