Many of you probably dont think of late Abraham Lincoln in terms of american or indigenous history. Abraham lincoln had a lot on his plate. When he was president , the civil war and that dominated most of his attention. Underneath the surface, important events involving American Indians, events that one might argue make Abraham Lincoln a bit more of a problematic figure than he ordinarily was. What we may call the dakota war of 1862 occurred. It was drenched in blood as impoverished and hungry dakota waged war on settlers and faced the wrath of whites. Tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, 303 men. Lincoln commuted the sentence of most of these individuals but in the end 38 were hung in what remains americas largest max mass execution. They were made to enter the long walk, a forced journey of hundreds of miles from their homeland in eastern new mexico. American soldiers burn crops, destroy livestock they suffered from the lack of foods , diseases, and rates by other indians. It was during the lincoln presidency that one of the most atrocious episodes occurred. That was the massacre of cheyenne at sand creek in eastern colorado. On november 29, 1864, volunteers of villagers burst upon a village and killed natives. Some terrible events indeed. Should we adhere to a buck stops here interpretation of lincoln . That he has responsibility for these terrible events in American Indian history . Or perhaps we give them a path . Lincoln had a lot on his plate. Hes fighting the civil war, perhaps some of these events were out of his control. How can these events reflect noticeably on his stature . Lets wrestle with some of these questions in this class today. Abraham lincoln must have formed impressions of the American Indians. He lived in indiana, and illinois shortly after defeat and during a time in which numerous Indigenous Peoples were facing increased pressure to give up their land and move to the west. Lincoln could not have been ignorant of these troubles and when troubles erupted with led by blackhawk, lincoln eagerly volunteered for military service, was in fact elected cap in of a militia unit. He served in the military and did not see action. He later recalled about his career and it gave me more pleasure than ive ever had since. I had a good many bloody struggles with mosquitoes that did not see a live fighting indian. This was unlike lincolns grandfather and namesake after moving from virginia or kentucky, from virginia to kentucky. Link it only mentioned his Family History in passing and does not believe that his willingness to engage in combat occurred due to a desire for revenge. Lincoln seems to have been driven by some thing more useful to him. Indeed, after the black hawk war he used his prestige to run for elected office in the state legislature illinois. He would be involved in many other elections, some that he wanted some that he lost,. He was a member of the whig party during the indian removals of the 1830s and 1840s. He said very little about indian removal and one thing he did say was a criticism of the democrats for being inefficient, for spending too much money on removals of groups like the cherokees or workers or wars. He prayed when the military commander who oversaw cherokee remover that weve learned about already, he said of Winfield Scott and coming to his defendant, he was a wig but was ordered to oversee cherokee removal by pres. Martin van buren or democrat and came under scrutiny for his operations for being too lenient about his cherokees. He got criticized by democrats and Abraham Lincoln said that he was a noble hearted man and christian gentleman who did basically a good job and was no fool. Theres very little of the documentary record to believe that he deviated much from widespread assumptions of American Indians and removal policies. The policies of concentrating them and on cultural transformation. Jumping ahead, he once told a visiting delegation of plains indians, march 18 march 18, 1963 1863. He said to these visitors the pale faced people are numerous and prosperous will depend upon the products of the earth rather than wild game for a subsistence. This is the chief region of the distance but there is another. We are engaged in a great war between one another. We are not to fight and kill one another as our red brother. I can always say that i can see no way in which your races to become numerous and prosperous except for the cultivation of the earth. This is in march 1863 and whats ironic about the way he characterizes Indigenous Peoples . Anybody . We were on the cusp of the civil war and the expansion of slavery had numerous violent out bursts. Tens of thousands of americans are dying in these horrendous battles and he is saying that indians are inherently warlike. So in Abraham Lincolns words, is this idea that Development Must proceed. Lincoln is a proponent of manifest destiny, the great engine of destruction that bore down on native american people. He was all in favor of building railroads and bringing western resources into eastern rockets including the gold and silver that led to things like the genocide of california indians. And of course he was all in favor of white people being able to expand into the west and settle and carve up the land in two forms. In that degree he agreed with southerners that western devout and should continue but were he disagreed with southerners is on the expansion of slavery. Lincoln of course believed as many northerners did that slavery should not be allowed to expand in the west. That it would be unfair competition from ordinary being able to make a living on the western land. For southerners as weve talked about before, they believed ardently in the expansion of slavery that if it did not expand it would die and their way of life would end. Southerners and northerners were part of this mentality that dominated america at the pot time. That western lane should become available, Indigenous People should be eliminated and the land should be developed by whites in the case of northerners in the case of southerners, or whites who owned africanamerican slaves employing slave labor. That is the root of the civil war. Who should get control of the western land . Slaveowners or humble white folks. Indeed, much of the events that were going to talk about is very much part of the civil war. If the civil war was about furthering the expansion or stopping the expansion onto whose land, Indigenous Peoples . These events are very much part of this larger story of the american civil war. The First Episode i want to talk about that lincoln played a direct role in is the dakota war of 1862. As ive talked about before, dakota belonged to a larger group of people that outsiders called the sioux indians the sioux, but they called himself dakota, lakota or others depending on the dialect, which means the people. Many of the others moved on to the western plans planes to become fulltime buffalo hunters living in teepees and hunting buffalo in the west but a group remained in minnesota. They called themselves the dakota and treated first with the french, then the british, then the americans. As we talked about, when these trade relations are going on and when Indigenous Peoples are giving items, beaver pelts, buffalo hides, deer skins to these newcomers and newcomers are giving them manufactured goods, thats not just about an economic transaction. What is that about . What is being built . Kinship. So the dakota believed they had kinship relations with these newcomers but by 1840s these relations begin to break down. By the 1840s they are lacking in wild game to trade. This is all to the joy of us policymakers because its part of us policy which weve talked about, to purposely force Indigenous Peoples into that so they would have nothing left to sell but, everyone can see this, land. So the dakota signed a few treaties including one in 1851 that gave up a large chunk of what is today the state of minnesota leaving them a small sliver of land along the minnesota river. These trees, as many of the treaties were, rife with problems. The dakota would be paid in annuities, yearly payments, but they often would never reach the dakotas. They would go straight into the pockets of traders who claimed the dakota owed them for past debt. One episcopal bishop that became aware of these problems and the fraud going on declared that a nation that selling robbery would reap a harvest of blood and of course he cannot be any more correct. Tensions got very intense in the summer of 1862. The code dakotas who had adapted to euroamerican ways, some including going to church or becoming farmers, more full time farmers instead of hunting gathering and farming, wearing euroamerican clothing, and learning to speak english. Others had not of course. As i mentioned, the summer of 1962, the consensus had grown very tense. They had grown tense because many dakotas were very hungry. Cops had not been as abundant as they had. Theyve lost access to traditional resources and they depended on those annuities. They depended on these annuities to buy food. The federal government had not sent money to minnesota today to pay the dakotas, money they could have used to buy food. There was plenty of food and was stored in a warehouse. When the dakotas approached the agent and asked for food, they were denied. One declared to the dakotas who didnt have money to pay for the food, declared to them, let them eat grass. Many dakotas had enough. One of those individuals was the leader, little crow. He had accommodated euro american and us civilization policy to a degree. The dakotas must change in order to survive on their land in minnesota, on their land. He had trouble becoming a farmer, becoming a christian, so he did not fully buy into the Civilization Program. He was looked upon as a brave leader and was approached by Young Warriors who had enough and appealed to his valor that they must attack to drive the settlers out of their traditional hunting ground. And little crow reluctantly agreed. He agreed to leave the dakotas lead the dakotas into war against the settlers. And of course they attacked minnesota settlers. Killed hundreds. Captured many others, and put minnesota citizens in a state of panic. Minnesota militia came in and counterattacked. Col. Henry sibley reached the dakota reservation and undertook the pursuit of little crow. The chase that a quarter northward and could not mount much of a counterattack. So it was mostly warriors who waged the war. The majority did not want anything to do and tried to remain peaceful even surrendering to those forces. During the end little crow never had the unity that they believed he did and they had 2 options and what few followers remained of his to flee for the great plains. From the natives and most of the cap this remain behind as did a number of those who participated in the war but refused to go on to the barren plains. By october 3, sibley had 1200 dakotas under his control. Men were disarmed and tried by military commission. They were given the death sentence. By november 4, 300 3 dakota men were sentenced to die. Think about it. 303 men were sentenced to die in one execution. He played a more direct role in events from minnesota. He hired john pope to take command in the minnesota war and he indeed was willing to prosecute with brutal rigor. When he arrived in minnesota he informed sibley it is my purpose adderley to exterminate the sioux if i have the power to do so and even if it requires a campaign lusting the whole of next year they are to be treated as maniacs or wild beast and by no means are people entreaties or compromises can be made. He proved quite successful at bringing the dakota into submission. He expressed enthusiasm for the mass execution of those 303 men sentenced to die. Upon receiving news of the upcoming execution lincoln requested the transcript of the trials. He and his lawyers looked through these transcripts and he found that many of these men were sentenced on the flimsiest of evidence. And he pardoned or dismissed the executions of all but 39. But still, 39 were slated to die. The execution date was set to the sixth. One more was pardoned and 38 were hung marking the largest mass execution in us history. Now this is no longer there in minnesota to mark this event. You listen to a podcast you folks at home cannot see this but it says the little war on the prairie. Its the American Life podcast, broadcast for 2012. Can someone tell me or think about why did minnesota citizens forget about this . One of the shocking things for the people involved, they didnt even know this happened. Okay. Anybody else . Spinner officials want people to come. You dont advertise and indian war to get able to come into his territory right . The recent history at the time would view this as a relatively heroic act given that they were seen as an enemy. It was a mode to preserve the manifest destiny reasoning at the time period. He was talked about as he justified war. It seems uncomplicated people embracing the complexity and thinking about the complexity they simply chose to ignore. Very good what about lincoln . Lincoln following the mass execution was still under great pressure from the minnesota congressional delegation and theres an election coming up in 1864. Lincoln reduced the number down. Lincoln did capitulate to the minnesotans by forcing given the from the dakotas to be moved into the western plains. They were forced on their owned out into the west. Not only the dakotas but also a group of people that had nothing to do with the war. We lived in this southeastern corner of minnesota. Minnesotans one of them gone as well. Lincoln has seen for the emancipation proclamation, he also signed the winnebago removal bill, the americans called the the winnebagos. This past in february 1863 stipulating in june 1863, the whole chunks would be removed and indeed they were in a grueling process where many died on their way or died arriving on their definite on their definite desolation. He was as jackson was to the cherokees. So what little crow . He traveled seeking well allies that likely fell. At one point, tired and hungry he does come back into minnesota and hes picking berries in a farmers field. The farmers son sees this man, didnt know who he was. Just knew he was a native person, and shot him. Later, the farmer and the neighbors realized this was the infamous little crow. His body was mutilated and his remains would be put in the Minnesota Historical society were would remain until 1970 fun 1971 until returned to a descendent. For them, lincoln like jackson is the cherokee. Another group forcibly removed during lincolns administration were the navajo. At the outset of the civil war, there are composed of many loosely allied vans and some are quite wealthy in terms of livestock. They raised sheep, they farmed, they grew corn and other did a considerable amount of rating. Had been a considerable part of their economy. They rated problems, mexicans, livestock, for food, and rated into mexico as well. When the United States conquered and took half of mexico, now the United States inherits and step up their actions to police Indigenous People during the civil war, particularly as the union depended on communication with california, a northern state. A union state. Particularly as gold was sent to the east to fund the civil war effort. The last thing is what they wanted so they sent american soldiers in to stop these raids. This is the Navajo Nations homeland in the four Corners Region of southwestern United States. Kit carson was sent in to do something about the navajo raid and what he did was order that the navajo must go to eastern new mexico to a place called Bosque Redondo hundreds of miles away. If they did not go they would be forced to go. Many did not want to go. So carson in 1863 and 1864 sent in troops to round up the navajo. He pursued scorched earth tech ticks destroying what could be tech ticks destroying what could be consumed so they would be starved into submission, something he says very clearly in his own words. Indeed, they surrendered. Nearly 8000 and the best we can tell, the numbers very. 8000 died dine were forced to march in an event they called the long walk. On the long walk of course, navajos died from exposure, diseases, and other things. You are to have read this letter and im sure you all read it and i was told earlier, you learned Cursive Writing so thats unfortunate for us that once you become history majors into historical research, its looking at, like i tell my kid, old stuff. I like looking at old stuff that. Once you get the hang of it, once you understand someones writing you can really understand. I actually think this is really clear compared to a lot of the other stuff that i read. I ask you to read this and give you your general russian of the attitude of the general who sought and over oversaw a contingent of the dine during the long walk. How would you characterize his attitude . Towards the navajo . Doing too much because they had no shots of survival. I suppose some of these things can be read differently. Why else . Its your time to be a star. Once had us arrived at fort sumter aura or the navajo he began to have sympathy because he was writing in another part of the letter to his wife, this is a terrible place. Theres algae and the water is unsanitary. Once he saw Indigenous Peoples begetting to become ill i think he started to display. It would not be uncommon that the terry officers have to do this duty. They dont particularly like to and maybe dying at the time in gettysburg or something. I dont know. I picked up something different. Did anyone pick up wait for the mic. Raise your hand joy. I got more of a vibe of indifference, that he was more complaining about the journey than anything else. Like its such a long walk, he didnt seem to care about the people he was leading, more so whining about the journey. He does give us evidence that the journey was a hardship, there was a lack of food, people suffered and also claiming that he himself suffered as well so the indifference comes out as well. What jumps out to me is this quote here. In this he uses the pejorative term. Indians were bared on the side of the road and i came here with redskins. Kind of what was me, ive had some die and not feed them. To me, you would have to read this in context of other letters to get his attitude and others that do exist. To me that encapsulates at best indifference but also a disdain for people he was with. And using the pejorative term here which gives you an indication of why that is a pejorative term. That it dehumanizes human beings. You see it in this letter as groups are being forced onto their reservation. So they are forced there and come under the control of a military man. He is a firm believer, carlton is his name, who believes that in the Civilization Program and that Indigenous People should become euroamerican, he takes it as his task that he will transform the navajos into this prosperous delightful pueblo of indians. Of course he could not be any more wrong. Anybody been in eastern new mexico . Theres not enough there. I love new mexico by the way. I got pulled over there once. In this beautiful country, its not good farmland. awas a barren, desolate place that when the dine reached the location they suffered from lack of food, diseases, exposure, raids by groups like comanches and kyle was and and kiowa died. The United States government actually admitted that it was a mistake and in 1868 they negotiated another treaty in which they are allowed to go back to homelands to where the reservation is today, back to the four Corners Region. I had you guys listen to a brief newscast on the opening of, i forget what its called, the interpretive to memorialize those who suffered on the long walk. It of course becomes prominent in navajo oral history. Its something that unites them. A horrible member horrible memory in which they see themselves as all one people that have to join together to survive and have commemorated including carrying rocks from the reservation and of course opening this new center. The npr newscast, the trail of tears, and the newscast you heard the voices of content very dine and their views of what their history was. What were some of the takeaways that you had from that newscast . Anyone want to volunteer an answer . Franklin . The modern day navajos in the podcast what they really were emphasizing is they want the memorial to serve as a way that their ancestors and stories can always be remembered by future generations who think that is their most important view. Good. Its a way to bring stories from oral history to the public to be remembered and not forgotten. I have one more appear. I also found that many of the contemporary individuals were looking for acknowledgment for those not part of the community that such a thing did take place. Part of this is not just telling stories to each other but to the largest world so we dont forget this and we know this history as well. The dine woman who came in in her prayer to ancestors or her song, but its about triumph as well for people overcoming these horrible ordeals and being here today, being survivors and telling the story of survival when many places such as where we lived today like long island, most people dont know the indigenous history of the island. Its important that we know the history and not only that we know that history but we know that Indigenous People still are here today. And of course does anyone recall how many people belong to Navajo Nation today . Give me a ballpark figure on the podcast. Over 300,000. So a large nation of people still here today that have gone through this ordeal as well as the mescalero apache. The last episode that i will talk about is perhaps the worst taste in someones mouth about us indian policy and that is the same creek massacre in colorado in 1864. This massacre involves the militia of cheyenne and arapahoe. People that often, they hunted the buffalo in band is that ranged from the Northern Rockies down into colorado on the front range of the documents. They often hunted together and lived together. In the same group right back at you. With the mining strikes in the Rocky Mountains in the 1850s there was great pressure on the western Indian Tribes to live on smaller reservations in which they would be confined to not interfere with overland travel. The cheyenne and arapahoe supposedly agreed to a reservation under the fort wise treaty of 1861, a treaty that reduced cheyenne and arapahoe land to a small chunk of land in eastern colorado. This treaty was problematic as most are, that not all signed this treaty, acknowledged it as valid. Those that did sign it, did they actually know what it meant . Will these treaties are all problematic. Many cheyenne and arapahoe did not agree to live on the reservation. And of course this angered coloradans who want the cheyenne and arapahoe confined. By 1864 they had grown very fearful of Indigenous Peoples particularly because of news reports from minnesota and reports circulating that the western Indian Tribes were planning what they said was an uprising. One of those who paid attention was the military commander of colorados volunteer forces, the former methodist minister col. John chivington. He is also known as the fighting parsons because he had been a minister and the word parsons of course for methodist minister. In spring 1864 when the grass started sprouting, various bands be can to break out winter encampments to spread out and go hunt thing. This of course put fear into whites who believed this uprising was going to take place. Shipping 10 soldiers were given orders to quote Burn Villages and kill cheyennes whenever and wherever found. One band led by a proamerican chief for the first to encounter colorado volunteers and what was a prelude to the massacre. 2 cheyennes road up to sieving to chivingtons troops with papers bearing the mark of Abraham Lincoln telling of character black cattle. The two men were shot dead. In cold blood. Shipping tos forces then opened fire on the rest of the cheyenne. The indians returned fire but quit after black petal them to stop. The soldiers were treated retreated leaving 28 dead. Battles with lee, virginia in the coming election of the n64 paid no attention to affairs on the great plains and left it up to Samuel Curtis to communicate with the governor of colorado and volunteers about how to handle the situation. On september 28, curtis informed col. Chivington i want no peace until the indians suffer more. Nevertheless, black cattle wanted peace and in november he and some of his leading men wrote into fort lyon. Fort wise was renamed during the civil war to fort why in lion i believe after the Virginia Governor in colorado being a prounion state, renamed it fort lyon. So black cattle went into fort lyon asking for peace but the commanders told him they did not have the authority to accept his surrender, nor could they give the cheyennes food. Meanwhile the colorado papers were calling for extermination and chastised shillington as a coward. He had an opportunity and did not take it so he deployed 700 colorado volunteers to attack the cheyennes. After seeing the approaching army, black cattle hoisted an American Flag and sent a message to white antelope to greet the army. He was shot dead and soldiers launched into the village. The t continued their charge and for hours richard men women and children. Cheyenne bodies were mutilated, even infants were stabbed by coloradans. Immediately after the massacre the Colorado Press celebrated. Colorado soldiers have again covered themselves with glory. Some of the scalps were taken back to denver and paraded in a theater and the patrons seeing these scalps stood and applauded. Lincoln unfortunately remains mute on the same creek massacre. The cries from extermination trouble him . Perhaps not. After the stressful Reelection Campaign of 1864 the commissioner of Indian Affairs wrote the annual soup port and praised the energetic wrote the annual sue the annual report. Once it came to light, members of lincolns party publicly condemned the atrocious event and called for reform of indian policy. A Congressional Committee was authorized to investigate and ultimately concluded after lincolns death that the cheyenne were mutilated in the most horrible manner. Had he lived, perhaps he would have been among those in which the massacre had left a bad taste in the mouth and more humane policies may have happened instead of militaristic campaigns. Of course we will never know. His presidency gives us little clues of what he would have actually done. Same creek by any objective measure was an unprovoked murder of cheyennes and arapahoes. Colorado celebrated this for years, the battle of the civil war. More recently though, and thanks to the hard work and effort of descendent survivors, we know this and should know this as a massacre site. It has become a National Historical site in eastern colorado. So what about lincoln . What are we to make of him . He has left posterity with a troubling legacy. If historians often get asked, who was the best president , i perhaps would say Abraham Lincoln because his determination to preserve the union and because he oversaw the end of slavery. To the lands of indigenous history, he has perhaps different than any president and someone in favor of westward expansions weeknights this month, we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan 3. We are focusing on College Classrooms around the country. Tuesday, a discussion on the American Revolution and how George Washington interacted with fellow soldiers. How he viewed himself and how he is remembered today. American history tv errors every tuesday shows every tuesday evening and every weekend. Saturday starting at 10 am eastern, our coverage includes author interviews with Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg. David troyer, the heartbeat of wounded knee. Talks about her work, child of the dream. And thomas malone, founding director of the mit center for collective intelligence discusses his book super minds. The national festival, Live Saturday at 10 am eastern on book tv. In the wake of the risen shootings, the House Judiciary Committee will return early from the summer recess to markup three gun violence prevention bills which include banning highcapacity ammunition magazines restricting firearms by those deemed to be a risk, and preventing those convicted of hate crimes from purchasing again. If you are on the go, listen to our live coverage using the free cspan radio app. American history tv lectures in history series continues with a look at Early English missions in colonial america. You will hear about efforts of protestant preachers like john elliott to convert native americans. Disputes between colonists and native leaders over religion, land and sovereignty led to king philips war in the 1670s. This is an hour. All right, welcome back