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Illustration of black calvary officers with a Native American, circa 1874

Is This Land Made for You and Me?

How African Americans came to Indian Territory after the Civil War.
by Alaina E. Roberts via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 26, 2021
Map of Indian Territory

The Troubling Paradox of Slavery in Indian Territory

My ancestors were enslaved—but their freedom came at a price for others.
by Alaina E. Roberts via TIME on April 14, 2021

The City Born in a Day

The bizarre origin story of the surprisingly exceptional Oklahoma City, in a government-sanctioned raid called the Land Run.
by Sam Anderson via Intelligencer on August 17, 2018
Map of Cherokee Allotment from the Dawes Commission.

Coercion

“Allotment”—and its repercussions.
by Rebecca Nagle via Los Angeles Review of Books on September 8, 2024
Swale Land, painting by Edward Mitchell Bannister, 1898, depicting nature.

Vacant Unsettled Lands

American thinkers consider what the already occupied West could fund.
by Michael A. Blaakman via Lapham’s Quarterly on October 25, 2023
Production of Oklahoma! where actors in brightly colored clothing dance a square dance in front of a set of rural architecture and farmland.

Behind 'Oklahoma!' Lies the Remarkable Story of a Gay Cherokee Playwright

Lynn Riggs wrote the play that served as the basis of the hit 1943 musical.
by Jennie Rothenburg Gritz via Smithsonian on March 30, 2023
Painting depicting the Trail of Tears.

Native Removal Prior to the Indian Removal Act of 1830

To understand westward expansion, the Trail of Tears, the history of Manifest Destiny, and the impacts to Native Americans, one must understand its buildup.
by Stephanie Edwards via Readex on March 28, 2023
Two Choctaw men

Choctaw Confederates

Some Native Americans chose to fight for the Southern cause.
by Fay A. Yarbrough via Humanities on January 11, 2023
A courtroom or public civic room full of people, with white and black people sitting on opposite sides of a railing.

When Tribal Nations Expel Their Black Members

Clashes between sovereignty rights and civil rights reveal an uncomfortable and complicated story about race and belonging in America.
by Philip J. Deloria via The New Yorker on July 14, 2022
Cherokee leader and Louisiana governor shaking hands

The Cherokee-American War from the Cherokee Perspective

Conflict between American settlers/revolutionaries and the Cherokee nation erupted in the early years of the Revolution.
by Jordan Baker via Journal of the American Revolution on July 29, 2021
Bass Reeves

The Resurrection of Bass Reeves

Today, the legendary deputy U.S. marshal is widely believed to be the real Lone Ranger. But his true legacy is even greater.
by Christian Wallace via Texas Monthly on June 22, 2021
Photographs from Tulsa shaped into a three-dimensional sculpture.

The Unrealized Promise of Oklahoma

How the push for statehood led a beacon of racial progress to oppression and violence.
by Victor Luckerson via Smithsonian on March 17, 2021
flag of the Cherokee Nation

The 17-Year-Old Girl Who Was Once a Leader of The Cherokee Nation

Nanyehi “Nancy” Ward tried to broker peace with white settlers.
by Caroline Klibanoff, Allyson Schettino via Teen Vogue on November 30, 2020

Without Profit From Stolen Indigenous Lands, UNC Would Have Gone Broke 100 Years Ago

Before universities profited from stolen Indigenous territory through "land-grants," schools like UNC sold Indigenous lands hundreds of miles away.
by Lucas P. Kelley, Garrett W. Wright via Scalawag on September 15, 2020
Artwork depicting the Trail of Tears.

Was Indian Removal Genocidal?

Most recent scholarship, while supporting the view that the policy was vicious, has not addressed the question of genocide.
by Jeffrey Ostler via The Panorama on August 4, 2020
Map of the United States marking where land was granted to Cornell - concentrations in Wisconsin and California.

Cornell: A “Land-Grab University”?

Cornell University's past and current wealth is tied to the dispossession of Indigenous groups from their land.
by Kurt Jordan via American Indian And Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) on July 29, 2020
Bosque Redondo

Americans Need to Know the Hard Truth About Union Monuments in the West

During the Civil War, Union soldiers in the West weren’t fighting to end slavery, but to annihilate and remove Native Americans.
by Megan Kate Nelson via The Atlantic on July 10, 2020

The Shameful Final Grievance of the Declaration of Independence

The revolution wasn’t only an effort to establish independence from the British—it was also a push to preserve slavery and suppress Native American resistance.
by Jeffrey Ostler via The Atlantic on February 8, 2020

The Civil Rights Leader ‘Almost Nobody Knows About’ Gets a Statue in the U.S. Capitol

At a ceremony Wednesday, leaders remembered the Ponca chief whose court case established that Native Americans were people.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on September 20, 2019
American Indians perform a tribal dance.

The DNA Industry and the Disappearing Indian

DNA, race, and native rights.
by Aviva Chomsky via Tom Dispatch on November 29, 2018

Half the Land in Oklahoma Could be Returned to Native Americans. It Should Be.

A Supreme Court case about jurisdiction in an obscure murder has huge implications for tribes.
by Rebecca Nagle via Washington Post on November 28, 2018
partner

One of the 19th Century’s Most Important Documents Was Recently Discovered

How a rare copy of the U.S.-Navajo Treaty, once thought lost, was found in a New England attic.
by Megan Kate Nelson via Made By History on May 22, 2018

Law Enforcement is Still Used as a Colonial Tool In Indian Country

Leaked documents reveal coordination between big business and law enforcement to break up last year’s protests at Standing Rock.
by Julian Brave NoiseCat via The Marshall Project on June 28, 2017

How I Feel As a Native Woman When Trump Idolizes Andrew Jackson

Trump has called Andrew Jackson a "military hero and genius and a beloved president."
by Adrienne Keene via Teen Vogue on April 19, 2017

Native Land Digital

Do you live on Native American territory?
via Native Land Digital on January 1, 2017
Red Horse's drawing of American soldiers on horseback

A Lakota Sioux Warrior's Eyewitness Drawings of Little Bighorn

The role of Red Horse's drawings in the historical narrative of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
by Allison C. Meier via Hyperallergic on November 20, 2015
The U.S.-Canada border, as seen in this satellite map, mostly runs along the 49th parallel — and wasn't chosen at random.

Trump Calls the U.S.-Canada Border an "Artificial Line." That's not Entirely True.

Just because it's man-made doesn't mean it's not legitimate.
by Rachel Treisman via NPR on May 9, 2025
Children and a teacher at an Indian Boarding School.

US Citizenship Was Forced on Native Americans 100 Years Ago − Its Promise Remains Elusive

Why few Native Americans are celebrating the centennial of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.
by Kerri Malloy via The Conversation on July 25, 2024
John Gast's 1872 painting "American Progress," in which Miss Columbia, a personification of the enlightening United States, is depicted leading pioneers over the western plains.

Two Years That Made the West

In a momentous couple of years, the young United States added more than a million square miles of territory, including Texas and California. 
by Elliott West via American Heritage on July 3, 2024
Austin West, a Choctaw student, visits Kindred Spirits, a monument to the Choctaw in County Cork.

The Unlikely, Enduring Friendship Between Ireland and the Choctaw Nation

One act of generosity during the Great Famine forged a bond that transcends generations.
by Richard Grant via Smithsonian on September 7, 2023
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