An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

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No one wants to be a r*dsk*n. It is almost entirely used in a derogatory manner. In general, you don’t go up to someone and be like, “What up, my redskin,” or “That’s my redskin”—unless I’ve missed something. It just wouldn’t happen, because even the most racist white people wouldn’t use the term outside of their entangled belief in the Washington Football Team. It is just not a term circulated in everyday discourse. Of course, this is because of settler colonialism and its major goal of erasing any Indigenous presence. Still, the term does not have the same mainstream usage as “nigga.” Over the last several years, I’ve seen numerous Native people comment on non-Black-Indigenous people using the N-word. The social media version goes something like this: if you’re not Afro-Indigenous (here meaning someone who is African American and Native American), then you should not be using the term. A good example is a series of short video interviews initially released in 2015 but that resurfaced in 2019, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day (formerly Columbus Day; the only Christopher we now acknowledge is Wallace—the Notorious B. I. G.). On November 26, 2015, the Daily Mail, a UK online news source, posted the videos featuring a variety of Native Americans on the topics of Christopher Columbus, Thanksgiving, and the term “r*dsk*n.” While the point of the videos was to offer Indigenous voices on these issues, it was perhaps overshadowed by the one on the R-word. The interviewee is asked about the use of the R-word. Below is the exchange, and it’s offensive. Whenever you use the term “nigger” or “redskin” or “whitey” or “ch*nk,” it’s definitely not a good thing. INTERVIEWER: Has anyone ever called you a “redskin” or anything else insulting? RESPONDENT: A “river n****r.” I’ve been called that all throughout high school. I was like, 1 out of 4 Native Americans. So, I experienced a lot of racism. And I still do. I definitely speak up. I definitely, in a good way, let people know that using offensive words is not something that will help us progress as a nation. 26 The issue that people on social media had is her use of the N-word. She is correct in being offended. No one wants to be called a river n****r or a
n****r lover or any variation. Although, given the rampant nature of antiblackness, it’s hard to know if people are offended because they have been called something racist or simply that it is perhaps the most offensive word in the English language, and so they have been associated with Black people, something that all minorities know not to want to associate with outside of hip-hop. Both the R-word and the N-word are steeped in white supremacy. Arguably, Black folks have more sway in the public sphere in getting attention on issues (owing to the growing sympathies of white people?), and therefore, by comparing the two, Indigenous people could gain more needed exposure. The R-word is racist, demeaning, and, as far as I can tell, Indigenous people generally don’t use it as a term of endearment. However, the missing part of the analysis is that, while both are steeped in white supremacy, the N-word is slightly more complicated. This leads me to ask several questions: Why compare the N-word and R- word? Should we compare them? Who benefits? Do Black and Indigenous people equally benefit from the conversation? At this juncture, I would say yes and no. In addition to Indigenous peoples’ long-standing activism and research, the Washington Football Team’s decision to remove their racist image and nickname could be attributed to the pressure from the Movement for Black Lives and corporations like Bank of America, FedEx, Nike, and Pepsi. 27 However, the discursive history of the comparison should shed some light on the limits of discursive forms of solidarity. To highlight the indirect impact that raising awareness about the N-word has had on efforts targeting the R-word is not at all to discount the dogged advocacy of Indigenous peoples. They have long fought for respect and an end to racist imagery through #ChangetheName campaigns and highly visible court cases. In addition, John and Kenn Little made More Than a Word, a fantastic documentary released in 2017, on the history of the R- word. Indigenous peoples have some platforms through which to share their voices on issues such as language, including social media. Again, if we take seriously discursive solidarity, we have to consider how Black folks benefit or do not benefit from the comparison. Another controversial term is “savage.” Everybody is a “savage” these days, or something they do is labeled “savage.” Damn, things done changed! I don’t remember when I first heard the word used this way. I hear “savage” from a lot of young Black people in person and on social media, and it usually refers to someone doing something fearless, beyond belief,
Page 4 and 5:
PRAISE FOR AN AFRO-INDIGENOUS HISTO
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REVISIONING HISTORY SERIES A Queer
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To Liseth, El Don, ChiChi
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CHAPTER SEVEN Black and Indigenous
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Indigenous people in our collective
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and places. In fact, the whole book
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INTRODUCTION Thousands of volumes h
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RECONNECTING DISCONNECTED HISTORIES
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solidarity between Black and white
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important to understand how the whi
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Indigenous peoples have sought ways
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need both movements, as both are he
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Some established (mostly white male
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meeting between a variety of Indige
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Atlantic Diaspora Connections (2009
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During every Black History Month in
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consciousness, and to a considerabl
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PAUL CUFFE Perhaps one of the earli
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Afro-Indigenous peoples in the Unit
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antiblackness. Finally, these exper
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America. There was so much we cover
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president-general and another counc
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the dehumanization of Native people
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On March 4, 1801, Jefferson, during
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lasting in its impact than that wit
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The Native person could not truly e
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CHAPTER THREE ENSLAVEMENT, DISPOSSE
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local autonomy—Reconstruction cha
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unpleasant, but we must try and com
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Choctaw owned 14 percent and the Cr
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surpassed those predecessors by per
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eaders to reconsider the role of In
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a time they moved back to Wisconsin
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white people were interested in rem
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of their resistance to white encroa
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liberation and women’s rights. Ty
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covered numerous topics in the spee
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commit the same sin that the nation
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had to change. They could no longer
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Still, Native people continued to s
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government’s boarding schools and
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civilization and its so-called virt
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function of the National Associatio
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treatment with white men, . . . [th
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In the post-Garvey era, after the U
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learned about the prolific and viol
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Eastman likely participated in the
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Du Bois’s paper offered a broad s
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and men to assert their right to ci
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CHAPTER FIVE BLACK AMERICANS AND NA
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gap we have today, are rooted in ea
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Black Americans remembered this Ind
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legacies have been tainted. People
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Here, King describes the root of ra
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working as a collective to achieve
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egistered in Mississippi. She helpe
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surprising if she did. The Choctaw
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understand history, how they practi
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indeed fought in every war since th
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US, given that the US was not Black
Page 126 and 127: Malcolm understood well the connect
Page 128 and 129: me think in terms of American’s i
Page 130 and 131: In the following scene in the docum
Page 132 and 133: the land, isn’t four hundred year
Page 134 and 135: For the majority of white Americans
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Page 138 and 139: with hardly any people of color wil
Page 140 and 141: did their best to understand how th
Page 142 and 143: “It was not until Malcolm X came
Page 144 and 145: lived there. What about their claim
Page 146 and 147: and operates under a racist and imm
Page 148 and 149: oth deeply invested in Black civil
Page 150 and 151: challenge the assumed authority of
Page 152 and 153: Committee. BWLC, with Frances Beal
Page 154 and 155: international monopoly finance capi
Page 156 and 157: Conference on Indigenous Peoples an
Page 158 and 159: awarded until 2011, and discontinue
Page 160 and 161: CHAPTER SEVEN BLACK AND INDIGENOUS
Page 162 and 163: practices and incorporate them into
Page 164 and 165: e performing minstrelsy without eve
Page 166 and 167: influenced by racist oppression, th
Page 168 and 169: Beyond the specifics of this incide
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Page 174 and 175: For example, in July 2007, in Detro
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Page 180 and 181: was trying to make. Jones responded
Page 182 and 183: Desus sarcastically adds, “How ca
Page 184 and 185: CHAPTER EIGHT THE MATTER OF BLACK A
Page 186 and 187: Indigenous and Latinx police, “sh
Page 188 and 189: protester and getting hit with them
Page 190 and 191: Native people’s use of tropes, sl
Page 192 and 193: CONCLUSION THE POSSIBILITIES FOR AF
Page 194 and 195: “they are the problem” and tell
Page 196 and 197: oppression and white supremacy. . .
Page 198 and 199: movements.” 14 We can learn from
Page 200 and 201: est to acknowledge the importance o
Page 202 and 203: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s fantastic arti
Page 204 and 205: possible. Our imaginations, coupled
Page 206 and 207: to people of African descent. I don
Page 208 and 209: 2. You know how Indigenous Nations
Page 210 and 211: they treated? We should instead cen
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Page 214 and 215: maintain African enslavement. For n
Page 216 and 217: opposed to her likely believe that
Page 218 and 219: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS YOU DON‘T WRITE a
Page 220 and 221: Emory University. Thank you to the
Page 222 and 223: 5. Patrick Wolfe, Traces of History
Page 224 and 225: the initiative strikes which open t
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13. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the
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28. Robert Dale Parker, ed., The So
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8. Andrew Woolford, This Benevolent
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6. Malinda Maynor Lowery, The Lumbe
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CHAPTER 6. BLACK POWER AND RED POWE
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47. William H. McClendon, “The Bl
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15. Abaki Beck, “Rendered Invisib
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1. Billy-Ray Belcourt and Lindsay N
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Name: The Harmful Consequences of P
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INDEX Please note that page numbers
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Beck, Abaki, 143, 144 The Beginning
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Chicago Defender (publication), 76,
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Dyson, Michael Eric, 140, 149 Eagle
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Hamilton, Charles, 110 Hampton, Fre
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Kaplan, Amy, 205n54 Katznelson, Ira
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Metacomet (chief), 60 Metropolitan
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N.W.A. (band), 161 N-word, as term,
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Red Cloud (Oglala Lakota leader), 6
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“The Souls of White Folk” (Du B
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Wheatley, Phillis, xxii, 8-10, 14,
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North and South American activists
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Dennis Banks and unknown woman at a
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Audience at a rally in support of D
Page 273:
American Indian Movement member and
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An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

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