Charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and 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 supports cspan2 as a public service. Thank you for joining us for todays program, like freedom on native land with Alaina Roberts. The Newberry Library supports and inspires research and teaching and tg and learning in humanities since offending making 87 newbury has remained dedicated to deepening our collective understanding of ourselves in the world around us. We connect researchers and visitors with our collection into reading room and exhibition gallery, program spaces, classrooms and online digital resources. We have we open our doors to readers and visitors. You can visit our website neubert got work to make an appointment to do research into reading room or stop by the Library Without an appointment tuesday through saturday to visit our exhibition all. Our bookshop is open wednesday through saturday. You can visit the website digital to learn about our current exhibition and Public Program series called about the age of revolution across the americas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries the exhibition will be open until june, july 24th todays program is one example of the librarys of so the commitmeo Public Engagement and intellectual engagement. Bring together community of scholars, students and the public to discuss ideas that matter in our world today is central to the mission. We are committed to contributing to a better understanding of history in order to promote equity and crosscultural understanding it is with that obligation we would like to begin todays program with a statement about our history and the land on which the city of chicago resides. Located near the confluence of several waterways the Newberry Library sits on land that intersects with the and. The inland confederacy the. And nation and others nations. In the region of north east illinois home predict and the Indigenous People live in a serious all right their traditional teachings in my face and today, chicago is home to the largest urban Indigenous Community the United States. There remains an apartment lease for Indigenous People of the caught chicago institution, the possibility to acknowledge the Historical Context and build mystical relationships with the tribal nations onto the lands they are situated. During the program you have the opportunity to enter questions into the queue with a feature on zoom or inoo the comments sectin if youre joining us on facebook or youtube as time permits or speakers will respond to your questions. And now it is my pleasure to introduce todays speaker. Doctor Alaina Roberts is an assistant professor of history at university of pittsburg. Relief search focus on the intersection of africanamerican and native American Historyec fm the 19th century to the modern day with particular attention to identity several colonialism and not that black despair in addition to ive been here all the while black freedom on native land which is published by university of Pennsylvania Press in 2021, her writing has appeared in the washington post, the journal of civil war era in the western historical quarterly. And at this point i will hinting over to dr. Roberts. Hello. Im so happy to be here virtually to share my new book with you all. Thank you tuberose. I want to introduce myself by saying that all the research i do as a historian, professor is connected to my family. Like most people who i do not is africanamerican i come from people who were enslaved for generations. But on my fathers side by ancestors were not owned by white people. We were owned by native americans. In the 1830s they along with her chickasaw and choctaw indian others part of a jury we know today as the trail of tears making their k way to oklahoma which was then known as indian territory. During the civil waril the ownes fought for the confederacy and when the confederacy lost the United States government forced my familys owners along with other native american slaveowners to free the slaves and provide them with land. And so in about a minute i just reframed people think i about slavery, the civil war and reconstruction. All of these events that are so important to this countrys history were different from my family because they lived within Indian Nations, not within the United States retelling and reshaping this history is the core of my book, ive been here all the while. One of the key themes of my book is what ithi means that native americans adopted slavery in the first place peer ideas about race and black inferiority that we used two only associate with white people and another theme isr how after center, negate and harmful stereotypes about native americans as they migrated to the west. So this evening im going to give you an overview of history and talk to you about how i think acknowledging some of the negative interactions within black and native peoples within the past is necessary for us to Work Together as allies today. So lets start with our native americans began to own black people andga slaves. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, White American politicians and reformers encouraged native americans particularly those in east and southeast to adapt aspects of your American Culture such as language, clothing and political structures arguing this was civilized. This may be familiar to some of you. Henry the secretary of war, and president George Washington advocated what we call a policy assimilation because they believe they were more like white they would be willing to give up majority of the land this ideal world then it means that they then use the reduced land like White Americans and engage in agriculture and use and is evaluating their Communal Land ownership. And slavery became integral to oneofakind select entrance and also they encourage the native americans to meet slaveholders name for the height of the economic success predict and those with it. All Indian Tribes took on various facets of American Culture. And ignore those for example christian religion and or two things most people in the nation. [inaudible]. Landowners and my family, they did not embrace is until maybe the earliest 20 centuries of these people in this time are picking and choosing what theyre interested in and what they care about. But, many of the most influential members of five Indian Nations did enslaved black people like my family members. Literally five tribes. Seminal and turkey and others pretty did you probably heard of these tribes because of their covid19 vaccinations efforts. And so in addition to slavery with these five tribes also do things like newspapers the model of europeanamerican newspapers and create government structure similar to the United States so these are two things working really alongside each other, native american governors as well as other governors. And for these reasons because of these choose to assimilate in various ways, White Americans began calling them five civilized tribes which americans now refer to them as five tribes because five celebs tribes is complex and now along with the slaveowning development in these tribes some had the idea that the people were inferior and wild just like in the United States the majority of people do not own slaves, the ending the lisa did, was it created a culture and economy the highly values slavery and slave owners. And then in the 1830s, an event or process came alive with all of the slaveholding tribes as well as the black people who lived among them and thats integral so since contact the british add reconcile the fact that they wanted the native American Land with the reality that they didnt have the manpower the resources to just take my force, thats of the treaties and agreements with native people for partial land or control of various regions. During the colonial period and people europeans negotiated the settlement on relatively equal grounds often with native American People have more power and influence in these relationships using measures as well as war and violence. But after the revolutionary war of course the white encroachment on native American Land is increased as some sought resources and homesteads and moved farther west and as plantation south in the 19th century with five agriculturally rich, they began illegally squatting of the land the government followed during this trans passing and banned these laws over the native americans in the lead up rated as a result part of an effort to either force the indians to move as the americans had tried to get him to do since really the beginning of the country, or to allow whites to take their land. Now native American People fought against this and sometimes militarily through war or conflict but also through law which do what they were told to do and what civilized did, they used a lot. Well thieves are ultimately unsuccessful for the majority the native people especially these five tribes so you probably know, is been going on through the 1830s and present Andrew Jackson a test shows the support for white southerners with during the advocating for the indian removal act predict for good reasons, the war is considered for many tribes to be a foundational journey, a journey that solidifies theres resilience as a people. But what i want you to take from this talk is that indian removal is that same thing for many of these enslaved people who endured alongside of their owners in the five tribes. So african descendents they remove the removal and remember that is. And assure history with these tribes. So there are really two different ways of the black community and the native intersect, first that indian removal was necessary for the plantation slavery and the second, the indian removal itself involves people of african descent. Now as for these tribes rebuilding after removal, historians argue that actually they rebuilt it better than before and so they course and homes and plantations and there are many people are very economically successful and again but is been known as indian territory. But about 30 years passed in the United States is increasingly divided over slavery. And hence we have the civil war and nation who work it had influential families black women and men they were very interested in these discussions in the United States about humanity and the civil war and slavery in all these things we think about seem to this country, were also very important in the five tribes. And sometimes especially in the nations they were large over the institution of slavery in ever joining in the war. Now as a confederacy and building alliances, in an effort the confederacy talk to the five tribes, and very familiar with members of the tribe and they tell them what they want to hear the argue that they would give them what the United States has not been giving them. So they said they will allow them to have more to say and they will allow to have representation and allow them to keep the indian territory forever without White Settlement and more reliable and pay them money for the homelands. And, and for some of you elites, they would allow them to keep slavery while the union after 1863 was not. If the confederacy kept these problems, probably not after all the confederacy was partially composed of the states that had the homelands run 30 years earlier grade of us to leave the treaties were enticing to the members of the five tribes created new have a shared ideology around slavery and members of the five tribes have and think are very important. And you also have geography, so the indian territory essentially were these five tribes are located, are very close to texas arkansas and confederate strongholds and the more western part of the country this time so its important that they had some sort of protections so the practical aspects of Legal Alliance as well as shared sentiment around slavery. So it leading into the work, members of all of these tribes five of the union and the confederacy and others are refugees actually lead in a territory helping to avoid fighting or having to shoot a battle. About 14000 of fought in and around these indian territories just like in the United States number of enslaved black man five for the union or forced to work for their confederate owners doing physical labor predominantly. And when the war is over, the United States guitars the fact that some tribal members had fought for the union they ignore the fact that they had not given the five tribes any production would not give them extra meaning and munitions and instead, the United States use of the that some tribal members have fought for the confederacy against them. So the ask twice the five tribes with the confederacy as behavior probably deserving of punishment and distrust of the claim because they made an alliance and the confederacy that the United States, we had a valid treaties with them. And so they threaten to withhold money that they desperately need after a war unless they sign these treaties. They do because they have been coerced into it so these treaties are called the treaties of 1866 in service of five tribes official as well as the reconstruction documents. What, i mean, by that. Some of the most extreme items in these treaties is a session of land. So the five tribes are forced to give up a majority of the land they had really just moved on only around 30 years earlier. In the other three big items of these treaties is five tribes emancipate the enslaved people of the nations of the adopt them as citizens and they had to give them land. The chickasaw nations had to give them specifically 40 acres of land up rated farrell familiar with reconstruction are really black history in general, and you know how significance that 40 acres is because africanamericans did not get part of that said this in the United States coming into another nation Indian Nations that are supposed to have the right to create their own laws and run their own nation to be completely sovereign in just about every other way in the u. S. Is saying going to force you to free enslaved people because our we ourselves cannot do but were quite a fortune to adopt the assistance and give them all the rights of citizenship and we ourselves in 1956 have not yet done. Going to force you to give them land predict now is this right, legally now read now the nation had ordered emancipation of 1863 so they were the only ones of the five who decided to do this without direct coercion afraid of it all the others, chickasaws, choctaws, cherokees, seminoles, creeks, if they had, we dont know. What are they given their former slaves rights and citizenship. Probably not. They were given the land, probably not but this freedom, these rights and especially this land predict the former slaves of the five tribes on a different plane, the africanamericans in the United States they give them different opportunities, and these opportunities are why so many black people of emancipation why theres many black in towns and white has black wall street of course, the anniversary of the massacre just past the more people are far more aware of the black wall street in its existence. And so at this moment, and reconstruction indian territory history is really one of those interesting historical moments where my identity is both historian and dissented of former slaves which i call craig people. And i have to recognize something is legally wrong as u. S. Intervention in the foreign nation or is Indian Nation known after the turkey nation in the Georgia Supreme Court case domestic case the nation. But i also have to recognize the people like my family might never have been freight if not for these technically legal and just actions on the part of the United States. Now going to use that term for former slaves and again and again. In a free people in general target i use my work to refer to any former slaves of any of five tribes and of course more specifically, the chickasaws freed men and women specifically. And so the reason that the land designated for indian trade people of 1866 is different as historically significant is because this was black land on her throat american governments actions and they had not been able to agree on given the africanamericans in the United States, land and it was frankly impossible. Some are very republicans who are moderate to imagine taking land from a white person giving it to a black person. As im or no, Property Ownership was and continues to be one of the most revered American Values but republicans such as the secretary of interior and affairs at the time, could not given any lead to african descent. Because of the valley of land and valued private ownership is way that White Americans