Unworthy republic : the dispossession of Native Americans and the road to Indian territory / Claudio Saunt.

By:

Saunt, Claudio

9780393609844
0393609847

Other title:

Dispossession of Native Americans and the road to Indian territory

Subject(s):

LOC classification:

E98 .R4 S286 2020

Contents:

Introduction: "words are delusive" -- White supremacy and Indian territory. Aboriginia -- The white peopel of Georgia -- The view from Washington city. The debate -- "Fork tongue and shallow hat" -- The best laid plans. The plan of operations -- The cholera times -- Financing dispossession. The financiers -- "A combination of designing speculators" -- From expulsion to extermination. 1836: the southern world at war -- At the point of a bayonet -- 'Tis no sin -- Afterword: the price of expulsion.

Summary: "In May 1830, the United States formally launched a policy to expel Native Americans from the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. Justified as a humanitarian enterprise, the undertaking was to be systematic and rational, overseen by Washington's small but growing bureaucracy. But as the policy unfolded over the next decade, thousands of Native Americans died under the federal government's auspices, and thousands of others lost their possessions and homelands in an orgy of fraud, intimidation, and violence. Unworthy Republic reveals how expulsion became national policy and describes the chaotic and deadly results of the operation to deport 80,000 men, women, and children. Drawing on firsthand accounts and the voluminous records produced by the federal government, Saunt's deeply researched book argues that Indian Removal, as advocates of the policy called it, was not an inevitable chapter in U.S. expansion across the continent. Rather, it was a fiercely contested political act designed to secure new lands for the expansion of slavery and to consolidate the power of the southern states. Indigenous peoples fought relentlessly against the policy, while many U.S. citizens insisted that it was a betrayal of the nation's values. When Congress passed the act by a razor-thin margin, it authorized one of the first state-sponsored mass deportations in the modern era, marking a turning point for native peoples and for the United States. In telling this gripping story, Saunt shows how the politics and economics of white supremacy lay at the heart of the expulsion of Native Americans; how corruption, greed, and administrative indifference and incompetence contributed to the debacle of its implementation; and how the consequences still resonate today." --book jacket.

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 3 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Shelving location	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	NMC Library	Stacks	E98 .R4 S286 2020 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		33039001496156

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Previous								Next
Previous	E98 .R3 Y68 2001 Quest for harmony : Native American spiritual traditions /	E98 .R3 .Z567 2011 The sacred wisdom of the American Indians /	E98 .R4 M55 2011 The forced removal of American Indians from the northeast : a history of territorial cessions and relocations, 1620-1854 /	E98 .R4 S286 2020 Unworthy republic : the dispossession of Native Americans and the road to Indian territory /	E98 .S48 S65 2022 Reclaiming two-spirits : sexuality, spiritual renewal & sovereignty in Native America /	E98 .S48 T86 1997 Two-spirit people : Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality /	E98 .S48 W55 1988 The spirit and the flesh : sexual diversity in American Indian culture /	Next

Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-380) and index.

"In May 1830, the United States formally launched a policy to expel Native Americans from the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. Justified as a humanitarian enterprise, the undertaking was to be systematic and rational, overseen by Washington's small but growing bureaucracy. But as the policy unfolded over the next decade, thousands of Native Americans died under the federal government's auspices, and thousands of others lost their possessions and homelands in an orgy of fraud, intimidation, and violence. Unworthy Republic reveals how expulsion became national policy and describes the chaotic and deadly results of the operation to deport 80,000 men, women, and children. Drawing on firsthand accounts and the voluminous records produced by the federal government, Saunt's deeply researched book argues that Indian Removal, as advocates of the policy called it, was not an inevitable chapter in U.S. expansion across the continent. Rather, it was a fiercely contested political act designed to secure new lands for the expansion of slavery and to consolidate the power of the southern states. Indigenous peoples fought relentlessly against the policy, while many U.S. citizens insisted that it was a betrayal of the nation's values. When Congress passed the act by a razor-thin margin, it authorized one of the first state-sponsored mass deportations in the modern era, marking a turning point for native peoples and for the United States. In telling this gripping story, Saunt shows how the politics and economics of white supremacy lay at the heart of the expulsion of Native Americans; how corruption, greed, and administrative indifference and incompetence contributed to the debacle of its implementation; and how the consequences still resonate today." --book jacket.