WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.399 I want you to try a quick exercise with me. Just 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:05.440 close your eyes for a second and picture the 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:08.099 quintessential classic American image of Oklahoma. 00:00:08.300 --> 00:00:10.500 Just bring it to mind. I bet I know exactly what 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:13.000 you're seeing. Right. Chances are you're picturing 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.940 the 1889 land run like covered wagons racing 00:00:16.940 --> 00:00:20.780 across this dusty wide open plain. People aggressively 00:00:20.780 --> 00:00:24.300 staking claims in the dirt. Exactly. The rugged 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:27.649 frontier spirit conquering the wild or Let's 00:00:27.649 --> 00:00:29.929 be honest, maybe you're just hearing the soaring 00:00:29.929 --> 00:00:32.549 strings of the Broadway musical. You know, with 00:00:32.549 --> 00:00:34.649 the wind sweeping down the plane. Yeah, that 00:00:34.649 --> 00:00:37.070 is definitely the story we are all told. It is. 00:00:37.090 --> 00:00:39.750 It's this highly curated image that's just been 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:42.549 burned into the American consciousness. But today, 00:00:42.890 --> 00:00:44.630 for this deep dive, we're going to take that 00:00:44.630 --> 00:00:46.990 script, turn it completely upside down, and look 00:00:46.990 --> 00:00:49.070 at the actual handwriting on the back. Because 00:00:49.070 --> 00:00:52.030 to really understand Oklahoma, You have to look 00:00:52.030 --> 00:00:55.490 underneath that very specific, heavily manufactured 00:00:55.490 --> 00:00:57.890 mythology. Which brings us to our mission today. 00:00:58.450 --> 00:01:00.750 We are looking at the real foundational story 00:01:00.750 --> 00:01:03.509 of Oklahoma. We've opened up a massive stack 00:01:03.509 --> 00:01:06.049 of historical sources, archaeological records, 00:01:06.409 --> 00:01:09.129 treaty documents, firsthand accounts. And we're 00:01:09.129 --> 00:01:12.010 using them to track the incredibly complex, often 00:01:12.010 --> 00:01:14.890 tragic, but, you know, fiercely resilient experiences 00:01:14.890 --> 00:01:16.810 of the Native American tribes in this region. 00:01:17.069 --> 00:01:19.769 Right. And our main focus, the thread we are 00:01:19.769 --> 00:01:22.989 really going to pull on today, is how the Indian 00:01:22.989 --> 00:01:25.829 Removal Act didn't just like move people from 00:01:25.829 --> 00:01:28.549 point A to point B. It executed one of the most 00:01:28.549 --> 00:01:31.909 radical, calculated, and forced demographic shifts 00:01:31.909 --> 00:01:34.230 in human history. It's an immense topic. I mean, 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:37.670 to truly grasp the scale of that forced migration, 00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:41.109 we cannot start in the 1830s. We really have 00:01:41.109 --> 00:01:43.150 to look at the land before the removal. So set 00:01:43.150 --> 00:01:44.930 the stage for us. Well, we have to understand 00:01:44.930 --> 00:01:47.569 what was already there. What was thriving and 00:01:47.569 --> 00:01:49.989 evolving long before the United States government 00:01:49.989 --> 00:01:52.750 decided to treat the entire region like an empty 00:01:52.750 --> 00:01:54.969 warehouse for human beings. Let's start right 00:01:54.969 --> 00:01:56.890 there, actually, because there's this pervasive 00:01:56.890 --> 00:02:00.390 myth that Oklahoma was just this like empty waiting 00:02:00.390 --> 00:02:02.650 room. Oh, absolutely. The empty land narrative. 00:02:02.930 --> 00:02:05.209 Yeah. I think a lot of people imagine it was 00:02:05.209 --> 00:02:08.110 just a vacant, desolate lot out west, sitting 00:02:08.110 --> 00:02:11.229 there in silence, waiting for displaced eastern 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:14.349 tribes to be moved in. But looking at the archaeological 00:02:14.349 --> 00:02:16.900 records in our sources, that is just Fundamentally 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:19.159 untrue. It's completely false. People have been 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:21.199 living in what is now Oklahoma since at least 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.479 the last ice age. Wait, the last ice age? Yeah. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:26.520 We are talking about deep ancient history that 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:30.139 completely shatters that whole narrative. Archaeologists 00:02:30.139 --> 00:02:32.620 have found paleo Indian sites that force us to 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:36.060 rethink the entire timeline. So what are we looking 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:38.379 at in the sources? Take the Burnham site in Woods 00:02:38.379 --> 00:02:41.020 County, for example. The sources classify this 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:44.099 as a pre Clovis site. Pre Clovis. What does that 00:02:44.099 --> 00:02:47.159 actually mean in terms of? Years in archaeological 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:49.639 terms. It means we are looking at evidence of 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:53.000 human habitation dating back before 11 ,000 years 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.939 ago Hang on 11 ,000 years just to put that in 00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:58.139 perspective for you listening That is millennia 00:02:58.139 --> 00:03:00.319 before the pyramids were built in Egypt, right? 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:02.919 That is an almost unfathomable amount of time 00:03:03.289 --> 00:03:05.289 How do we even know they were there? Like, what 00:03:05.289 --> 00:03:07.430 survived? It really comes down to what they left 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:10.210 behind in the soil. And it gets even more fascinating 00:03:10.210 --> 00:03:12.430 when you look at Harper County, where researchers 00:03:12.430 --> 00:03:16.090 uncovered the Cooper bison skull. A bison skull? 00:03:16.289 --> 00:03:18.990 Not just a fossil, it's the earliest known painted 00:03:18.990 --> 00:03:21.900 object in North America. Wow. Are you serious? 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:24.439 The earliest in all of North America? Yeah. It 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:28.939 dates back between 10 ,200 and 10 ,900 radiocarbon 00:03:28.939 --> 00:03:31.979 years. Someone applied a red zigzag pattern, 00:03:32.379 --> 00:03:34.699 which was likely representing lightning to the 00:03:34.699 --> 00:03:37.680 skull, probably for some kind of hunting ritual. 00:03:37.819 --> 00:03:40.259 That is incredible. So you have... thousands 00:03:40.259 --> 00:03:43.219 of years of human habitation, complex adaptation, 00:03:43.719 --> 00:03:46.039 and artistic culture thriving in this landscape 00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:48.919 long before European contact. Exactly. And it 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:51.139 doesn't stay a landscape of just nomadic hunters 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:53.680 either. As we move forward in the timeline provided 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:56.139 by our sources, the societies become incredibly 00:03:56.139 --> 00:03:58.180 complex. Right. The sources get into the agricultural 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:00.460 societies. We need to talk about the Caduan Mississippian 00:04:00.460 --> 00:04:03.860 culture. Yes. Between 800 and 1450 AD, eastern 00:04:03.860 --> 00:04:06.520 Oklahoma was the western edge of this massive 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:09.120 dynamic cultural and trade network. And they 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:11.699 were building permanent, sophisticated urban 00:04:11.699 --> 00:04:15.659 centers. They absolutely were. The Spiro Mounds, 00:04:15.939 --> 00:04:17.959 located on the Arkansas River, are the premier 00:04:17.959 --> 00:04:20.740 example of this. And when we say mounds, we aren't 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:23.279 talking about small piles of dirt. No, these 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:25.500 are massive architectural achievements, right? 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:28.600 Massive earthworks. There were ceremonial platform 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:31.959 mounds, burial mounds, all meticulously arranged 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:35.079 around these vast open plazas. And those plazas 00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:38.310 were kept intentionally clean for... major public 00:04:38.310 --> 00:04:40.350 and religious events, according to the text. 00:04:40.629 --> 00:04:44.069 Right. This was a highly structured, hierarchical 00:04:44.069 --> 00:04:46.730 society with a dense population. It wasn't just 00:04:46.730 --> 00:04:48.889 a few people camping by the river. The sources 00:04:48.889 --> 00:04:51.649 specifically mention elite tombs, too, like the 00:04:51.649 --> 00:04:55.610 Great Mortuary at Spiro. What exactly did archaeologists 00:04:55.610 --> 00:04:58.449 find in there that points to a hierarchy? They 00:04:58.449 --> 00:05:00.610 found immense wealth and symbols of authority. 00:05:00.870 --> 00:05:03.709 The tombs were literally filled with exotic grave 00:05:03.709 --> 00:05:05.689 offerings. Like what kind of offerings? Well, 00:05:05.850 --> 00:05:07.930 they found copper from the Great Lakes region, 00:05:08.589 --> 00:05:10.750 conch shells all the way from the Gulf of Mexico, 00:05:11.149 --> 00:05:13.389 intricately carved effigy pipes. Oh, wow. So 00:05:13.389 --> 00:05:16.079 they're trading across half the continent. Exactly. 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:19.339 The sheer concentration of these rare goods in 00:05:19.339 --> 00:05:22.319 specific tombs tells us that certain families 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:25.699 or lineages held immense political and religious 00:05:25.699 --> 00:05:28.160 power. They controlled a vast trade network, 00:05:28.300 --> 00:05:30.379 connecting the Mississippian world of the East 00:05:30.379 --> 00:05:32.980 with the traditions of the Great Plains. Spot 00:05:32.980 --> 00:05:36.699 on. It was a major geopolitical hub. That paints 00:05:36.699 --> 00:05:38.899 such a different picture. It wasn't an empty 00:05:38.899 --> 00:05:41.819 waiting room at all. It was a flourishing economic 00:05:41.819 --> 00:05:44.639 hub. And if we look at central and western Oklahoma 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:48.199 during this pre -removal era, you have the Plains 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:50.860 tribes. Right, the Wichita people. Yes, the Wichitas 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:53.839 were living on the terraces above the Washita 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:56.420 and South Canadian rivers. Our sources describe 00:05:56.420 --> 00:05:59.279 them living in these large, rectangular, thatched 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:01.500 houses. And they were farmers, right? Not just 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:03.639 hunters. Both, actually. They were farming corn, 00:06:03.819 --> 00:06:06.199 beans, squash, and tobacco while also going out 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:08.220 and hunting bison. And they were trading all 00:06:08.220 --> 00:06:10.259 the way into what is now Texas and New Mexico. 00:06:10.379 --> 00:06:12.370 So they were deeply established. agricultural 00:06:12.370 --> 00:06:15.269 society. And they shared the broader region with 00:06:15.269 --> 00:06:17.850 others too. You had the Tonkawa people in north 00:06:17.850 --> 00:06:21.689 central Oklahoma and the Plains Apache who migrated 00:06:21.689 --> 00:06:25.189 into the southern plains between 1300 and 1500 00:06:25.189 --> 00:06:28.610 AD. So you've got multiple distinct nations co 00:06:28.610 --> 00:06:32.329 -existing. Right they all coexisted traded and 00:06:32.329 --> 00:06:34.740 you know sometimes fought with the Wichita. Then, 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:37.259 as we move into the 18th century, the demographic 00:06:37.259 --> 00:06:40.439 tapestry undergoes a massive shift, and this 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.160 time it's purely due to technology and migration. 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:45.839 Which is such a fascinating turning point. You're 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:46.959 talking about the introduction of the horse, 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:49.240 right? Yes. The horse completely changes the 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:51.980 game. The Comanche acquire horses and migrate 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:53.939 down into the southern plains from the Great 00:06:53.939 --> 00:06:56.639 Basin. And that completely revolutionizes their 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:59.660 mobility. Their mobility, their hunting efficiency, 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:02.899 and definitely their military power. Around the 00:07:02.899 --> 00:07:05.480 same time, the Kiowa migrate down from the Rocky 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:08.399 Mountains. And then by 1796, the Osage arrive 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:10.779 in northeastern Oklahoma, pushing down from the 00:07:10.779 --> 00:07:13.399 Missouri area. Exactly. The geopolitical map 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:15.579 is constantly shifting, but it is incredibly 00:07:15.579 --> 00:07:17.839 full. I'm trying to visualize this for everyone 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:21.339 listening. Imagine looking at a masterfully painted, 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.720 incredibly dense Renaissance canvas. Oh, that's 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:26.939 a good way to put it. Right. You have overlapping 00:07:26.939 --> 00:07:30.420 trade routes, ancient burial grounds, shifting 00:07:30.420 --> 00:07:33.339 political alliances, huge agricultural hubs. 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.639 And then the United States government walks up. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:39.660 assumes the canvas is completely blank, and just 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:41.879 starts slapping a cheap coat of primer over the 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:43.319 whole thing so they can paint whatever they want. 00:07:43.449 --> 00:07:46.889 That analogy perfectly captures the sheer arrogance 00:07:46.889 --> 00:07:49.110 of the federal policy at the time. Because they 00:07:49.110 --> 00:07:50.810 just completely ignored what was already there? 00:07:51.069 --> 00:07:53.850 Completely. When the United States later designated 00:07:53.850 --> 00:07:57.930 this exact area as Indian territory, they were 00:07:57.930 --> 00:08:01.209 superimposing tens of thousands of displaced 00:08:01.209 --> 00:08:04.610 Eastern Native Americans directly on top of that 00:08:04.610 --> 00:08:07.209 complex Renaissance canvas. Just pretending the 00:08:07.209 --> 00:08:09.670 original painting didn't exist. Right. They ignored 00:08:09.670 --> 00:08:12.290 the established dynamic travel boundaries. They 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:14.699 ignored the centuries -old trade routes. And 00:08:14.699 --> 00:08:16.980 understanding this pre -existing world is so 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:19.839 crucial because it reveals the fundamental flaw 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:23.120 in the U .S. strategy. Exactly. The land wasn't 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:26.319 empty. It was a flourishing, deeply populated 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:29.180 geopolitical ecosystem. Which begs a massive 00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:33.019 question. How do we actually get from this thriving 00:08:33.019 --> 00:08:36.159 hub at the Spiro Mounds to the Indian Removal 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.980 Act? The causal chain is really something. Yeah, 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:42.039 what is the chain of events that turns a populated 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:45.200 sovereign region into a designated holding zone 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:47.240 for a foreign government? The main mechanism 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:49.740 driving everything was land hunger, plain and 00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:53.019 simple. And it was facilitated by incredibly 00:08:53.019 --> 00:08:55.659 cynical legal maneuvering. Walk us through that 00:08:55.659 --> 00:08:57.759 maneuvering. Well, the United States was expanding 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:00.440 its population rapidly, and individual states 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:02.419 desperately wanted the fertile land that Native 00:09:02.419 --> 00:09:04.460 American tribes legally held within their state 00:09:04.460 --> 00:09:06.940 borders. And the first major domino in our sources 00:09:06.940 --> 00:09:09.779 is the 1802 Georgia Compact, right? Yes. The 00:09:09.779 --> 00:09:12.159 1802 Georgia Compact is really the blueprint. 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:14.559 Break that down for us. What was the actual mechanism 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:17.360 of that compact? So in 1802, the state of Georgia 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:20.159 claimed a huge swath of Western territory, essentially 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:22.799 what is now Alabama and Mississippi. OK, a massive 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:25.440 amount of land. Huge. And the federal government 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:28.399 wanted that land for the nation, so they made 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:31.720 a deal. Georgia agreed to give up its claims 00:09:31.720 --> 00:09:33.840 to those Western lands. But there is a catch. 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.179 A huge catch. In exchange, the federal government 00:09:37.179 --> 00:09:39.580 promised to extinguish all Native American land 00:09:39.580 --> 00:09:43.320 titles within the state borders of Georgia. The 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:46.220 exact phrasing was, as soon as it could be done 00:09:46.220 --> 00:09:50.360 peaceably and on reasonable terms. Wow. So Georgia 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:52.860 essentially said, we will give you this massive 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:56.059 Western territory, but your payment to us is 00:09:56.059 --> 00:09:58.460 figuring out a way to legally erase the Native 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:00.779 Americans from our state. That is exactly the 00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:03.000 mechanism. It was a transaction. But the federal 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.240 government immediately faced a logistical problem 00:10:05.240 --> 00:10:07.379 with that, didn't they? They did. Because if 00:10:07.379 --> 00:10:10.139 you legally extinguish their land titles and 00:10:10.139 --> 00:10:12.179 force them out of Georgia, where do you put them? 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:14.000 Right. The U .S. didn't have a designated place 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.440 to send them yet. Not yet. But that problem was 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:19.769 conveniently solved just one year later. in 1803. 00:10:19.889 --> 00:10:23.129 Ah, with the Louisiana Purchase. Yes. Suddenly, 00:10:23.250 --> 00:10:26.509 the U .S. buys this massive expanse of land west 00:10:26.509 --> 00:10:29.429 of the Mississippi River from France. And almost 00:10:29.429 --> 00:10:32.190 immediately, politicians looked at that newly 00:10:32.190 --> 00:10:36.029 acquired, largely unmapped western land and saw 00:10:36.029 --> 00:10:38.230 the solution to the promise they made to Georgia. 00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:41.230 Exactly. The western lands of the Louisiana Purchase 00:10:41.230 --> 00:10:43.350 became the conceptual dumping ground for the 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:45.769 government's removal policies. I want to highlight 00:10:45.769 --> 00:10:48.129 a really telling detail from the sources here. 00:10:48.110 --> 00:10:51.970 about how haphazardly the government was drawing 00:10:51.970 --> 00:10:54.269 lines on maps they frankly didn't understand. 00:10:54.490 --> 00:10:56.669 Oh, this is a perfect example of the hubris of 00:10:56.669 --> 00:10:59.289 the era. Right. Long before he was president, 00:10:59.710 --> 00:11:01.769 Andrew Jackson was involved in defining these 00:11:01.769 --> 00:11:05.129 new Western borders, and he made a rather monumental 00:11:05.129 --> 00:11:07.870 geographic mistake. The Andrew Jackson border 00:11:07.870 --> 00:11:10.029 anomaly? Tell us about this, because it's wild. 00:11:10.429 --> 00:11:13.330 So in 1820, Jackson was representing the U .S. 00:11:13.350 --> 00:11:15.870 government in negotiations with the Choctaw Nation. 00:11:16.350 --> 00:11:18.769 This resulted in the Treaty of Dokes stand. And 00:11:18.769 --> 00:11:21.070 the goal there was a land swap, basically. Right. 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:23.649 The goal was to give the Choctaw a piece of the 00:11:23.649 --> 00:11:26.289 new western territory in exchange for their eastern 00:11:26.289 --> 00:11:29.690 lands. So Jackson drew the boundaries on a map, 00:11:29.710 --> 00:11:32.370 but he literally did not know the geography well 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:35.929 enough. He inadvertently ceded a massive portion 00:11:35.929 --> 00:11:37.990 of the Arkansas territory to the Choctaw. And 00:11:37.990 --> 00:11:40.789 why was that a problem? Because that specific 00:11:40.789 --> 00:11:43.509 land was already being heavily settled by white 00:11:43.509 --> 00:11:45.870 American citizens. Oh, my God. He accidentally 00:11:45.870 --> 00:11:48.830 gave away land to the Choctaw that his own citizens 00:11:48.830 --> 00:11:50.450 were already living on just because he didn't 00:11:50.450 --> 00:11:52.870 know how to read the terrain. Exactly. Which 00:11:52.870 --> 00:11:55.309 naturally caused a massive uproar among the white 00:11:55.309 --> 00:11:57.509 settlers in Arkansas. I can imagine. So what 00:11:57.509 --> 00:12:00.850 did the government do? Well, in 1824, they had 00:12:00.850 --> 00:12:03.370 to go back to the Choctaw, admit the mistake, 00:12:03.789 --> 00:12:07.340 and renegotiate. Awkward. Very. The Choctaw actually 00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:09.700 agreed to shift their eastern boundary further 00:12:09.700 --> 00:12:12.700 west, but they made a very specific, almost petty 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:15.059 stipulation to ensure there was no more confusion. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.200 I love this part. What was the stipulation? They 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:20.480 demanded the new border start precisely 100 paces 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:23.120 from the military garrison at Fort Smith. That 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:25.419 is incredible. A literal walking measurement. 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:28.019 Yes. So if you look at a map of the United States 00:12:28.019 --> 00:12:31.080 today and you see that distinct, weird little 00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:33.620 bend in the modern border between Arkansas and 00:12:33.620 --> 00:12:36.639 Oklahoma. That exists purely because Andrew Jackson 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:39.679 didn't know his geography. Yep. And the Choctaw 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.480 demanded a walking measurement of 100 paces to 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:45.840 set the boundary in stone. It's a permanent cartographic 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.740 scar of a bureaucratic blunder. That's fascinating. 00:12:49.179 --> 00:12:51.019 But that blunder was just the preamble, right? 00:12:51.379 --> 00:12:53.980 Unfortunately, yes. Jackson's attitudes toward 00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:56.740 Native Americans didn't soften. They hardened 00:12:56.740 --> 00:12:59.139 significantly. So when he becomes president of 00:12:59.139 --> 00:13:01.899 the United States, that early land swapping strategy 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:05.740 evolves into sweeping federal law. In 1830, he 00:13:05.740 --> 00:13:08.120 signs the Indian Removal Act. And this is the 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:10.639 pivot point. We need to be very clear. about 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:13.620 what this act actually did, because the government's 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:15.659 public -facing stance at the time was that this 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:17.779 was a choice, right? They definitely framed it 00:13:17.779 --> 00:13:20.519 as a voluntary exchange of lands. But the sources 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:23.179 show that the mechanics of this law created an 00:13:23.179 --> 00:13:25.779 absolutely impossible ultimatum. The ultimatum 00:13:25.779 --> 00:13:28.000 was engineered to guarantee removal? It wasn't 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.519 a real choice. What were the actual options presented 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:32.870 to the tribes? The federal government said to 00:13:32.870 --> 00:13:35.429 the tribes east of the Mississippi, you can sign 00:13:35.429 --> 00:13:38.330 a treaty, give up your ancestral homelands, and 00:13:38.330 --> 00:13:41.350 move west to this newly defined Indian territory. 00:13:41.610 --> 00:13:44.299 OK, that's option A. Or if you choose to stay, 00:13:44.460 --> 00:13:46.899 you must completely dissolve your tribal governments, 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:49.480 give up your sovereignty, and become individual 00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:51.639 citizens of the states you currently live in. 00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:55.100 Which sounds, to a modern ear, almost reasonable 00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:58.279 until you understand what state law meant for 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:01.799 a Native American in 1830. Exactly. State laws 00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:04.980 in places like Georgia were aggressively, intentionally 00:14:04.980 --> 00:14:07.480 hostile. In what ways? Well, if they stayed and 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:10.240 became state citizens, they were subject to laws 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:13.000 that forbade them from testifying in court against 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:15.460 a white person. Oh, wow. They were forbidden 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:17.580 from owning certain property and essentially 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:20.120 stripped of all civil rights. So anyone could 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:21.840 just come and steal their land and they couldn't 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:23.860 even testify about it in court. Precisely. It 00:14:23.860 --> 00:14:26.580 was a choice between exile or total subjugation. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:29.580 This brings up what I find to be the most bitter, 00:14:29.980 --> 00:14:32.820 tragic irony in this entire history. Let's talk 00:14:32.820 --> 00:14:36.440 about the five civilized tribes. Right. The Choctaw, 00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:40.580 Seminole, Creek, Cherokee, and Chickasaw. Why 00:14:40.580 --> 00:14:42.759 exactly did white Americans call them that? They 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:46.700 received that moniker because for decades, these 00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:49.500 specific nations had strategically adopted many 00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:52.200 aspects of European American culture. As a survival 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:54.740 mechanism, right? Exactly. They believed that 00:14:54.740 --> 00:14:56.940 if they assimilated, the United States would 00:14:56.940 --> 00:14:59.320 respect their sovereignty and let them keep their 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:01.659 land. What did that assimilation look like in 00:15:01.659 --> 00:15:04.700 practice? They developed highly advanced agriculture. 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:08.019 They established centralized constitutional governments 00:15:08.019 --> 00:15:10.820 modeled after the U .S. They built schools. The 00:15:10.820 --> 00:15:12.940 Cherokee famously developed their own written 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:15.820 syllabary, right? Yes, thanks to Sequoia. And 00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:18.519 they even published their own bilingual newspaper. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:21.980 That's incredible adaptation. It was. And tragically, 00:15:22.200 --> 00:15:24.519 some wealthy members of these tribes even owned 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:27.820 large cotton plantations and participated in 00:15:27.820 --> 00:15:30.700 the enslavement of black people, completely mirroring 00:15:30.700 --> 00:15:32.840 the southern white economy. So they looked at 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:34.600 the rules the U .S. government laid out for what 00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:37.639 constitutes a civilized society, and they played 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:40.639 the game perfectly. They mastered the game. But 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:44.019 the historical insight here is crucial. Their 00:15:44.019 --> 00:15:47.080 assimilation offered absolutely zero protection. 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.659 Not at all. In fact, it backfired spectacularly. 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.600 How so? By developing their land, building roads, 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.559 and proving how incredibly fertile and profitable 00:15:56.559 --> 00:15:59.639 their territory was, they made their land infinitely 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:03.120 more desirable to white settlers and cotton speculators. 00:16:03.379 --> 00:16:06.120 That is a stunning realization. The narrative 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:09.549 was always civilized and can stay. But the reality 00:16:09.549 --> 00:16:12.409 was, assimilation was actually the trigger for 00:16:12.409 --> 00:16:14.509 their removal. Because the white settlers didn't 00:16:14.509 --> 00:16:16.950 want empty wilderness. They wanted the highly 00:16:16.950 --> 00:16:19.429 developed, profitable infrastructure the Native 00:16:19.429 --> 00:16:21.409 Americans had already built. You've hit the core 00:16:21.409 --> 00:16:24.549 of the issue. When white expansion demanded their 00:16:24.549 --> 00:16:26.570 property, the federal government abandoned the 00:16:26.570 --> 00:16:28.629 assimilation rhetoric entirely. They just threw 00:16:28.629 --> 00:16:31.669 it out the window. Exactly. As our sources explicitly 00:16:31.669 --> 00:16:34.990 state, Oklahoma was chosen as the destination 00:16:34.990 --> 00:16:38.090 simply because it was at the time the only available 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:40.179 location where the Indians would not be in the 00:16:40.179 --> 00:16:42.659 way of white expansion. The goal was simply to 00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:44.600 push them past the edge of the map. Out of sight, 00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:47.620 out of mind. Let's get into how this actual displacement 00:16:47.620 --> 00:16:50.100 happened. Because I think if you ask the average 00:16:50.100 --> 00:16:52.399 person on the street about the Trail of Tears, 00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:56.480 they picture one single monolithic event. One 00:16:56.480 --> 00:16:59.100 long line of people marching in the snow. Exactly. 00:16:59.700 --> 00:17:02.559 But the sources make it very clear that the removal 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:06.039 of the five civilized tribes was a multi -faceted, 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:09.339 prolonged, and chaotic campaign. Each nation 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:11.519 experienced it differently. Yeah, framing it 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:14.079 as a single event diminishes the sheer scale 00:17:14.079 --> 00:17:16.440 of the logistical nightmare the government engineered. 00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:18.680 Let's look at the mechanics, starting with the 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:20.440 Choctaw. They were the first to face removal, 00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:22.980 right? Yes, after signing the Treaty of Dancing 00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:25.859 Rabbit Creek in 1830. Their removal began in 00:17:25.859 --> 00:17:28.819 the winter of 1831, and it was defined by catastrophic 00:17:28.819 --> 00:17:31.339 federal incompetence and corruption. What happened? 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:33.779 The government contractors hired to provide food, 00:17:34.059 --> 00:17:36.500 blankets, and transportation frequently pocketed 00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:38.779 the money instead. Oh my god. So people are marching 00:17:38.779 --> 00:17:41.400 into freezing winter storms without the supplies 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:43.720 the government legally promised them. Precisely. 00:17:43.930 --> 00:17:46.410 The freezing weather, combined with starvation 00:17:46.410 --> 00:17:49.170 and outbreaks of cholera, devastated the population. 00:17:49.230 --> 00:17:52.410 That is horrific. It was so brutal that a Choctaw 00:17:52.410 --> 00:17:55.130 leader, being interviewed by an Arkansas newspaper 00:17:55.130 --> 00:17:58.890 at the time, described the journey as a trail 00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:02.529 of tears and death. Oh wait. That is the actual 00:18:02.529 --> 00:18:05.210 historical origin of the phrase. It is. Even 00:18:05.210 --> 00:18:07.710 though popular culture most heavily associates 00:18:07.710 --> 00:18:10.509 it with the Cherokee today, it originated with 00:18:10.509 --> 00:18:13.109 the Choctaw experience. Wow. And then you have 00:18:13.109 --> 00:18:15.630 the Creek Nation, who looked at the Choctaw experience 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:18.250 and essentially said, we are not doing that. 00:18:18.390 --> 00:18:21.309 Right. They entirely refused to relocate. The 00:18:21.309 --> 00:18:23.269 Creek tried to use the legal framework to save 00:18:23.269 --> 00:18:26.430 themselves. How did they do that? In 1832, they 00:18:26.430 --> 00:18:29.130 signed a treaty agreeing to open up a large portion 00:18:29.130 --> 00:18:31.089 of their land in the east to white settlers. 00:18:32.009 --> 00:18:34.349 But the crucial caveat was that the U .S. government 00:18:34.349 --> 00:18:36.569 legally promised to protect their remaining lands 00:18:36.569 --> 00:18:39.130 from encroachment. I feel like I can guess how 00:18:39.130 --> 00:18:41.329 well the government kept that promise. They completely 00:18:41.329 --> 00:18:43.230 abandoned it. Almost the moment the ink dried, 00:18:44.009 --> 00:18:46.490 massive waves of white squatters overran the 00:18:46.490 --> 00:18:48.750 remaining Creek lands. And the government just 00:18:48.750 --> 00:18:51.170 let it happen. They did absolutely nothing to 00:18:51.170 --> 00:18:53.819 intervene. Squatters were stealing property and 00:18:53.819 --> 00:18:56.420 violently harassing the population. So the treaty 00:18:56.420 --> 00:18:59.500 was useless. Completely. Eventually, starving 00:18:59.500 --> 00:19:02.599 and desperate, some Creek factions retaliated 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:04.519 against the squatters. Which is exactly what 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:07.160 the government wanted. Yes. The U .S. government 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:10.259 used that retaliation as the excuse they needed. 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:14.740 In 1837, the U .S. military moved in and forcibly 00:19:14.740 --> 00:19:17.660 evicted the Creek. There was no final removal 00:19:17.660 --> 00:19:21.019 treaty. It was a military deportation. Which 00:19:21.019 --> 00:19:23.740 brings us to the Chickasaw. The way they handle 00:19:23.740 --> 00:19:26.380 this is fascinating, purely from a pragmatic 00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:28.900 standpoint. Their approach was highly calculated. 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:31.319 Right, because they are watching the Choctaw 00:19:31.319 --> 00:19:33.559 freeze to death, they're watching the Cree get 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:36.099 militarily crushed, and they realize the federal 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:38.839 government's promises of protection are completely 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:41.839 worthless. Exactly. The Chickasaw leadership 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:44.500 recognized the existential threat and took a 00:19:44.500 --> 00:19:46.619 different route. They signed a removal treaty 00:19:46.619 --> 00:19:49.480 in 1832, but rather than rely on corrupt federal 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:51.720 contractors. They did it themselves. Yes, the 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:54.160 Chickasaw essentially managed and funded their 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:56.279 own removal. How do you even do that? They sold 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:58.700 their eastern lands and used the capital to buy 00:19:58.700 --> 00:20:01.259 their own supplies, their own wagons, and they 00:20:01.259 --> 00:20:03.720 even negotiated to purchase a specific section 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:06.700 of land in Indian territory from the Choctaw. 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.019 So they essentially... bought their way out of 00:20:10.019 --> 00:20:12.039 the worst of the suffering. They moved early 00:20:12.039 --> 00:20:14.720 to avoid the absolute destitution that decimated 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:16.880 the other tribes. It's like having to pay out 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:19.920 of your own pocket to fund your own unjust deportation 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:22.220 just to ensure your family doesn't starve on 00:20:22.220 --> 00:20:25.140 the way. It's a tragic pragmatism. But then you 00:20:25.140 --> 00:20:27.420 look down at Florida and the Seminole Nation 00:20:27.420 --> 00:20:30.240 takes the exact opposite approach that the Chickasaw. 00:20:30.299 --> 00:20:32.640 They decide to fight. The Seminole resistance 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:35.079 is one of the most intense guerrilla conflicts 00:20:35.079 --> 00:20:37.680 in American history. What sparked the actual 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:39.960 fighting? The U .S. government managed to get 00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:42.880 a small, completely unrepresentative group of 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:46.079 Seminoles to sign a relocation treaty in 1833. 00:20:46.599 --> 00:20:48.279 But the rest of the nation didn't agree to it. 00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:51.619 Right. The vast majority of the Seminole population, 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:54.220 along with the Black Seminoles, formerly enslaved 00:20:54.220 --> 00:20:56.359 people who had escaped and integrated into the 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:59.940 tribe, rejected the treaty as entirely illegitimate. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:02.619 And when the U .S. military tried to enforce 00:21:02.619 --> 00:21:05.099 it, it sparked the Second and Third Seminole 00:21:05.099 --> 00:21:07.279 Wars. And the government wasn't fighting on open 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:09.490 plains either. They were fighting in the Florida 00:21:09.490 --> 00:21:12.390 swamps. The Seminoles used the geography to their 00:21:12.390 --> 00:21:16.069 absolute advantage. They waged a bloody, incredibly 00:21:16.069 --> 00:21:19.069 expensive guerrilla war that lasted for years. 00:21:19.190 --> 00:21:21.349 It had to be a nightmare for the US military. 00:21:21.470 --> 00:21:24.190 It was. They ambushed supply lines, disappeared 00:21:24.190 --> 00:21:26.750 into the Everglades, and completely frustrated 00:21:26.750 --> 00:21:30.309 the US forces. The conflict cost the US government 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:32.859 millions of dollars and thousands of lives. Do 00:21:32.859 --> 00:21:35.900 the U .S. ever actually win? Not a total victory, 00:21:36.140 --> 00:21:38.559 no. The military eventually realized they could 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:41.420 not root them all out. So for the Seminoles who 00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:44.359 survived the wars, the U .S. government literally 00:21:44.359 --> 00:21:46.480 resorted to paying them cash bounties to board 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:48.740 the ships and move west. They had to bribe them 00:21:48.740 --> 00:21:51.960 to leave. That is wild. It really is. Finally, 00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:54.740 we have to talk about the Cherokee. Their story 00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:57.240 might be the most famous, but the details in 00:21:57.240 --> 00:21:59.440 these sources are still shocking. The Cherokee 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:01.980 removal is a profound tragedy of broken faith. 00:22:02.380 --> 00:22:06.000 Right, because in 1835, a minority faction of 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:08.839 the Cherokee signs the Treaty of New Okota, which 00:22:08.839 --> 00:22:11.619 gives the tribe two years to voluntarily move 00:22:11.619 --> 00:22:16.380 west. But when that deadline hits in 1838, there 00:22:16.380 --> 00:22:19.859 are still 16 ,000 Cherokee living on their land. 00:22:20.009 --> 00:22:22.970 Why didn't they leave? Because they deeply believed 00:22:22.970 --> 00:22:25.569 in the American legal system. Wait, really? That's 00:22:25.569 --> 00:22:28.410 for everything. Yes. The principal chief, John 00:22:28.410 --> 00:22:30.589 Ross, and the vast majority of the Cherokee people 00:22:30.589 --> 00:22:33.809 had formally protested the treaty. They had gathered 00:22:33.809 --> 00:22:36.869 tens of thousands of signatures proving the treaty 00:22:36.869 --> 00:22:38.769 was fraudulent. So they took it to the government? 00:22:39.150 --> 00:22:41.390 They believed that the U .S. Congress or the 00:22:41.390 --> 00:22:43.170 Supreme Court would look at the rule of law, 00:22:43.569 --> 00:22:45.769 see the fraud, and protect their property rights. 00:22:45.890 --> 00:22:47.250 They thought the system would work the way it 00:22:47.250 --> 00:22:49.589 was written on paper. But the system was rigged. 00:22:49.869 --> 00:22:52.250 President Martin Van Buren ignored the petitions 00:22:52.250 --> 00:22:54.650 entirely. And he sent the military instead. He 00:22:54.650 --> 00:22:57.990 sent 7 ,000 federal soldiers commanded by General 00:22:57.990 --> 00:23:00.690 Winfield Scamp to force them out. The military 00:23:00.690 --> 00:23:02.950 moved rapidly, pulling families out of their 00:23:02.950 --> 00:23:05.170 homes at Bayonet Point. With no time to pack. 00:23:05.339 --> 00:23:08.259 Almost no time to gather food or winter clothing, 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:10.799 they were forced into internment camps before 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:12.940 being marched westward in what became the most 00:23:12.940 --> 00:23:15.200 infamous Trail of Tears. And because of that 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:18.740 rushed eviction, roughly 4 ,000 Cherokees, a 00:23:18.740 --> 00:23:21.440 quarter of their entire population, died on that 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:23.980 march from exposure, disease, and starvation. 00:23:24.950 --> 00:23:27.130 staggering. And we have to make it clear for 00:23:27.130 --> 00:23:29.569 you listening. The removal policy didn't just 00:23:29.569 --> 00:23:32.809 stop at those five tribes. The sources list dozens 00:23:32.809 --> 00:23:35.309 of others over the following decade. Well, absolutely. 00:23:35.710 --> 00:23:38.230 The Shawnee, the Delaware, the Kickapoo, the 00:23:38.230 --> 00:23:40.950 Miami, the Modoc, the Ponca. The government just 00:23:40.950 --> 00:23:43.609 kept sweeping populations westward. If we step 00:23:43.609 --> 00:23:46.059 back and look at the aggregate effect. The U 00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:48.180 .S. government was fundamentally re -engineering 00:23:48.180 --> 00:23:50.400 the demographics of an entire continent. They 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:52.779 were playing a massive lethal game of chess with 00:23:52.779 --> 00:23:55.039 human lives. They took historically unrelated 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:57.579 tribes, some of whom were ancient enemies, some 00:23:57.579 --> 00:23:59.380 who spoke completely different language families. 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.279 Some from the deep agricultural southeast, others 00:24:02.279 --> 00:24:04.859 from the Great Lakes region. Right. And they 00:24:04.859 --> 00:24:07.420 forcefully packed them all into a single arbitrary 00:24:07.420 --> 00:24:10.970 geographic box called Indian Territory. Which 00:24:10.970 --> 00:24:13.670 brings us back to the Osage, the Wichita, and 00:24:13.670 --> 00:24:15.930 the Comanche, the people who are already living 00:24:15.930 --> 00:24:18.609 in that box. Right. How do you suddenly drop 00:24:18.609 --> 00:24:21.470 tens of thousands of desperate displaced Eastern 00:24:21.470 --> 00:24:24.470 Native Americans into a territory that is already 00:24:24.470 --> 00:24:26.690 claimed and populated? You can't do it peacefully. 00:24:26.750 --> 00:24:29.529 It created immediate desperate conflict over 00:24:29.529 --> 00:24:32.009 resources. Because everyone needs to survive. 00:24:32.269 --> 00:24:35.990 Exactly. The Eastern tribes arrived traumatized, 00:24:35.990 --> 00:24:38.690 but they needed hunting grounds and land to establish 00:24:38.690 --> 00:24:41.920 agriculture. As they pushed westward into Indian 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:44.720 territory, they encroached directly on lands 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:47.500 claimed by the Osage and the Plains tribes. Do 00:24:47.500 --> 00:24:49.779 the sources give a specific example of this clash? 00:24:49.980 --> 00:24:54.019 They do. As early as 1828, the relocation of 00:24:54.019 --> 00:24:56.160 the Cherokee old settlers from Arkansas into 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:59.099 Indian territory led directly to a bloody war 00:24:59.099 --> 00:25:01.579 between the Osage nation and those newly arrived 00:25:01.579 --> 00:25:03.920 Cherokees. So the federal policy didn't just 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:06.990 displace people, it manufactured a war. It violently 00:25:06.990 --> 00:25:09.150 pitted indigenous nations against one another 00:25:09.150 --> 00:25:12.349 over rapidly shrinking resources. It is just 00:25:12.349 --> 00:25:16.289 compounding trauma upon compounding trauma. But 00:25:16.289 --> 00:25:19.670 incredibly, despite the wars, the disease and 00:25:19.670 --> 00:25:22.750 the displacement, these nations do what they 00:25:22.750 --> 00:25:25.109 have always done. They adapt. They adapt and 00:25:25.109 --> 00:25:27.549 they begin to rebuild. They establish new capitals 00:25:27.549 --> 00:25:29.789 in Oklahoma, new constitutional governments, 00:25:29.910 --> 00:25:32.450 new farms, new schools. But just as they start 00:25:32.450 --> 00:25:36.019 to stabilize. A massive national conflict. tears 00:25:36.019 --> 00:25:38.779 the entire region apart again, the American Civil 00:25:38.779 --> 00:25:41.839 War. The Civil War in Indian Territory is a chapter 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:44.420 that is almost entirely omitted from standard 00:25:44.420 --> 00:25:46.859 American history classes. It really is, yet it 00:25:46.859 --> 00:25:48.900 was absolutely devastating. To understand it, 00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:50.880 we really have to look at the demographics of 00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:53.460 Indian Territory by 1860. OK, lay it out for 00:25:53.460 --> 00:25:56.619 us. You had about 55 ,000 Native Americans, roughly 00:25:56.619 --> 00:26:00.559 3 ,000 white residents, and critically 8 ,400 00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.420 enslaved black people owned by members of the 00:26:03.420 --> 00:26:05.660 native tribes. I want to pause there because 00:26:05.660 --> 00:26:07.880 I think for a lot of people listening, the idea 00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:10.200 of Native Americans owning enslaved black people 00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:13.079 is a jarring historical fact. It is, but it ties 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:15.160 directly back to that concept of assimilation 00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:18.599 we discussed earlier. Right. When the five civilized 00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:20.880 tribes were trying to assimilate in the American 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:24.259 South before removal, they adopted the Southern 00:26:24.259 --> 00:26:26.809 white economic model. which was built on the 00:26:26.809 --> 00:26:29.730 institution of chattel slavery. Wealthy tribal 00:26:29.730 --> 00:26:31.950 members established plantations, and when they 00:26:31.950 --> 00:26:34.529 were forced onto the trails of tears, they brought 00:26:34.529 --> 00:26:37.150 that institution and those enslaved people with 00:26:37.150 --> 00:26:40.250 them to Indian territory. So the territory is 00:26:40.250 --> 00:26:42.450 economically and politically tied to the South. 00:26:43.109 --> 00:26:47.089 Then in 1861, the Civil War breaks out. And Indian 00:26:47.089 --> 00:26:49.289 territory is geographically wedged right between 00:26:49.289 --> 00:26:51.470 the Union forces in Kansas and the Confederate 00:26:51.470 --> 00:26:54.390 forces in Texas. But here is the critical turning 00:26:54.390 --> 00:26:57.200 point. What does the United States government 00:26:57.200 --> 00:26:59.700 actually do? They simply pack up and leave. They 00:26:59.700 --> 00:27:02.240 just abandon them. Completely. Union forces, 00:27:02.359 --> 00:27:05.200 led by LT Colonel William H. Emory, literally 00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:07.740 abandoned their major military outposts in the 00:27:07.740 --> 00:27:10.299 territory, Fort Washita, Fort Arbuckle, and Fort 00:27:10.299 --> 00:27:12.519 Cobb. And retreated north. They retreated north 00:27:12.519 --> 00:27:15.460 to Kansas, leaving the tribal nations completely 00:27:15.460 --> 00:27:18.380 defenseless against the encroaching, highly motivated 00:27:18.380 --> 00:27:21.200 Texas Confederate forces. Let's put this in perspective. 00:27:21.740 --> 00:27:24.299 Imagine you live in an apartment complex and 00:27:24.299 --> 00:27:27.400 your landlord has spent the last 30 years harassing 00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:30.579 you, breaking into your unit, and brutally forcing 00:27:30.579 --> 00:27:33.359 you into a smaller and smaller room. Okay, tracking. 00:27:33.700 --> 00:27:36.819 Then the building catches on fire. The landlord 00:27:36.819 --> 00:27:39.299 locks the door from the outside and run the way, 00:27:39.539 --> 00:27:42.880 leaving you trapped with the fire. That is essentially 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:45.339 what the union did to these tribes. That is a 00:27:45.339 --> 00:27:48.559 phenomenal analogy. It was viewed as a profound 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:51.029 betrayal. I mean, how could it not be? From the 00:27:51.029 --> 00:27:53.430 perspective of many Native leaders, the U .S. 00:27:53.670 --> 00:27:56.180 government had systematically broken every single 00:27:56.180 --> 00:27:58.740 treaty they had ever signed, violently evicted 00:27:58.740 --> 00:28:01.160 them, and now they were abandoning them to a 00:28:01.160 --> 00:28:04.420 hostile Confederate military force. Why on earth 00:28:04.420 --> 00:28:06.680 would they maintain loyalty to the Union? Exactly. 00:28:06.900 --> 00:28:10.960 And into this massive power vacuum steps Albert 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:13.059 Pike. Who is Albert Pike? He was a Confederate 00:28:13.059 --> 00:28:15.200 commissioner sent specifically to negotiate with 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:17.779 the tribes, and he understood exactly what they 00:28:17.779 --> 00:28:19.960 needed. What did he offer them? He offered them 00:28:19.960 --> 00:28:22.420 everything the Union wouldn't. He offered formal 00:28:22.420 --> 00:28:25.299 treaties of alliance, guaranteed military protection 00:28:25.299 --> 00:28:28.000 from the South, assuming of their annuity payments 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:30.920 that the Union had cut off. Wow, so actual financial 00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:34.880 support too? Yes. And he even promised them representation 00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:37.220 in the Confederate Congress in Richmond. Did 00:28:37.220 --> 00:28:39.680 the tribes uniformly accept this? I imagine there 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:42.240 had to be severe internal debate. They were not 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.720 a monolith by any means. Principal Chief John 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:47.190 Ross of the Cherokee fought— desperately to maintain 00:28:47.190 --> 00:28:49.630 neutrality. Because he knew getting involved 00:28:49.630 --> 00:28:51.809 in a white man's war would just lead to destruction. 00:28:52.130 --> 00:28:55.470 Exactly. But his position was impossible. He 00:28:55.470 --> 00:28:58.190 had no union support. He was surrounded by Confederate 00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:01.490 forces. And a powerful pro -Confederate faction 00:29:01.490 --> 00:29:04.250 within his own tribe was ready to ally with the 00:29:04.250 --> 00:29:06.410 South. Who was leading that faction. A man named 00:29:06.410 --> 00:29:09.569 Stan Waity. Eventually, recognizing the geopolitical 00:29:09.569 --> 00:29:12.430 reality, Pike managed to sign treaties with all 00:29:12.430 --> 00:29:15.460 the major tribes. But this didn't unite the territory, 00:29:15.579 --> 00:29:17.980 did it? Not at all. It fractured it completely. 00:29:18.180 --> 00:29:20.859 The sources describe it as a civil war inside 00:29:20.859 --> 00:29:24.440 a civil war. That is exactly what it was. Minority 00:29:24.440 --> 00:29:26.960 factions within the tribes who remain fiercely 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:29.680 loyal to the Union or simply hated the Confederate 00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:32.779 factions completely oppose the alliances. Which 00:29:32.779 --> 00:29:37.039 leads to local fighting. Brutal, localized, neighbor 00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:40.000 against neighbor fighting. And when Union troops 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:42.799 and loyalist Native Americans eventually reorganized 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:45.460 and invaded Indian territory to take it back. 00:29:45.579 --> 00:29:47.700 Which led to a strategic Union victory at the 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:50.279 Battle of Honey Springs in 1863, right? Yes, 00:29:50.279 --> 00:29:54.130 and that caused a massive refugee crisis. Thousands 00:29:54.130 --> 00:29:56.450 of pro -Confederate Native Americans had to flee 00:29:56.450 --> 00:29:59.450 south, becoming starving refugees in the Choctaw 00:29:59.450 --> 00:30:01.970 and Chickasaw nations. While loyalist refugees 00:30:01.970 --> 00:30:04.849 froze in Kansas, it was a humanitarian disaster 00:30:04.849 --> 00:30:06.890 on all sides, and the fighting was relentless. 00:30:07.109 --> 00:30:09.069 The dedication of some of these Native Confederate 00:30:09.069 --> 00:30:12.140 units was intense. The sources point out a truly 00:30:12.140 --> 00:30:14.539 wild fact about Stan Waddy. Oh, this is one of 00:30:14.539 --> 00:30:16.740 those incredible historical footnotes. Right. 00:30:17.079 --> 00:30:18.559 Confederate Brigadier General Stan Waddy, who 00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:20.440 was the Cherokee leader who opposed John Ross, 00:30:20.980 --> 00:30:23.599 was literally the absolute last Confederate general 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:26.680 to surrender. He surrendered in June of 1865. 00:30:27.069 --> 00:30:29.890 That is months after Robert E. Lee surrendered 00:30:29.890 --> 00:30:33.089 at Appomattox. Wadey waged a highly effective, 00:30:33.230 --> 00:30:36.630 deeply disruptive guerrilla insurgency. He captured 00:30:36.630 --> 00:30:39.289 union supply trains and kept the entire territory 00:30:39.289 --> 00:30:41.930 destabilized. Why did he keep fighting for so 00:30:41.930 --> 00:30:43.809 long? He wasn't just fighting for the Confederacy 00:30:43.809 --> 00:30:46.170 at that point. He was fighting for what he believed 00:30:46.170 --> 00:30:49.250 was the survival of his specific faction of the 00:30:49.250 --> 00:30:51.450 Cherokee Nation. But when the war finally ended, 00:30:52.049 --> 00:30:55.250 the political fallout was catastrophic, wasn't 00:30:55.250 --> 00:30:57.819 it? Immensely catastrophic. The fact that these 00:30:57.819 --> 00:31:00.140 tribes had allied with the Confederacy, even 00:31:00.140 --> 00:31:03.259 out of sheer survival necessity and union abandonment, 00:31:03.519 --> 00:31:05.480 gave the U .S. government the ultimate leverage 00:31:05.480 --> 00:31:07.880 they had been waiting for. Which brings us to 00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:11.000 the next phase of this demographic shift, the 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:13.680 systematic erasure of Indian territory. Yes. 00:31:14.009 --> 00:31:16.430 This is a pivotal moment in the sources. Because 00:31:16.430 --> 00:31:18.430 when the war ends, the U .S. government doesn't 00:31:18.430 --> 00:31:21.109 sit down and look at the nuanced context of why 00:31:21.109 --> 00:31:23.549 the tribes allied with the South. No, they don't 00:31:23.549 --> 00:31:26.049 apologize for abandoning the forts. They just 00:31:26.049 --> 00:31:28.609 use the Confederate alliance as a weapon to punish 00:31:28.609 --> 00:31:32.009 the tribes and take more land. We see the federal 00:31:32.009 --> 00:31:35.170 strategy transition here from physical removal 00:31:35.170 --> 00:31:39.759 to legal and bureaucratic erasure. In 1866, the 00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:41.759 federal government forced the tribes to sign 00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:43.900 the Reconstruction Treaties. And the terms were 00:31:43.900 --> 00:31:46.759 draconian. Right. Extremely. The government essentially 00:31:46.759 --> 00:31:49.599 said, because you rebelled, your previous treaties 00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:53.059 are void. They forced the tribes to cede the 00:31:53.059 --> 00:31:55.339 entire central and western portions of Indian 00:31:55.339 --> 00:31:57.799 territory back to the federal government. So 00:31:57.799 --> 00:32:00.319 they sliced the pie again. taking the entire 00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:03.519 middle section. Yes, and this huge, incredibly 00:32:03.519 --> 00:32:06.359 fertile swath of land in the middle of the territory 00:32:06.359 --> 00:32:10.160 became known as the unassigned lands. These treaties 00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:12.720 did more than just take land, right? Sources 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:15.539 mention railroads. Much more. They mandated that 00:32:15.539 --> 00:32:17.779 railroads be allowed to cross Indian lands, which 00:32:17.779 --> 00:32:19.940 was the Trojan horse for massive white settlement, 00:32:20.259 --> 00:32:22.339 commerce, and timber extraction. It just opens 00:32:22.339 --> 00:32:25.319 the floodgates. Exactly. The treaties also legally 00:32:25.319 --> 00:32:27.680 outlawed slavery within the tribes and required 00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:30.059 them to adopt the freedmen, the formerly enslaved 00:32:30.059 --> 00:32:33.200 black people, into the tribes as citizens. Which 00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:36.859 created incredibly complex ongoing issues of 00:32:36.859 --> 00:32:40.079 integration and sovereignty that still resonate 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:42.880 in tribal politics today. It's a hugely complicated 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.420 legacy. But I want to focus on those unassigned 00:32:45.420 --> 00:32:48.299 lands in the center. Because that creates the 00:32:48.299 --> 00:32:50.000 catalyst for the image we talked about at the 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:52.279 very beginning of this deep dive. Ah, the Boomers. 00:32:52.460 --> 00:32:56.839 Yes. In the 1870s and 80s, you have this relentless 00:32:56.839 --> 00:32:59.640 pressure from organized groups of white settlers 00:32:59.640 --> 00:33:02.799 known as the Boomers. The Boomers were highly 00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:06.059 organized agitators. They looked at the unassigned 00:33:06.059 --> 00:33:08.480 lands and demanded that the federal government 00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:10.640 open them up for white homesteading. What was 00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:12.579 their justification for that? Their argument 00:33:12.579 --> 00:33:15.200 was incredibly cynical. They claimed that because 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:17.240 the land was taken from the tribes as a punishment, 00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:20.059 it was now public domain. Oh, I see. And therefore, 00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:22.900 they argued it was their God -given right as 00:33:22.900 --> 00:33:25.740 American citizens to settle it. Wait, let me 00:33:25.740 --> 00:33:26.960 make sure I'm getting this timeline straight. 00:33:27.599 --> 00:33:31.079 The famous 1889 land run, the one celebrated 00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:33.980 with the covered wagons, the soaring music, the 00:33:33.980 --> 00:33:37.400 pioneer spirit. was essentially just the government 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:40.059 handing out the exact same land they had explicitly 00:33:40.059 --> 00:33:42.940 promised to Native Americans for as long as the 00:33:42.940 --> 00:33:45.579 grass grows and the rivers flow, just a few decades 00:33:45.579 --> 00:33:48.079 earlier. That is exactly what it was. On April 00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:52.299 20th, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison yielded 00:33:52.299 --> 00:33:54.980 to the boomer pressure and opened two million 00:33:54.980 --> 00:33:57.980 acres of the unassigned lands. And that's the 00:33:57.980 --> 00:34:00.480 starting gun. Tens of thousands of settlers lined 00:34:00.480 --> 00:34:02.799 up at the borders and literally raced in to claim 00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:06.009 a plot. And the Sooners. Some people, known as 00:34:06.009 --> 00:34:08.329 the Sooners, illegally sneaked over the border 00:34:08.329 --> 00:34:10.710 early to steal the best plots before the starting 00:34:10.710 --> 00:34:13.769 gun even fired. So the land run is romanticized 00:34:13.769 --> 00:34:16.650 as the opening of an empty frontier. But historically, 00:34:16.889 --> 00:34:19.309 it was the aggressive colonization of a space 00:34:19.309 --> 00:34:21.449 that was deliberately carved out of sovereign 00:34:21.449 --> 00:34:24.550 tribal territory. And as the sources show, the 00:34:24.550 --> 00:34:26.389 government didn't stop at the unassigned lands. 00:34:26.670 --> 00:34:28.929 The boomers got a taste, and they wanted the 00:34:28.929 --> 00:34:30.630 rest of the territory. They wanted all of it. 00:34:30.730 --> 00:34:33.829 Which is where we get to two incredibly destructive 00:34:33.829 --> 00:34:37.489 pieces of legislation. The Dawes Act of 1887 00:34:37.489 --> 00:34:41.590 and the Curtis Act of 1898. Yes. Because if the 00:34:41.590 --> 00:34:44.610 land run was a physical invasion, these acts 00:34:44.610 --> 00:34:47.050 sound like the ultimate bureaucratic weapons. 00:34:47.829 --> 00:34:50.239 Bureaucratic weapon is the perfect term. The 00:34:50.239 --> 00:34:52.860 U .S. policy had fundamentally shifted again. 00:34:53.260 --> 00:34:55.699 They no longer wanted to isolate Native Americans 00:34:55.699 --> 00:34:58.800 geographically. They wanted to force total assimilation 00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:01.360 by destroying the very concept of the tribe. 00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:04.079 How did the Dawes Act do that? Well, the Dawes 00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:06.139 Act authorized the federal government to break 00:35:06.139 --> 00:35:09.119 up communal tribal lands. For centuries, these 00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:11.139 nations held their land in common. There was 00:35:11.139 --> 00:35:12.840 no private real estate. Right, it belonged to 00:35:12.840 --> 00:35:14.699 the whole nation. So the Dawes Commission was 00:35:14.699 --> 00:35:17.780 sent in to literally survey the land, draw grids 00:35:17.780 --> 00:35:20.619 over it, and force individual ownership. They 00:35:20.619 --> 00:35:23.260 assigned small, specific allotments, usually 00:35:23.260 --> 00:35:27.099 160 acres, to individual Native American families. 00:35:27.320 --> 00:35:29.380 Let's use an analogy to understand how devastating 00:35:29.380 --> 00:35:31.400 this is. Okay, let's hear it. Imagine a tribal 00:35:31.400 --> 00:35:33.920 nation is like a successful, employee -owned 00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:36.059 corporation where everyone shares the profits 00:35:36.059 --> 00:35:38.800 and the land. The Dawes Act is like a hostile 00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:42.119 corporate takeover. The government comes in, 00:35:42.179 --> 00:35:44.579 forces every single employee to take one single 00:35:44.579 --> 00:35:47.139 share of stock, dissolves the board of directors, 00:35:47.539 --> 00:35:50.159 and says, you're all just independent contractors 00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:53.400 now. That's a great way to explain it. It isolates 00:35:53.400 --> 00:35:55.699 everyone so their collective power is entirely 00:35:55.699 --> 00:36:00.280 destroyed. And let me guess, after everyone got 00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:02.940 their 160 acres, there was a lot of leftover 00:36:02.940 --> 00:36:05.659 land. Your analogy is spot on, and you hit on 00:36:05.659 --> 00:36:07.960 the exact mathematical mechanism of the theft. 00:36:08.519 --> 00:36:11.699 By breaking the land down into individual 160 00:36:11.699 --> 00:36:14.360 -acre plots, the government generated millions 00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:16.940 of acres of surplus land. Which they just took. 00:36:17.300 --> 00:36:19.599 That surplus was immediately opened up to white 00:36:19.599 --> 00:36:22.079 settlement and corporate purchase. The Dawes 00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:24.619 Act was a mathematically designed system to legally 00:36:24.619 --> 00:36:27.000 strip the tribes of their land base while pretending 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:29.099 to turn them into yeoman farmers. And then the 00:36:29.099 --> 00:36:32.179 Curtis Act. The Curtis Act of 1898 was the final 00:36:32.179 --> 00:36:34.570 nail in the coffin. It officially abolished tribal 00:36:34.570 --> 00:36:37.130 courts, dismantled tribal governments, and brought 00:36:37.130 --> 00:36:39.869 all of Indian territory under federal law. I 00:36:39.869 --> 00:36:41.710 really want to highlight something specific from 00:36:41.710 --> 00:36:44.250 our sources here, because it shows how deeply 00:36:44.250 --> 00:36:47.900 corrupt this process was on the ground. There 00:36:47.900 --> 00:36:50.400 is a mention of a landmark historian named Angie 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:53.960 DeBeau and her 1940 book, And Still the Waters 00:36:53.960 --> 00:36:57.099 Run. Yes, her work is absolutely foundational. 00:36:57.480 --> 00:36:59.960 The sources say she detailed the massive corruption, 00:37:00.619 --> 00:37:02.719 moral depravity, and betrayal orchestrated by 00:37:02.719 --> 00:37:05.679 the Dawes Commission. What did she actually uncover? 00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:08.980 Debo dug into the local courthouse records and 00:37:08.980 --> 00:37:11.139 proved that the allotment process wasn't just 00:37:11.139 --> 00:37:14.320 a misguided, paternalistic, philanthropic effort. 00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:17.719 It was a massive criminal enterprise sanctioned 00:37:17.719 --> 00:37:19.900 by the state. How were they stealing it specifically? 00:37:20.099 --> 00:37:23.000 She documented how white lawyers, judges, and 00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:25.360 businessmen colluded to declare Native adults 00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:27.760 incompetent so they could be appointed as their 00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:30.239 legal guardians. Oh my god. They would then legally 00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:33.260 siphon off the resources, the timber, and eventually 00:37:33.260 --> 00:37:36.239 the massive oil wealth found on those individual 00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:38.019 allotments. This is literally a legal mafia. 00:37:38.440 --> 00:37:40.820 Worse, there were cases of Native children being 00:37:40.820 --> 00:37:44.460 assigned land only to mysteriously die, allowing 00:37:44.460 --> 00:37:46.980 their white guardians to inherit the oil rights. 00:37:47.659 --> 00:37:50.980 It was systemic legalized robbery designed to 00:37:50.980 --> 00:37:52.940 ensure the territory could eventually become 00:37:52.940 --> 00:37:55.460 a white -dominated state. That is sickening, 00:37:55.619 --> 00:37:57.760 but here is a part of the story that I had literally 00:37:57.760 --> 00:37:59.739 never heard of before reading these sources. 00:37:59.960 --> 00:38:03.510 The Sequoia Convention. Yes. The tribes did not 00:38:03.510 --> 00:38:06.289 just roll over. They fought back politically 00:38:06.289 --> 00:38:09.750 using the government's own system. In 1905, they 00:38:09.750 --> 00:38:11.849 organized the Sequoia Constitutional Convention. 00:38:12.090 --> 00:38:14.570 It is one of the greatest what -ifs of American 00:38:14.570 --> 00:38:17.369 history. Set the scene for us. Well, the leaders 00:38:17.369 --> 00:38:20.210 of the five civilized tribes saw the Curtis Act 00:38:20.210 --> 00:38:22.670 dismantling their governments. They realized 00:38:22.670 --> 00:38:25.070 Indian territory was about to be swallowed up 00:38:25.070 --> 00:38:27.469 completely. So what did they do? They decided 00:38:27.469 --> 00:38:29.489 to try and enter the United States on their own 00:38:29.489 --> 00:38:32.670 terms. Leaders from all five nations met in Muskogee. 00:38:32.869 --> 00:38:35.409 They drafted a highly progressive, fully formed 00:38:35.409 --> 00:38:37.610 state constitution. They mapped out counties. 00:38:37.769 --> 00:38:39.889 They established a bill of rights. And they formally 00:38:39.889 --> 00:38:42.130 proposed the creation of the state of Sequoia. 00:38:42.289 --> 00:38:43.750 Let me make sure I'm understanding this. It would 00:38:43.750 --> 00:38:46.559 have been a U .S. state. with a Native American 00:38:46.559 --> 00:38:49.639 majority population governed by Native leaders 00:38:49.639 --> 00:38:53.119 entirely separate from the white -dominated Oklahoma 00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:56.780 territory next door. That was exactly the proposal. 00:38:57.000 --> 00:38:59.559 And the sources say the residents of Indian territory 00:38:59.559 --> 00:39:02.460 overwhelmingly voted to approve this constitution. 00:39:02.719 --> 00:39:05.179 They approved it by a massive margin. It was 00:39:05.179 --> 00:39:08.369 wildly popular. But... Statehood requires approval 00:39:08.369 --> 00:39:11.190 from Washington. Yes, it requires approval from 00:39:11.190 --> 00:39:14.110 the US Congress and the President. And President 00:39:14.110 --> 00:39:17.110 Theodore Roosevelt, along with a Congress deeply 00:39:17.110 --> 00:39:19.489 resistant to the idea of a native controlled 00:39:19.489 --> 00:39:22.150 state wielding power in Washington, rejected 00:39:22.150 --> 00:39:24.250 it entirely. They would even consider it. They 00:39:24.250 --> 00:39:26.889 refused to even entertain the idea. Instead, 00:39:26.909 --> 00:39:29.429 they forced Indian territory to merge with the 00:39:29.429 --> 00:39:32.530 Oklahoma territory to the west. And in 1907, 00:39:32.829 --> 00:39:35.329 those two halves were combined to create the 00:39:35.329 --> 00:39:38.070 single state of Oklahoma. That feels like the 00:39:38.070 --> 00:39:41.389 ultimate final erasure. I mean, they went from 00:39:41.389 --> 00:39:44.150 flourishing sovereign nations at Spiro Mounds 00:39:44.150 --> 00:39:48.309 to a designated holding zone, to individual surveyed 00:39:48.309 --> 00:39:51.170 plots, to having their proposed state rejected, 00:39:51.630 --> 00:39:54.409 to being completely absorbed and legally dissolved 00:39:54.409 --> 00:39:56.489 by the state of Oklahoma. That was certainly 00:39:56.489 --> 00:39:58.329 the federal government's intent. And if the story 00:39:58.329 --> 00:40:00.610 ended in 1907, it would be nothing but a tragedy 00:40:00.610 --> 00:40:03.849 of erasure. But history doesn't stop. Exactly. 00:40:04.309 --> 00:40:06.250 If you look at the trajectory of the 20th century, 00:40:06.349 --> 00:40:09.170 you realize that despite this massive systemic 00:40:09.170 --> 00:40:11.929 attempt to destroy tribal sovereignty and force 00:40:11.929 --> 00:40:14.789 assimilation, the Native American spirit in Oklahoma 00:40:14.789 --> 00:40:17.650 did not vanish. The canvas wasn't wiped clean. 00:40:17.769 --> 00:40:20.230 No. The nations merely went dormant, adapting 00:40:20.230 --> 00:40:22.349 and surviving until they could surge back. Which 00:40:22.349 --> 00:40:24.670 brings us to the modern era and the incredible 00:40:24.670 --> 00:40:27.610 resurgence of Native voices. We jump forward 00:40:27.610 --> 00:40:30.630 in our sources to the 1960s and 70s. A fascinating 00:40:30.630 --> 00:40:32.590 time period. The entire country is going... through 00:40:32.590 --> 00:40:35.190 a massive civil rights awakening, protesting 00:40:35.190 --> 00:40:37.489 the Vietnam War, fighting for voting rights, 00:40:37.989 --> 00:40:39.809 and Native Americans in Oklahoma are right at 00:40:39.809 --> 00:40:41.690 the forefront of what becomes known as the Red 00:40:41.690 --> 00:40:44.429 Power movement. This era is vital because it 00:40:44.429 --> 00:40:47.730 marks the explicit pivot from mere survival back 00:40:47.730 --> 00:40:50.269 to demanding self -determination. The activists 00:40:50.269 --> 00:40:52.610 of the 70s weren't just asking politely anymore. 00:40:52.730 --> 00:40:55.250 They were taking direct action. A great example 00:40:55.250 --> 00:40:58.309 detailed in our sources is the 1972 action by 00:40:58.309 --> 00:41:00.489 the American Indian movement, commonly known 00:41:00.489 --> 00:41:04.070 as AIM. About 40 to 50 members marched into the 00:41:04.070 --> 00:41:07.050 state office and literally took over the office 00:41:07.050 --> 00:41:10.030 of the Indian education director Overton James. 00:41:10.389 --> 00:41:12.510 A literal occupation of the office. What was 00:41:12.510 --> 00:41:14.369 the specific mechanism they were protesting? 00:41:14.599 --> 00:41:17.179 They were outraged by the misuse of funds from 00:41:17.179 --> 00:41:19.300 the Johnson O'Malley Act. Let me explain how 00:41:19.300 --> 00:41:21.239 that worked for everyone listening. This was 00:41:21.239 --> 00:41:23.559 federal money specifically allocated to support 00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:26.320 Native American students in public schools, paying 00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:28.840 for things like supplies, tutoring, and lunches. 00:41:28.960 --> 00:41:32.239 Right. But the activists, led by regional AEM 00:41:32.239 --> 00:41:34.840 coordinator Carter Camp, argued that the state 00:41:34.840 --> 00:41:37.539 and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the BIA, were 00:41:37.539 --> 00:41:40.239 hoarding the money, mismanaging it, and completely 00:41:40.239 --> 00:41:42.900 ignoring any input from Native parents on how 00:41:42.900 --> 00:41:45.369 it should be spent. So they occupied the office 00:41:45.369 --> 00:41:48.670 and demand control over their own education funds. 00:41:49.869 --> 00:41:52.789 Did it actually work? Did the BIA listen? It 00:41:52.789 --> 00:41:55.869 worked remarkably well. By forcing a highly visible 00:41:55.869 --> 00:41:59.090 confrontation, Carter Camp and AIM forced the 00:41:59.090 --> 00:42:01.630 BIA's hand. What did the government concede? 00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:04.639 The federal government actually froze the Johnson 00:42:04.639 --> 00:42:07.659 O'Malley funds and agreed to negotiate. The activists 00:42:07.659 --> 00:42:09.559 won the right to establish parent committees, 00:42:09.719 --> 00:42:12.340 ensuring direct, native input into how those 00:42:12.340 --> 00:42:15.099 education finances were utilized. It proved that 00:42:15.099 --> 00:42:17.139 direct action could force the massive federal 00:42:17.139 --> 00:42:20.300 bureaucracy to yield. Yes. And AIM kept pushing. 00:42:20.860 --> 00:42:22.619 The sources mentioned them protesting at the 00:42:22.619 --> 00:42:25.260 Fort Hill Indian School over administrative neglect 00:42:25.260 --> 00:42:27.960 and terrible living conditions. But AIM wasn't 00:42:27.960 --> 00:42:30.050 the only group moving the needle. The sources 00:42:30.050 --> 00:42:32.030 also highlight the creation of the National Indian 00:42:32.030 --> 00:42:34.909 Youth Council, or the NIYC, which was co -founded 00:42:34.909 --> 00:42:37.389 by a brilliant Oklahoman named Clyde Warrior. 00:42:37.710 --> 00:42:40.090 Clyde Warrior is a legendary figure in modern 00:42:40.090 --> 00:42:42.849 Native activism. He was an incredibly charismatic 00:42:42.849 --> 00:42:45.829 orator who sparked decades of grassroots organizing. 00:42:46.250 --> 00:42:48.650 What is crucial to understand about the NIYC? 00:42:49.179 --> 00:42:51.980 and leaders like Warrior, is the distinction 00:42:51.980 --> 00:42:54.280 in their goals. They were not just fighting for 00:42:54.280 --> 00:42:56.840 civil rights. Right. And that's a profound difference 00:42:56.840 --> 00:42:58.860 in this context. Because civil rights sounds 00:42:58.860 --> 00:43:01.079 like the ultimate goal to most people. Break 00:43:01.079 --> 00:43:03.760 that down for us. Civil rights essentially means 00:43:03.760 --> 00:43:06.539 treat me equally within your established system. 00:43:07.099 --> 00:43:09.739 Sovereignty means, recognize my right to govern 00:43:09.739 --> 00:43:14.000 my own system. Warrior and the NIYC wanted the 00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:16.559 nationhood that was stolen from them by the Curtis 00:43:16.559 --> 00:43:19.420 Act and Oklahoma statehood to be legally recognized 00:43:19.420 --> 00:43:22.440 and restored. They wanted the right to self -determination, 00:43:22.599 --> 00:43:25.300 not just integration. That is a brilliant distinction. 00:43:25.780 --> 00:43:28.280 Sovereignty is saying, we are a nation, not just 00:43:28.280 --> 00:43:31.000 a minority demographic. Exactly. And you see 00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:33.139 the power of that grassroots fight for sovereignty 00:43:33.139 --> 00:43:35.460 perfectly illustrated in the tactile youth movement. 00:43:35.559 --> 00:43:39.000 According to the sources, in the 1970s, the federal 00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:41.860 government was utilizing a policy known as termination. 00:43:42.260 --> 00:43:44.599 They were actively trying to legally dissolve 00:43:44.599 --> 00:43:47.059 the Choctaw Nation entirely. The termination 00:43:47.059 --> 00:43:49.380 era was the government's final attempt to wash 00:43:49.380 --> 00:43:52.480 its hands of treaty obligations. There was a 00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:56.039 specific bill known as Belvin's Law, named, incredibly, 00:43:56.260 --> 00:43:58.440 after the principal chief of the Choctaw, Harry 00:43:58.440 --> 00:44:01.059 J .W. Belvin. Wait, the chief of the tribes supported 00:44:01.059 --> 00:44:03.440 the termination bill? He did, initially, because 00:44:03.440 --> 00:44:05.460 he believed assimilation was inevitable and this 00:44:05.460 --> 00:44:08.199 was the best way to manage it. This law was set 00:44:08.199 --> 00:44:11.519 to finalize the total dissolution of the tribe's 00:44:11.519 --> 00:44:14.519 assets and government. So an activist named Charles 00:44:14.519 --> 00:44:17.980 E. Brown. steps up. He starts organizing urban 00:44:17.980 --> 00:44:20.340 Choctaw youth. And they don't do this with violence. 00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:22.699 They do it with incredible grassroots organizing. 00:44:22.920 --> 00:44:25.619 They literally went door to door. They printed 00:44:25.619 --> 00:44:27.900 and mailed newsletters across the country that 00:44:27.900 --> 00:44:30.800 explicitly criticized Chief Belvin and broke 00:44:30.800 --> 00:44:33.420 down the legal mechanisms of the law. They explained 00:44:33.420 --> 00:44:35.420 exactly how it would strip the Choctaw people 00:44:35.420 --> 00:44:37.719 of their remaining legacy and land control. It 00:44:37.719 --> 00:44:40.199 was the power of the press and collective education. 00:44:40.460 --> 00:44:43.840 Those newsletters created a sudden unified realization 00:44:43.840 --> 00:44:46.639 among the Choctaw people, many of whom had been 00:44:46.639 --> 00:44:49.199 relocated to cities far away from Oklahoma. What 00:44:49.199 --> 00:44:51.059 was the result? Brown and the youth movement 00:44:51.059 --> 00:44:54.519 launched a massive petition drive. They intensely 00:44:54.519 --> 00:44:57.159 lobbied Congress, and they successfully fought 00:44:57.159 --> 00:44:59.000 off the termination bill. That's amazing. They 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:01.179 deposed the leadership that supported it, and 00:45:01.179 --> 00:45:03.880 they kept their sovereign nation legally alive. 00:45:04.059 --> 00:45:07.340 And that specific grassroots activism laid the 00:45:07.340 --> 00:45:10.719 bedrock for the reality of Oklahoma today. If 00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:12.920 you drive through Oklahoma now from the late 00:45:12.920 --> 00:45:16.460 20th century to the present day, you see a massive, 00:45:16.780 --> 00:45:19.360 undeniable rise in the assertion of tribal sovereignty. 00:45:19.380 --> 00:45:21.940 You really do. You see tribal nations issuing 00:45:21.940 --> 00:45:24.360 their own vehicle license plates. You see them 00:45:24.360 --> 00:45:26.280 operating massive state -of -the -art health 00:45:26.280 --> 00:45:29.159 care systems. They run major economic enterprises, 00:45:29.460 --> 00:45:32.500 smoke shops, enormous casino resorts, and corporate 00:45:32.500 --> 00:45:35.340 tech entities that are major drivers of the entire 00:45:35.340 --> 00:45:37.599 state's economy. They are political and economic 00:45:37.599 --> 00:45:40.199 powerhouses today, and it is a testament to an 00:45:40.199 --> 00:45:42.730 endurance that a century of targeted federal 00:45:42.730 --> 00:45:45.429 policy could not break. It's just a wildly incredible 00:45:45.429 --> 00:45:48.030 timeline from the Spurrow Mounds to the Trail 00:45:48.030 --> 00:45:51.469 of Tears to total legal dissolution back to powerful 00:45:51.469 --> 00:45:54.269 modern political entities. Because, you see, 00:45:54.710 --> 00:45:57.250 the Indian Removal Act was cynically designed 00:45:57.250 --> 00:46:00.289 to clear land in the East. But what it inadvertently 00:46:00.289 --> 00:46:03.610 did was create a dense, complex and politically 00:46:03.610 --> 00:46:06.170 brilliant concentration of native nations in 00:46:06.170 --> 00:46:08.480 the West. Their subsequent fight for survival, 00:46:08.980 --> 00:46:11.320 their ability to adapt to catastrophic betrayal, 00:46:11.840 --> 00:46:14.880 and their modern economic resurgence is the actual 00:46:14.880 --> 00:46:18.360 defining DNA of the state of Oklahoma. So bring 00:46:18.360 --> 00:46:21.590 it all together for you listening. Oklahoma's 00:46:21.590 --> 00:46:24.309 history is not a simple pioneer story. It is 00:46:24.309 --> 00:46:26.909 fundamentally a story of indigenous displacement, 00:46:27.630 --> 00:46:30.050 profound bureaucratic portrayal, and unyielding 00:46:30.050 --> 00:46:32.530 survival. It definitely is. The covered wagons 00:46:32.530 --> 00:46:34.150 and the land runs you pictured at the beginning, 00:46:34.389 --> 00:46:37.010 those are just the very tip of a much deeper, 00:46:37.010 --> 00:46:39.269 much older iceberg. I would like to leave you 00:46:39.269 --> 00:46:41.349 with a final thought to mull over, building on 00:46:41.349 --> 00:46:43.230 everything we've uncovered today. Think about 00:46:43.230 --> 00:46:45.659 the concept of a border. Okay. When you look 00:46:45.659 --> 00:46:48.519 at a map of Oklahoma today, you see rigid, perfectly 00:46:48.519 --> 00:46:50.820 drawn state and county lines. But underneath 00:46:50.820 --> 00:46:53.099 that modern map are the invisible, overlapping 00:46:53.099 --> 00:46:58.869 geographies of ancient hunting grounds. And the 00:46:58.869 --> 00:47:02.050 hard one, incredibly complex boundaries of modern 00:47:02.050 --> 00:47:04.949 tribal sovereignty. What does it actually mean 00:47:04.949 --> 00:47:07.369 to be a citizen of a state that was built directly 00:47:07.369 --> 00:47:10.210 on top of a broken promise? That's a powerful 00:47:10.210 --> 00:47:12.469 question. And how does knowing the precise mechanics 00:47:12.469 --> 00:47:14.489 of that history change the way you look at the 00:47:14.489 --> 00:47:17.250 ground beneath your own feet today? That is exactly 00:47:17.250 --> 00:47:19.170 what we want you to take away from this. The 00:47:19.170 --> 00:47:22.710 map is never the whole territory. Thank you so 00:47:22.710 --> 00:47:24.969 much for joining us on this deep dive. We highly 00:47:24.969 --> 00:47:26.949 encourage you to look into these sources, read 00:47:26.949 --> 00:47:28.869 up on the history of the nations whose land you 00:47:28.869 --> 00:47:31.510 live on, and keep exploring. There is always 00:47:31.510 --> 00:47:32.650 more beneath the surface.