Im an assistant professor of history at the university of Southern California and this is my first in person Conference Since the pandemic and after two years where giving a conference paper was basically sitting alone in my apartment, its wonderful to be able to talk with you today. So just wanted to get a big thank you to the organization for putting together this conference and for accommodating the varieties of which people chose to participate even though i know that came at some great logistical challenges. I also want to thank who cant be here today but is the one responsible for bringing us all together today. As she originally conceived of the roundtable as one that would be focused on the civil war and the west but ultimately last yearry around february decided o focus it on 1862. This is the year when the Republican Party succeeded into some of its original Campaign Promises abolished in the district of columbia and the western territories as well as passing the homestead act. When lincoln recognized what manyny africanamericans free ad enslaved had known all along that this was a war over slavert not just union, and of course the war in the west is even more complicated and im sure will be the subject of what we will be discussing in todays roundtable. All these decisions and eventst have shaped the world that we live in today what we are going to do is ask the two members of the roundtable to share some thoughts. I will introduce each of them before they speak and then we will open the floor up to a broader discussion and i hope that we will be able to do that as a conversation. So first we have an assistant professor of american studies and affiliated faculty with studies at barnard college. The imperialism with antiracism. He teaches courses on the political economy of racism, imperialismsm and radical internationalism, critiques of the economy and liberation. The author of empire indigenous nations and the Transcontinental Railroad published in 2019. In the wartime expansion of the u. S. T military power with the development of u. S. Financial institutions and im interested in the relationships between the war in the financial power. And the most expensive war that the u. S. Fought so the civil war was the militarily defeated and also against mexico the u. S. War economy tied together the production of farms and new england with of the stabilization of slavery in texas and the deep south. By the early 1860s the war economy marked the confrontation between the Merchant Capital that required a protected National Market and a southern southernovarian capital that Red International exports. Merchant and insurance capitalll based in new york city and the Connecticut River valley began the war paralyzed and divided undertaking a transition to a diversified portfolio of investments across thehi ranchi, agriculture, mining industry. As the expected u. S. Victory over the confederacy was thwarted by the battlefield catastrophes the legal act passed on 1862 authorized 150 million in u. S. Treasury notes which eventually increased the 450 million and with an additional half billion dollars raising funds to support military power over land and sea which would be necessary to defeat the confederacy it provided a windfall for industrial and military contractors launching the careers. In a further effort to raise the funds in the the act that was signed into law july 1st, 1862 established both the First Federal income tax and first tax on inherited wealth and the agency that would become the irs. The laws interns at the stage for the National Bank act between 1863 and 1866 which formed a National Banking system giving the u. S. Federal government the ability to issue with the war bonds and authorizing the federal government to regulate and tax the commercial banking system. April 19, 1861, lincoln issued a proclamation against southern ports. The naval blockade was necessary to stop the flow of capital, weapons and consumer goods into the confederacy. It was a coercive policy to break the alliance of the new york merchants with, southern planters which is running goods by. The u. S. Navy began the civil warth with 42 ships and actives are busy and by the end of the 1862 this would increase the 384 and the u. S. Had the largest navy. This may be provided the muscle for an expanded Monroe Doctrine in the decades following the war with active interventions against the caribbean and central nationalist movements and the service of ensuring the returns on investment. In cuba over the coming decades they would leverage political, economic individually military pressure to support the alliance of the finance capital. At the close of the symmetry of the cuban revolution but seek to overturn this pressure. Two days after the passage of the act february 27, 1862 the u. S. Executed which had been apprehended the previous august carrying a cargo. This is the first and only time that they executed to someone for participating in the slave trade. Six weeks later 1862 the british and u. S. Concluded negotiations on the sewer treaty that ended the sanction for participation in the slave trade to cuba and brazil and ended the u. S. Participation in the atlantic slave trade. 1862 salter concession in u. S. Power over land. July 1, 1862 the same day the revenue, lincoln signed the Pacific Railway act into law and a chartered the Pacific Railroad and provided the grants to the railroad that is chartered in the state of california. In these corporate land grants the congress violated the treaties that is lined with indigenous nations along the path of the railroad and the company is used these grants to raise capital to fund the construction and maintenance of the roads and the infrastructure and took place on ahe global ste and the completion of the end of 1862 with the completion of the first lien in algeria and spread of the network in western india. July 2nd lincoln signed the morrill act establishing the land grantsrsity that was another aspect. By Opening University education to small Property Owners the act deepened. By organizing Higher Education around the disciplines producing graduates in engineering, accounting, administration and management the universities produced by the act were trained and educating the rapidly modernizing and expanding states. The political economies of our own era continues to operate within the constraints set in place by the land grants to corporations and universities over these days in 1862. At the end of the day the u. S. Executed 38 prisoners and what remains the largest official execution and history. In the Historical Context of the act and the land grant act the mass execution was another type of assertion of landbased power that involved the transaction relating to north america inn te space of war to the space of policing the transition that remains unfinished in our own days. Together we see the prioritization. The expansion of land and seabased military power was accomplished in the expansion of the finance capital that interns at the stage for the Subsequent Development such as territory, vigilante and the treaty obligations that provide the context for the massacre november 29, 1864. The subsequent period following the deceit of the confederacy into the demise of the southern clintock chrissy the war finance ifpower between mississippi and california. The definitive break in the alliance between northeastern merchant muppercaseletter southern slaveholding capitals around shared investments led to the development of finance capital investing in industries. By the end of the 1880s the u. S. Finance capital had in economic terms controlled the production of sugar and Mining Operations burning down the forests to establish Building Networks to transport materials and thousands of workers from haiti and jamaica. Ive spoken about two executions into the transitions during that year. Im particularly interested in how the defeat of the southern agrarian capital was accomplished through the new alliance between finance capital and agrarian capital particularly on the plains of north america and in the islands of the caribbean. Calling attention to the saudi execution followed by the u. S. Shipment of a significant number of patriot missiles to saudi arabia on march 201st as reported in the wall street journal while they report they are unable or unwilling to rapidly increase the Oil Production to offset the sanctioned russian oil for consumers. This is taking place as we witnessed the unfolding experiments between countries seeking to trade currencies other than the u. S. Dollar in the recent developments we see assertions of power over sea and land in attempts to stabilize the future of u. S. Power caught in the grip of the nexus. [applause] thank you so much. The next panelist is an assistant professor of american studies at rutgers. His current book project race, law and mixed ancestry in this injury midwest analyzes racial complexities of American Indians of mixed indian and european ancestry with a focus on kinship, family history, land disposition and citizenship. Dedicated to the language revitalization and preservation and research is driven by the need to understand the full effects of american colonialisms on indigenous americans and how those consequences influence native people today doing so with the hope of contributing to the fright of the healing of indigenous communities. Hello, my relatives and thank you for coming to think more about native people in the west. 1862 and civil war years. Is a particularly horrible moment fori native americans, where the u. S. Government really goes all out and makes it full policy to dispossess native people of their lands and replace them with white settlers, the u. S. And hor colonial powers in north america have been carrying out genocide and dispossession of American People for hundreds of years. But the civil war acted as cover for american lawmakers to make natist land dispossess a policy of the federall government, in 1862 we heard about the congressional actions of that period, homestead act. Pacific railroad act, moral act, they were legislation that focused on the dispossession of native people of sovereign indigenous nations, a policy to remove them from their homelands. In the same years during civil war we see creation of a lark large number of territories, and arizona in idaho in 1863 and montana in 1864, a government presence was increased. Which all these things coupledd together. Was really all about using the what was going on in civil war as cover to over take indigenous lands. It kind of ramps up at this moment, we see the ramp up in violence in this particular moment in 1862. Some of these are better known, the u. S. Dakota war of 1862. You know wasas a major war that depopulated the states of minnesota s and resulted in hundreds of settlers and native people dead, thousands of native people displaced from their homes and removed from their homeland in minnesota. One of our professors is a descendants of one of 38 men, who were excused in 1862, i wish he were here to give a talk about that. That is one of the better known ones for historians, the another sand creek massacre in 1864 in colorado. There are many other actions of violence the california genocide which once on a decade or two before civil war and continued after, it was a bloody time. For example a lot of these are lesser known. The bear river massacre in idaho of m where u. S. Army massacred 280 men, women and children. There was another massacre in california settlers, rose up andtl murdered probably about 300 indians in california. These are to name a couple of the more extreme. Sos many of these massacres in this violence was going on in the west during civil war years, many are unknown like, those in california, just under studied. There are people who are more experts on california than i. There is a native population of california was greatly reduced. Something like 75 or 80 i believe, on a broader timeline. From i think 300 thousand to 30 to 50 thousand, through largely through theou settler violence going on. But back to u. S. Dakota war. General johnra polk commander of new department of northwest which was created as result of the war he wrote to henry sibling in september of 1862, writing about his thoughts about dakota people, he used word sioux. Saying itai is my purpose toic to exterminate the sioux. He goes on destroy everything belongingtr to them, and force them out on to the plains to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts and no meanings as people with whom treaties are compromises to be made. Notfi every army officer had the same views but many did like most colonel john. But this gets to the thoughts of the military officers of the time and some of the people in lincoln administration. Another aspect of civil war was that it devastated indian territory, now oklahoma. This is where u. S. Gastromoved thousands of people, a generation earlier, now civil war devastated their new homeland. There, there were you know thousands of native people that served on both sides for confederacy and american side. That gets us to president lincoln. Lincoln is someone who scholars and public vias one of the greatest american president s, but, reality is he did little to nothing to curtail violent toward native people during his tenure. He did nothing to curtail the suffering of native people, particularly indan territories. Lincoln saw native people as a threat to white settler, expansion. That is why we have legislation homestead act. His political appointees in Indian Service at the time, called the office of indian affairs, they were largely incompetent and corrupt. That was not just something from his administration, this was common you know in the administrations before and after. These are political whointees, people worked at indian agencies or worked in dc. They were not appointed because of their skills or their abilities to work with native people. You know, or things like that or carry out federal policies of the government in the relationships or treaty responsibilities. The federal government. They were appointed for political f reasons, they had no experience with native people, they were there to make money. That was the huge problem in Indian Service of the period, these indian agents and other workers regularly stole money and supplies that was meant to go to native o people. Very often the lincoln appointees were skimming off the top or sometimes skimming all the way to the bottom. Thatat is one of the causes of u. S. Dakota war. You know, dakota people starving to death because a lots of the local politicians and the constituent of minnesota who were also in the state of minnesota who were also often worked for government as part of Indian Service likee some were fur traders like sibling who was later an Army Officers later. They embezzled pretty much all of the money for dakota people left them starving. This is what is going on during the lincoln administration. He and his appointees were interested in concentrating native people on reservation lands and taking their lands for settler expansion. If authorities or militia groups fell it was necessary to commit genocide all violence to achieve, that they did so. We have seen that with you knowow sand creek and bear river o and various other massacres. So often scholars white of lincoln write of lincoln asin being too busy with the civil war to do anything do help native people or to carry out policies that would be protective of native people and their lands, but rather lincoln was the architect of his administration. He was the architect of the policies of his administration. He was the architect of the actions that his appointees and people carried out. But anyways, i want to wrap up my comments as a question here of to think about this, this historical literature about this. This period of native americans during civil war. I thinkat there is really a two fold issue with the his. On a small scale there is decentnt literature. Some work on sand creek massacre. E our other member who could not make it, a beautiful and horrifying book, in the trauma in the book of the sand creek massacre, i wish he were here. They have other circumstances and could not make it. Unfortunately. I lost myy train of thought. Anyway, there are some historicalhi work on things like sand creek and u. S. Dakota war but other moments of violence, have gone under studied or not studied. We might know the names of them that is about it. Thatt. Is one issue, we really need a lot morely work of people to dig into these study these. These particular events that werear going on in the civil war period. But another issue is we also need more work that takes these t events as a whole gives broader understanding of why and how these things happen. How they relate to the civil war. In that particular period. And before the talk i had lunch with a great scholar jeffrey osler, in audience, he had a book come out. Deriving genocide that gives that broad overview. Were awaiting his second volume that brings that so a later date. That is one example of the important work done, but there needs to be more work. Not only small scale stuff of figuring out what happened but broad scale to get more into the meanings of this. Of o how these episodes relate to creation of the United States and coming out of civil war and issues of reconstruction or lack of it in many cases with Indigenous People. Im looking forward to our discussion. [applause] thank you both for fascinating talks giving us a lot to think about. I think going to exercise chairs prerogative and ask the first question, after that well open the floor to your audience questions. A quick reminder to go to the microphone and middle of the room, and take the time nowow to think about what questions yous might want to ask. There are t probably a lot. So, really fascinating talks give us a very make the case for why studying the west and looking more broadly at the civil war is so s important whether caribbean or th