An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

AUTHOR’S NOTE
I AM WRITING this book for at least three reasons. First, because of my
personal identity: I am Black and Saginaw Chippewa. Second, if I am to
imagine a new world, one that brings an end to a world that hates Black
people and reproduces antiblackness and white supremacy, and a world that
erases Indigenous people and reproduces their dispossession through settler
colonialism, I intend to tell some histories that have been ignored at best or
made invisible at worst. Third, there is a deeply intellectual component
rooted in my interactions in graduate school.
When I visited a prospective graduate school, I met with an infamous
Black studies professor in his office. When I told him that I was interested
in doing research on the links between the American Indian Movement and
the Black Panther Party, he scoffed, saying, “There’s no relationship.”
Beyond the fact that he was at worst lying and at best very misinformed—I
believe he knew of some of these histories but, because of his
“hotepness”—he didn’t want to discuss the importance of Black and
Indigenous solidarity. (By “hotep,” I mean the hyper-masculine Black male
who has an ahistorical, Afrocentric conception of himself; refers to men and
women as “kings” and “queens”; and basks in their alleged connection to
ancient Africa and all of its glory.) He had no basis for that claim. I was
also upset that he so easily dismissed my research idea. However, since that
time, I’ve learned that Black and Indigenous people continue to produce
similar responses as that Black studies professor. As an Afro-Indigenous
person, I also know that there is a crucial need for a book that considers the
history of Afro-Indigenous struggles, their interactions throughout US
history, and how that particular relationship is the foundation for our new
sphere of freedom. For me, it is essential that I include Black and