General Remarks. General Theoretical Orientation. USA as a Racial State

Transcription

1 CREATING THE RACIAL STATE: INDIGENOUS AMERICANS CONFRONT EUROPEAN CONQUEST AND GENOCIDE General Remarks (Show inter-group conflict graphics) Pamela Oliver Sociology 220 General Theoretical Orientation Groups are in conflict, one group wants what belongs to another. European colonial expansion, in our story Resources and capacities are crucial Inequalities in military, economic resources lead to political inequalities Weaker groups can resist domination and still lose Legacies of history Past struggles create today s structures Today s conflicts are defined & constrained by the past About Americanism and Anti- Americanism All large countries have invasion, conquest of minorities and horror in their history There are class, race, ethnic, religious, linguistic conflicts and inequalities in most countries To talk honestly about the unpleasant aspects of our history is not to imply that the US is worse than other countries and certainly not to imply that only the US has problems This course is about OUR history, about the U.S. This is not about good and bad people, it is about what happened USA as a Racial State Early formation of US was a government of, for, and by White people (people from Europe) American Indians were foreign nations to be fought, negotiated with. Not citizens of US. African slaves explicitly itl excluded d from citizenship in Constitution of 1789; citizenship rights of free Africans attacked after 1790s 1790 Immigration and Naturalization Act. Migrants from Europe can become citizens in relatively easy process of "naturalization." Only "Whites" can be naturalized. (Restrictions not removed until 1940s) Act of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat ) (Excerpts) Act of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat ) (Excerpts) That any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record, in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such court, that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law, to support the Constitution of the United States, which oath or affirmation such court shall administer; and the clerk of such court shall record such application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a citizen of the United States. And the children of such persons so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States:... 1

2 Human migration Before 1492 Source: Race the Power of an Illusion Human migration (re-pictured) Indigenous Americans Before 1492 (1) C30,000BCE C15,000-30,000BCE Arrived 12,000 30,000 years ago (before agricultural settlements in Europe) Some hunter/gatherers, some settled agriculture, some cities, some empires Long history of civilizations rising & falling, wars etc. before Europeans. Thousands of years! Archeological evidence of groups of traders & immigrants from Africa, Europe, Asia. Either blended in or disappeared. America remained in control of the Americans. Agriculture invented ~ ,000 BCE Indigenous North Americans before 1492 (2) Estimates 2-10 million in what is now US Relatively low population density, relatively abundant resources for the population Some agricultural communities, some nomadic No horses [horses introduced by the Spanish] 300+ languages/dialects spoken (grouped into larger language groups) Not paradise: real people living real lives, doing both good and bad things Indigenous North Americans before 1492 (3) Self-governing nations Some formal democracies Some monarchies or theocracies Some organized in small bands with no central government Influence of indigenous American democratic forms on European American ideas Inter-cultural contact Significant trade and trade languages Wars, raids, kidnapping 2

3 European Political boundaries in 1400 (for comparison) Specific indigenous American groups in eastern part of what became the US (lines divide political units; colors mark linguistic groups) What happened? Where are the Americans, the indigenous Americans? Why is this country predominantly White? What happened? What do you think? Extermination & Genocide Americans: From 2-10 million before 1500 to 500,000 in 1800 (down to 200,000 in 1900) Disease: killed 90%+ (recent estimates 99%) of many American populations, p weakened others, made European settlements possible Military battles, especially Spanish Economic disruption: Fur trade, Indirect disruption: Horses, plains culture Indigenous American responses varied Early contacts ambiguous: coexistence & conflict; trade, intermarriage, contact between cultures. Some multicultural vision: different ethnicities in separate villages with positive relations between them Some American groups adopt European ways, even own slaves. Some try to fight the invaders, resist encroachment, try to drive them out Others retreat west, regroup in the face of disruption European ideologies of justification Pilgrims & Puritans, 1620s, icons of the national myth. Small actual %. Most immigrants economic Most Europeans arrived after Religious self-views. The Promised Land. The New Canaan, New Israel. enter Canaan & kill all the inhabitants. Native disease and deaths as signs from God. Some thought they should live peacefully with native Americans and share the land. Some did. Hostile reactions from natives increased European hostility to the locals. Development of ideas of biological/cultural superiority: fed into Darwin 3

4 The formation of the racial state Europeans (calling themselves Americans) create a new government of, by, and for "white people." 1789 Constitution. American Indians are excluded as citizens, treated as separate nations (generally as they wish to be). European (Euro-American) Strategies after 1793 Displacement Take the land, get rid of its inhabitants by killing them or forcing them to move Assimilation Force cultural adaptation: Force people to live under the invaders laws Political domination War of 1812: British-Indian War 1810: Early Pan-Indian Racial Identity Started : War between Euro-American USA and Native People. Delaware, Miami, Sauk, Mesquakie, Potawatmi, and Kickapoo join the Shawnee warrior Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (the Prophet) to forge a pan-indian movement and drive white Americans off their lands. But many tribes divide or refuse to join them. October 1811, the alliance is attacked and defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe. British side with Tecumseh in an effort to contain the independent Euro-American USA. Tecumseh is later killed during the War of This is the decisive battle of the war. "Where today are the Pequot, Narraganset, Mohican, Pokanet and many other such powerful tribes? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man...the only way to stop this evil is for all the red men to unite and claim an equal and common right to the land." -Tecumseh The White State Expands European immigrants create population pressures, westward expansion. Accelerated displacement, cleansing of indigenous Americans. Louisiana purchase: Buy from the French land that is inhabited by Americans BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) created under the War Dept. Wars The European conquest of America was violent and costly It took 300 years It was not easy There was substantial indigenous American resistance to the conquest 4

5 US Ethnic Cleansing : Americans removed from their homelands Indian Nations, SE Indian Removal Act. Indians forcibly relocated from eastern states to west of Mississippi Trail of Tears. Forced relocation of "five civilized tribes" from Georgia to what is now Oklahoma. Thousands die in a thousand mile march. Area west of the Mississippi (originally Oklahoma, Kansas) is "Indian territory" to be governed by "Indians" [Americans] in perpetuity. Plains and Southwest Americans become increasingly hostile to the invaders. 5

6 Trail of Tears United States Cherokee Chickasaw Choctaw Creek Seminole Expansion and Displacement Chippewa Cession Repeatedly, European settlers move onto land specifically reserved for "Indians," battles ensue, US troops enter the battle, take land from Indians previously reserved to them. US government seeking to obtain land peacefully by treaty from as many groups as possible. Groups pacified are dumped into "Indian territory," where the groups there make room for newcomers. 1837, 1842 Chippewa treaties cede what is now northern Wisconsin, Michigan & Minnesota to the US; treaties specifically reserve the right to hunt, fish, and gather on the ceded territory. Plaque outside Sewell Social Science Building Chief Black Hawk 6

7 Chief Black Hawk Three Views The Black Hawk War : Sauk [Sac] and Fox Background in wars and treaties over land in Illinois Previously displaced from Illinois by unfair treaty of a band of ~ 1000 left Iowa to return to ancestral ground in northern Illinois i US army chased them through Wisconsin, eventually attacking and killing most of them (including women & children) on the banks of the Mississippi at Bad Axe Black Hawk was trying to surrender: language difficulties + army hostility prevented this Massacre at Bad Axe (H. Lewis ~1846) Map of Black Hawk war & massacre 1832 Chief Black Hawk The Annexation of Northern Mexico Mexicans & Indigenous People (We will return to this later) 7

8 New Spain Map: Annexation of Northern Mexico Spanish colony (300 years). Creation of Mexicans : mixed indigenous & Spanish ancestry, Spanish culture. Native people resist the Spanish-Mexicans, remain separate in some areas. Most of northern New Spain never heavily settled by Spanish, strong resistance from indigenous Americans. Mexican independence 1821, Mexican Republic Political turmoil. Texas 30,000 Anglo-Americans had moved into Texas, greatly outnumbering the Spanish-Mexicans; generally slaveholders 1824 Mexican republic abolishes slavery 1830 Mexico attempts to stop Anglo immigration, enforce laws against slavery 1836 new Mexican constitution restricts states rights (over slavery, among others); Anglo-Texans backed by some Tejanos (Spanish-Texans) secede from Mexico and create Texas as an independent White state 1845 fearing Texas expansion west, the US annexes Texas as a slave state Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 US provokes a war with Mexico, easily wins Northern Mexico ceded to the US Guarantees to Mexican citizens living in the area: US citizenship Recognition of property titles from Spain/Mexico Right to be Catholic Right to speak Spanish About 7% of Mexican Americans today are direct descendants of those covered by the treaty Mixed experiences: some retain land & status, others lose land, forced out by Anglo mobs. No consistent protection of citizenship, language, property rights California Gold Rush 1848 First entry of significant numbers of Chinese initially into gold fields, then as laborers to support growing western economy [more later] Anglo-American immigrants rapidly overwhelm Mexicans in northern California, drive them out Fewer Anglos in desert southern California, Mexican landowners retain much of their land in large rancheros Southwest Spanish-speaking indigenous people often seen as (by themselves and others) as part of the Mexican population Other indigenous people p maintain separate national/tribal identities Complex mixed history of Southwestern US 8

9 For discussion Why are there any indigenous Americans left? Why were they not all killed in the battles? Treaties Were peace settlements: indigenous Americans agreed to stop fighting and killing the European invaders Were land contracts: indigenous Americans sold their land to the US government (the government of the White Europeans) Were/are legal documents governing the relations between nations. Legally the same as the treaties with Great Britain that ended colonialism & with Canada and Mexico that established current borders Were cheaper for the US than taking land by force and killing everyone Treaties Treaties over time Are still in force and legally define the tribes as separate dependent nations Were only signed when indigenous Americans posed a threat, had some strength Were NOT consolation prizes, were NOT gifts Were often Coerced: sell us your land or we will kill you Unfair or illegitimate: applied to people who had never agreed Often provided payments or land reservations in exchange for land cessions Sometimes gave indigenous Americans US citizenship as part of the treaty, but usually did not Terms of the treaties shifted as the European invaders gained strength Initially agreeing to boundaries & foreign relations (not ally with other nations) Later agreeing to subordinate government under rules of the US Initially cash payments for land, later only accounts with the BIA and caretaking No treaties at all after 1871, after Euro-American domination is ensured After 1865 American Indians: History After the Civil War, the US moves to finish its conquest of the American Indians The pressure on the land is due to the enormous rates of immigration into the US from Europe Indigenous Americans lose the rights of selfgovernment and self-determination as [White] US government completes the imposition of a structure of domination 9

10 European Americans Source: Migrationpolicy.org High rates of immigration (see charts) Much ethnic conflict, riots in the streets: descendants of European migrants violently attack the new migrants as foreigners who are too different to fit in to democracy Northern Europeans view eastern and southern Europeans (and Jews, Gypsies etc.) as different races that are sub-types of White Capitalism consolidating, middle classes seizing political control from the immigrant working classes The Final Indian Wars Indian Appropriations Act. US decides it will no longer sign treaties, will just legislate. Land belongs to EurAms. Asserts that indigenous Americans have no right of self-determination NOTE: the treaties are legacies of the period when the US was NOT strong enough to just legislate. US Army battles native people on the western plains, forcing them all onto reservations. Cultural Destruction Friends of the Indians Goal of US policy is to eliminate Indians as Indians. Force them to adopt European-American ways Boarding schools, ban their religions, language g Dispirited, broken people, starving on reservations or battling to the death 1889 Wokova Ghost Dance sweeps American Indians. Spiritual practices will restore land to American Indians. Banned by US 1887 Dawes (General Allotment) Act Break up the American Indian reservations, give land to individuals; "surplus" land to whites. Much land passes to white hands, reservations shrink by 60-70%. Indians not permitted to manage their own land, Bureau of Indian Affairs manages as a trust. If land is leased or sold, money collected by BIA is supposed to be paid to the Indian owner. Recent lawsuit: $20-40 billion dollars is missing, unaccounted for by BIA; BIA shredded documents, uncashed checks. Finally settled in

11 Oklahoma 1890 Oklahoma After removal, American Indians organized stable self-government in Indian Territory, coped with continuing influx of American Indians displaced by the wars Despite treaty, the unassigned parts of "Indian Territory" [Oklahoma] is opened to whites in a "land run." 1893, Congress passes law requiring tribes to sell their land, tribes hold out Congress passes Curtis Act, forcing allotment and division of their other property, terminating their government. Dept of Interior takes over their schools Tribal citizens declared citizens of US and Territory of Oklahoma 1907 Oklahoma admitted to the Union as a state. Final Battles What s Left (1980s) 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn. (Crazy Horse vs. Custer) The last major Sioux victory Geronimo surrenders after a decade of guerilla warfare 1890 The Battle/Massacre at Wounded Knee. 300 Sioux, including women and children, and 25 soldiers are killed after the army breaks up a Ghost Dance census, American population down to 200,000. Its low point. South Dakota Alaska Settled 12,000-30,000 years ago by people who crossed the Bering Strait (still close cultural ties across the strait for some groups today) 11

12 Alaskan Natives Inuit woman c Several different cultural-linguistic linguistic groups Relatively inhospitable climate not attractive to Europeans Natives still more than 50% of population in 1930 Alaska history (quick sketch) Native people: thousands of years Some genealogically related to people who moved farther south ( Native Americans ) Others are distinct groups, especially the Inuit (aka Eskimos) & the Aleutians Russia explores, claims Alaska, establishes a few settlements 1867 the US buys Alaska from Russia 1870s-1940s Gold, fisheries etc. draw more European- Americans Territorial organization Statehood 12