Farewell, My Nation

by Weeks, Philip

• ISBN13: 9781118976784
• ISBN10: 1118976789
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2016-02-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The fully updated third edition of "Farewell, My Nation" considers the complex and often tragic relationships between American Indians, white Americans, and the U.S. government during the nineteenth century, as the government tried to find ways to deal with social and political questions about how to treat America’s indigenous population.

• Updated to include new scholarship that has appeared since the publication of the second edition as well as additional primary source material
• Examines the cultural and material impact of Western expansion on the indigenous peoples of the United States, guiding the reader through the significant changes in Indian-U.S. policy over the course of the nineteenth century
• Outlines the efficacy and outcomes of the three principal policies toward American Indians undertaken in varying degrees by the U.S. government – Separation, Concentration, and Americanization – and interrogates their repercussions
• Provides detailed descriptions, chronology and analysis of the Plains Wars supported by supplementary maps and illustrations

Author Biography

Philip Weeks, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of History at Kent State University, where, as a distinguished teaching award recipient, he taught American Indian studies, U.S., Ohio, and modern world history for many years. He is the editor or author of several books, including “They Made Us Many Promises”: The American Indian Experience 1524 to the Present (Wiley, 2001) and Buckeye Presidents: Ohioans in the White House (2003).

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

1 The “Indian Question” 1

In Need of a Solution 1

Breaching the Ohio Country Barrier 7

The Shooting Star and the Prophet 18

2 The Initial Solution 35

The Relocation Debate 35

Tribal Strategies in the South 40

The Cherokee–Georgia Conundrum 46

Removing the Southern Tribes 52

The Indian Territory and Its People 65

Undermining Forces 74

Dashed Hopes 81

3 The Travails of Mid Century 89

Western Troubles and the New Solution 89

Making Way for the Railroads 98

The Texas Challenge 102

Whether or Not to Be a Confederate 108

Civil War in the Indian Territory 117

Unrest in Minnesota 127

Colorado and Sand Creek 137

4 The Plains Wars, Phase I: Realizing Concentration 151

Those Who Resisted: An Inescapable Fate? 153

Indian Policy and Who Controlled It 159

Defending the Powder River Country 166

Dualism: Peace and Force Policies 176

Commotion in Kansas 180

Implementing Concentration 187

With the Olive Branch and the Sword 195

5 The Plains Wars, Phase II: Enforcing Concentration 209

Again, Indian Affairs and Who Controls Them 210

The Grant Peace Policy 214

At the Watershed 221

The Red River War 228

The Peace That Slipped Away 236

The Great Sioux War Commences 246

The Great Sioux War Concludes 259

6 The Search for a New Order 269

Reforms and Jurisdictional Disputes 270

Reappraising the Concentration Policy 279

The Government’s Newest “Solution” 293

Ending “Old and Injurious Habits” 301

Americanization: White Rationalizations and Tribal Responses 306

Dead Dreams 314

Bibliographical Essay 326

Index 338