WEBVTT

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In 1894, the United States Census Bureau sat

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down to do something that, well, it seems almost

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impossible in retrospect. Oh, completely impossible.

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Right. attempted to mathematically quantify the

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human cost of the American Indian Wars. They

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pored over all these military records, field

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reports, demographic estimates. Trying to tally

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up the death toll. Exactly. Of what most people

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assume was just a tragic, chaotic chapter of

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frontier expansion. But what they found, what

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the data actually showed, it completely shattered

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the standard narrative. Because they didn't find

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one war. No. They found a staggering, overlapping

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web of over 40 distinct military conflicts. Yeah,

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over 40. And these conflicts didn't just span

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a few bad years, you know, or a single presidency,

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they spanned an unimaginable 300 years. Three

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centuries of virtually continuous compounding

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collision. I mean, it is a scope that completely

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defies how we are usually taught to think about

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history. Right, we like our history neat. Yeah,

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neatly packaged, a clear start date. a defined

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battlefield, a surrender, and a treaty that wraps

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it all up. But this is the absolute definition

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of a generational systemic upheaval. It really

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is. You're talking about conflicts that predate

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the existence of the United States by over a

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century and a half, and they continue well past

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the Industrial Revolution right up to the dawn

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of the 20th century. Welcome to today's Deep

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Dive. I'm so glad you're here with us. Today,

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our mission is unpacking an incredibly extensive

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compilation of historical sources. We're primarily

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drawing from a massively detailed curation of

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texts covering this exact 300 -year span of the

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American Indian Wars. It's a massive amount of

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ground. And because the sheer gravity and complexity

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of this topic can easily become overwhelming,

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we are establishing a strict rule for our conversation

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today. Yeah. We're going to structure this discussion

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chronologically. We're going to walk through

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this timeline step by step, starting from the

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earliest colonial settlements in 1609 and moving

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forward to the closing of the frontier. And I

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think it is vital that we look at this objectively.

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We are going to be exploring some incredibly

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heavy history here, a massively complex web of

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land disputes, shifting alliances, broken treaties,

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and evolving government policies. Yeah, and we

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want to be clear about our approach. Exactly.

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Our goal here isn't to endorse any specific political

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viewpoint or, you know, cast modern moral judgments

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on 17th century actors. We want to look closely

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at the mechanics of history. We want to understand

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how and why these three centuries unfolded. the

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way they did without flinching from the harsh

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realities documented in our sources. OK, let's

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unpack this because starting in 1609 requires

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completely recalibrating how we think about the

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North American continent. It really does. I mean,

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I always pictured a sort of Thanksgiving scenario,

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small bands of settlers arriving, meeting local

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tribes, and eventually, inevitably, clashing

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over farmland. But the source material paints

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a completely different picture. A radically different

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picture. We are looking at the arrival of multiple

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highly competitive European colonial empires

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all at once. The English, the Spanish, the French,

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the Russians, the Dutch. Right. And the native

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tribes aren't just sitting there waiting to be

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displaced. They are suddenly thrust into this

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entirely new, unprecedented global economy. What's

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fascinating here is how quickly the popular misconception

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of Native Americans as passive victims falls

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apart when you look at the primary sources. These

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early conflicts were deeply intricately entangled

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with European rivalries. The tribes were highly

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active, deeply pragmatic geopolitical players.

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Take the Beaver Wars, for example. Okay, the

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Beaver Wars. Yeah, this wasn't a brief skirmish.

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The Beaver Wars ran from roughly 1609 all the

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way to 1701. Wow. Almost a century of warfare

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driven fundamentally by the introduction of a

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new globalized market, the fur trade. Wait, I

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need to stop you there, because the Beaver Wars

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sounds almost trivial to a modern ear. Why on

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earth were nations fighting a century -long war

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over a semi -aquatic rodent? It comes down to

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European fashion, believe it or not, and the

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introduction of advanced military technology.

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In Europe, felt hats made from beaver pelts were

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a massive status symbol. But the European beaver

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had been hunted almost to extinction. Oh, I see.

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Suddenly, North America's discovered to be teeming

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with them. The French... Dutch and English want

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these pelts desperately. But they don't know

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the land, and they don't have the manpower to

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hunt them, so they turn to the native tribes.

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Makes sense. But they don't just trade beads

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or blankets. They trade matchlock and flintlock

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muskets. Ah. And that completely breaks the existing

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balance of power. Completely. I mean, imagine

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you are the Iroquois Confederacy in upstate New

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York. You begin trading with the Dutch, and later

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the English, acquiring firearms in exchange for

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beaver pelts. Suddenly, you have a massive military

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advantage over your traditional indigenous rivals,

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like the Huron or the Algonquians, who are allied

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with the French. But here's the trap. Firearms

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require gunpowder and lead shot. Which you cannot

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manufacture yourself. Exactly. You can only get

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them from the Europeans. And the Europeans only

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want beaver pelts. So it's a vicious, inescapable

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feedback loop. You need to hunt more beavers

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to trade for more guns so you can defend your

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hunting grounds from rival tribes who are also

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trying to get more guns. That's it. Exactly.

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And when you overhunt your own territory... You

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have to use those guns to aggressively expand

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into your neighbor's territory to find more beavers.

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It's an arms race fueled in entirely by a luxury

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fashion commodity. It was an arms race that fundamentally

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redrew the map of the Northeast and the Great

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Lakes. The Iroquois pushed as far west as the

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Mississippi River, displacing dozens of other

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tribes purely to monopolize the fur trade. That's

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wild. And throughout all of this, the tribes

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were constantly playing the European powers against

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one another. Chilling them off each other. Yeah.

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If the French offered a better rate of exchange

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for pelts or, you know, more reliable muskets,

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an entire tribal alliance might pivot overnight.

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It's like a massive geopolitical chessboard.

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But the pieces on the board are actively negotiating

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their own moves and threatening to switch sides

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if the players don't offer a better deal. That's

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a great way to put it. But it makes me wonder

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if trade and economics were the primary drivers.

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Was massive systemic violence inevitable? Or

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did it depend entirely on the specific policies

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of the Europeans who showed up? Well, it absolutely

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depended on policy. The European approach to

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native populations was not a monolith. The sources

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highlight an incredible contrast that proves

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conflict was a choice, not an inevitable law

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of nature. OK, let's hear it. On one extreme,

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look at the Russian colonization of Alaska. Right,

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the sea otter pelts. Yes. The Russians were after

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sea otter pelts, and their methodology was largely

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brute force. In August of 1784, Russian colonists

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descended on Sitkaladak Island and perpetrated

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what is known as the Awak Massacre. A massacre?

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Yeah. They slaughtered somewhere between 200

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and 3 ,000 Konyak Alutig tribesmen. It was an

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overwhelming, terrifying display of violence

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designed to subjugate the local population and

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force them to hunt for the Russian American company.

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That is just staggering violence. But the sources

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explicitly contrast that Russian brutality with

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the approach taken by the Swedes. Yes, the colony

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of New Sweden, which was established along the

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Delaware River in the mid 1600s. The historical

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record shows that most Indian tribes were actually

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very friendly toward the Swedes. The relationship

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was incredibly peaceful. And why was that? Because

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the Swedish colonial authorities had a strict,

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rigorously enforced policy of respecting tribal

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land boundaries. They didn't push for aggressive

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unilateral expansion. They engaged purely in

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mutually beneficial trade and viewed the tribes

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as sovereign neighbors rather than obstacles

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to be cleared. So the violence is directly correlated

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to the demand for land and the refusal to recognize

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sovereignty. If you respect the boundary, you

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get peace. If you demand the land and the labor,

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you get a massacre. But this fluid, almost chaotic

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dynamic of the colonial era, this whole system

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of tribes playing the French against the British

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against the Spanish, that entire centuries old

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geopolitical machine grinds to a halt in 1775.

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It does. When the British colonies decided to

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rebel and form their own independent nation,

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the strategic reality for Native Americans shattered

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overnight. The balance of power was just gone.

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Exactly. You know, we're taught in school to

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view the American Revolution strictly through

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the lens of the colonists. Washington crossing

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the Delaware, the fight against taxation without

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representation, the birth of democracy. But the

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source material makes a point that completely

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reframes this era. It states that the American

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Revolutionary War was, in reality, two parallel

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wars happening simultaneously. It really was.

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In the East, along the seaboard, it was a political

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rebellion against British rule. Right. But in

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the West, in the back country of Pennsylvania,

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New York, and the Ohio River Valley, it was an

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all -out Indian War. Yeah. The newly proclaimed

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United States wasn't just fighting for independence.

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They were fighting the British for physical control

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of the vast territory stretching to the Mississippi

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River. And many Native tribes looked at the situation

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and made a highly rational calculation. They

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sided with the British. They sided with the British.

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Because the British Empire, for all its faults,

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had actually tried to limit westward colonial

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expansion. Yes, exactly. The British had drawn

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the proclamation line of 1763, basically telling

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the colonists, you cannot settle west of the

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Appalachian Mountains. But the American patriots

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were the very settlers actively trying to push

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into native territory. Right. If you're a tribal

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leader, the patriots are your immediate... existential

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threat. Precisely. Yeah. But choosing a side

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in this revolution caused devastating internal

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fractures within Native groups. Look at the Iroquois

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Confederacy. Oh, this part is just tragic. It

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really is. This was an incredibly powerful, sophisticated

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political and military alliance of six nations

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that had stood together for centuries, and the

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American Revolution broke them apart. Wow. The

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Oneida and Tuscarora nations decided to ally

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with the American patriots, while the Mohawk,

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Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga allied with the

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British. That is heartbreaking. You have a centuries

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-old alliance, a brotherhood, essentially forced

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into a civil war because of a conflict between

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European colonists. The sources note they tried

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desperately to avoid fighting each other, but

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the brutal reality of the war eventually forced

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intra -Iroquois combat. And the ultimate tragedy

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is what happened when the war ended. When the

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British negotiated the Treaty of Paris in 1783,

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recognizing American independence, they committed

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an act of staggering diplomatic betrayal. Wait,

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let's talk about this betrayal. They simply ceded

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all the land east of the Mississippi to the new

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United States. They did not consult their native

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allies. They didn't even mention them in the

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treaty. Wait, hold on. The British just signed

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away land that they didn't even physically occupy?

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Yep. They just drew a line on a map in Paris

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and handed over millions of acres of sovereign

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indigenous territory to the Americans? Yes. They

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sure did. And as far as the new United States

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government was concerned, the native tribes who

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had fought alongside the British were conferred

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enemy combatants. The American position was essentially

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your British allies lost, therefore you lost

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and your land is forfeit. Which is a completely

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alien legal concept to the tribes because they

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hadn't been defeated in battle. Right, not at

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all. They were still sitting on their land, heavily

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armed. And this massive disconnect leads directly

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into the Northwest Indian War. Settlers start

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pouring into the Ohio territory, assuming the

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land is theirs, and violence instantly erupts.

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Immediately. But I want to be clear here, because

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the sources are very specific. This wasn't just

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a series of disorganized frontier skirmishes.

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No, not at all. The Native tribes responded by

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forming a massive, highly organized, pan -tribal

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confederacy. The Western Confederacy. It brought

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together the Shawnee, the Miami, the Delaware,

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the Wyandotte, and several others. The huge alliance.

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Huge. And they were led by some of the most brilliant

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military tacticians of the era, namely Blue Jacket

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of the Shawnee and Little Turtle of the Miami.

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Their objective was simple, and unyielding the

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Ohio River is the boundary. No American settlement

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north of the river. And the United States, which

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is basically a brand new nearly bankrupt country

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at this point, sends the army in to crush them.

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And the U .S. Army gets absolutely annihilated.

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Annihilated is the correct word. I mean, it's

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wild. In 1790, they defeated an army led by General

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Josiah Harmar. But the true shock came the following

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year in 1791. General Arthur St. Clair marched

00:12:48.919 --> 00:12:51.440
a force of about a thousand men deep into the

00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:53.799
Ohio territory. And they were waiting for him.

00:12:54.029 --> 00:12:55.950
Little Turtle and Blue Jacket were waiting for

00:12:55.950 --> 00:12:58.629
them near the Wabash River. Why do we all know

00:12:58.629 --> 00:13:00.990
about Custer's last stand, but I've never heard

00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:03.610
of St. Clair's defeat? Was it a cover -up? Because

00:13:03.610 --> 00:13:06.269
the numbers in the text are wild. It wasn't a

00:13:06.269 --> 00:13:08.250
cover -up, but it certainly isn't the romanticized

00:13:08.250 --> 00:13:11.429
myth that Little Byhorn became. St. Clair's defeat

00:13:11.429 --> 00:13:14.669
remains, to this day, the most severe loss ever

00:13:14.669 --> 00:13:16.929
inflicted upon an American army by Native American

00:13:16.929 --> 00:13:20.210
forces. The most severe loss? Yes. Little Turtle

00:13:20.210 --> 00:13:23.029
orchestrated a masterpiece of tactical encirclement.

00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:25.720
St. Clair's troops were a mix of poorly trained

00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:28.960
militia and regular army. Okay. The native forces

00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:31.299
attacked at dawn, moving in crescent formation

00:13:31.299 --> 00:13:33.820
that perfectly flanked the American camp. They

00:13:33.820 --> 00:13:36.399
specifically targeted the officers and the artillerymen.

00:13:36.580 --> 00:13:40.139
Smart. Very. Once the officers fell, the militia

00:13:40.139 --> 00:13:42.460
panicked and ran right through the regular army

00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:45.220
lines, causing total chaos. Out of roughly 1

00:13:45.220 --> 00:13:48.580
,000 American soldiers, over 600 were killed

00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:51.850
and hundreds more wounded. It was a casualty

00:13:51.850 --> 00:13:56.009
rate of nearly 90%. A 90 % casualty rate. That

00:13:56.009 --> 00:13:58.870
is catastrophic for a young nation. George Washington

00:13:58.870 --> 00:14:01.690
was president at the time. He must have been

00:14:01.690 --> 00:14:04.070
absolutely terrified that the entire Western

00:14:04.070 --> 00:14:06.610
frontier was about to collapse. Oh, he was furious

00:14:06.610 --> 00:14:08.850
and terrified, yeah. Which brings up a really

00:14:08.850 --> 00:14:12.080
fascinating hypothetical. Given these massive

00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:14.559
organized victories by leaders like Little Turtle

00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:17.740
and Blue Jacket, was there a genuine window where

00:14:17.740 --> 00:14:20.840
a permanent sovereign pan -tribal nation could

00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:23.120
have survived the birth of the U .S.? If we connect

00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:26.179
this to the bigger picture, the answer lies...

00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:28.279
Once again, across the Atlantic. With the British.

00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:30.580
With the British. After the revolution, the British

00:14:30.580 --> 00:14:32.580
hadn't completely abandoned North America and

00:14:32.580 --> 00:14:35.419
they still owe Canada. And from 1783 all the

00:14:35.419 --> 00:14:38.159
way to 1812, British merchants and government

00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:40.620
agents were actively funneling weapons and supplies

00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:42.960
to the tribes in the Ohio Valley. So they were

00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:45.539
still pulling strings. Exactly. The British government

00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:48.480
actually had a formal geopolitical strategy to

00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:51.500
establish a sovereign, internationally recognized

00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:54.440
Indian buffer state covering what is now Ohio.

00:14:54.679 --> 00:14:58.019
Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. To explicitly

00:14:58.019 --> 00:15:00.960
block the United States from expanding westward

00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:03.580
and threatening Canada? Yep. So yes, there was

00:15:03.580 --> 00:15:06.139
a window where this pan -tribal nation had the

00:15:06.139 --> 00:15:08.820
logistical and diplomatic backing of the British

00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:12.000
Empire. And that window reaches its absolute

00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.820
peak with Tecumseh. Tecumseh, the legendary Shawnee

00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:17.320
leader, and his brother, Tensicotala, known as

00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:20.139
the Prophet, they realized that localized resistance

00:15:20.139 --> 00:15:23.230
was doomed. Right. Tecumseh traveled tirelessly

00:15:23.230 --> 00:15:25.830
from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico,

00:15:26.470 --> 00:15:29.450
trying to unite every single tribe into one massive

00:15:29.450 --> 00:15:32.450
impenetrable wall of resistance. A huge undertaking.

00:15:32.789 --> 00:15:34.649
And when the War of 1812 broke out between the

00:15:34.649 --> 00:15:37.350
U .S. and Britain, Tecumseh officially allied

00:15:37.350 --> 00:15:39.830
his confederacy with the British military. But

00:15:39.830 --> 00:15:41.710
this is where that window slams shut, isn't it?

00:15:41.809 --> 00:15:44.210
It is. The American forces, commanded by William

00:15:44.210 --> 00:15:46.570
Henry Harrison, eventually gained the upper hand.

00:15:47.029 --> 00:15:49.980
Tecumseh is killed in battle in 1813. And when

00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:52.720
the War of 1812 ends at a stalemate between the

00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:57.039
U .S. and Britain, the British finally, definitively,

00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:59.379
abandon their plan for that buffer state. Yeah.

00:15:59.559 --> 00:16:01.480
They withdraw their support. And that is the

00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:04.779
pivotal turning point. After 1815, the geopolitical

00:16:04.779 --> 00:16:07.519
chessboard is gone. There are no more European

00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:10.279
empires for the tribes to ally with or play against

00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:12.659
the United States. All on their own. The Native

00:16:12.659 --> 00:16:15.580
Americans are left to face a rapidly industrializing,

00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.929
explosively expanding United States. completely

00:16:18.929 --> 00:16:22.649
alone. And that isolation triggers a deeply dark

00:16:22.649 --> 00:16:25.029
shift in federal policy. We aren't talking about

00:16:25.029 --> 00:16:27.250
border skirmishes anymore. We're talking about

00:16:27.250 --> 00:16:29.610
the bureaucratic machinery of the state being

00:16:29.610 --> 00:16:32.690
turned towards systemic forced expulsion. Yes.

00:16:32.809 --> 00:16:35.389
We are in the 1830s now. Andrew Jackson is in

00:16:35.389 --> 00:16:37.570
the White House and he signs the Indian Removal

00:16:37.570 --> 00:16:40.529
Act of 1830. It is crucial to look at the legal

00:16:40.529 --> 00:16:43.250
mechanics of this act because the popular understanding

00:16:43.250 --> 00:16:45.789
is often a bit blurry. How so? The source material

00:16:45.789 --> 00:16:48.649
is very explicit. The Indian Removal Act of 1830

00:16:48.649 --> 00:16:51.700
did not actually authorized the unilateral abrogation

00:16:51.700 --> 00:16:54.100
of existing treaties. The president didn't have

00:16:54.100 --> 00:16:55.860
the legal right to just rip up the contract.

00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:59.899
Right. And it did not legally authorize the military

00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:04.319
to forcibly relocate tribes at gunpoint. It only

00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.180
authorized the president to negotiate land exchange

00:17:07.180 --> 00:17:10.009
treaties. Yet both the ripping up of treaties

00:17:10.009 --> 00:17:13.470
and the forced marches at gunpoint occurred on

00:17:13.470 --> 00:17:16.009
a massive tragic scale anyway. Yeah, they did.

00:17:16.349 --> 00:17:19.210
This is the era of the Trail of Tears. The federal

00:17:19.210 --> 00:17:22.150
government utilized immense coercion, fraud and

00:17:22.150 --> 00:17:25.190
military threat to force the Cherokee, the Creek,

00:17:25.309 --> 00:17:27.829
the Choctaw, the Chickasaw and the Seminole off

00:17:27.829 --> 00:17:30.750
their ancestral lands in the southeast and march

00:17:30.750 --> 00:17:33.470
them a thousand miles west to what is now Oklahoma.

00:17:33.569 --> 00:17:36.029
It was devastating. The death toll from disease,

00:17:36.269 --> 00:17:38.279
exposure and starvation. on those marches was

00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:41.140
horrific. But what the sources also detail extensively

00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.740
is that this policy of removal was not met with

00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:46.579
passive resignation. It was met with incredibly

00:17:46.579 --> 00:17:49.980
fierce, protracted military resistance. And nowhere

00:17:49.980 --> 00:17:52.140
was that resistance more devastating to the U

00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:55.400
.S. military than in Florida. The Second Seminole

00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:56.980
War. I read the numbers on this and I had to

00:17:56.980 --> 00:17:58.640
double check them. The sources state this was

00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:00.980
the longest and most costly war the U .S. Army

00:18:00.980 --> 00:18:03.180
ever waged against Native Americans. It was.

00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:08.140
It lasted from 1835 to 1842. Seven years. Why

00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:10.519
Florida? Why did this specific conflict drag

00:18:10.519 --> 00:18:13.480
on so long and cost so much? Florida had become

00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:16.880
a unique demographic and geographic haven. It

00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:19.119
wasn't just native Seminoles living there. For

00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:21.599
decades, runaway black slaves from plantations

00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:24.200
in Georgia and the Carolinas had fled south into

00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:27.339
Spanish Florida. They found refuge, intermarried

00:18:27.339 --> 00:18:29.859
with the tribes, and formed what became known

00:18:29.859 --> 00:18:33.339
as the Black Seminoles. Oh, wow. The U .S. government

00:18:33.339 --> 00:18:35.559
and southern plantation owners were terrified

00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:38.599
of this armed free black population living just

00:18:38.599 --> 00:18:40.759
across the border, and they wanted them eliminated

00:18:40.759 --> 00:18:43.160
or return to slavery. Right. But Seminole leaders

00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:45.920
like Osceola, McConaughey, and Sam Jones, along

00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:47.720
with black Seminole leaders like John Horse,

00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:50.740
had absolutely no intention of leaving or surrendering

00:18:50.740 --> 00:18:53.440
their allies. So the U .S. Army marches in expecting

00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:56.480
a quick campaign, but they are completely unprepared

00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:58.619
for the tactical reality of the Florida environment.

00:18:58.859 --> 00:19:01.069
Completely unprepared. The Seminoles didn't line

00:19:01.069 --> 00:19:03.970
up in fields to fight. They used the environment

00:19:03.970 --> 00:19:06.930
to wage a master class in guerrilla warfare.

00:19:08.190 --> 00:19:11.210
Let's look at the Dade Massacre in December 1835,

00:19:11.529 --> 00:19:15.029
because logistics of this are terrifying. OK,

00:19:15.230 --> 00:19:18.769
yes. Major Francis L. Dade was ordered to march

00:19:18.769 --> 00:19:22.529
a column of 110 men to reinforce Fort King. They

00:19:22.529 --> 00:19:24.569
were marching through the Pine Barrens, a very

00:19:24.569 --> 00:19:27.640
open, exposed landscape. Right. The weather was

00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:30.440
unusually cold, so the soldiers had their heavy

00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:32.680
wool coats buttoned up over their ammunition

00:19:32.680 --> 00:19:35.660
boxes. Oh, no. Yeah, making it incredibly difficult

00:19:35.660 --> 00:19:37.740
to access their powder and shot quickly. And

00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:39.880
the Seminole warriors knew this. The sources

00:19:39.880 --> 00:19:42.880
say they shadowed Dade's column for five days.

00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:45.500
Five days. Imagine that psychological pressure.

00:19:45.940 --> 00:19:48.039
Five days of marching through the wilderness,

00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:50.380
knowing you were being watched, waiting for the

00:19:50.380 --> 00:19:52.279
trap to spring. And the Seminoles waited for

00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:54.700
the perfect tactical moment. When was that? They

00:19:54.700 --> 00:19:56.440
waited until the column was strung out along

00:19:56.440 --> 00:19:59.769
a narrow path, perfectly exposed. When they finally

00:19:59.769 --> 00:20:02.450
struck, the opening volley decimated the command

00:20:02.450 --> 00:20:05.509
structure. Major Dade was killed instantly. The

00:20:05.509 --> 00:20:07.190
soldiers couldn't get to their ammunition because

00:20:07.190 --> 00:20:09.690
of the coats. They tried to build a small log

00:20:09.690 --> 00:20:12.509
breastwork, but the seminal fire was too accurate

00:20:12.509 --> 00:20:15.950
and too intense. That is just brutal. Out of

00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:19.130
110 American soldiers, only three survived the

00:20:19.130 --> 00:20:21.450
initial attack, and one of those survivors was

00:20:21.450 --> 00:20:25.069
hunted down the next day. It was a total systematic

00:20:25.069 --> 00:20:28.150
wiping out of a military column. total tactical

00:20:28.150 --> 00:20:30.309
dominance, and it only gets worse for the army

00:20:30.309 --> 00:20:32.089
when they try to push deeper into the state.

00:20:32.549 --> 00:20:35.210
Look at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee in 1837.

00:20:35.269 --> 00:20:37.589
Oh, Lake Okeechobee. Colonel Zachary Taylor,

00:20:37.769 --> 00:20:39.970
who later becomes president, is marching about

00:20:39.970 --> 00:20:43.109
a thousand men into a sawgrass swamp. Let's talk

00:20:43.109 --> 00:20:44.910
about sawgrass for a second, because I feel like

00:20:44.910 --> 00:20:47.130
the word grass makes it sound gentle. It is not

00:20:47.130 --> 00:20:50.579
gentle. Sawgrass is essentially an ancient towering

00:20:50.579 --> 00:20:53.500
reed where the edges of the blades possess serrated

00:20:53.500 --> 00:20:55.819
silica teeth. Yeah, exactly. It is literally

00:20:55.819 --> 00:20:58.019
like walking through a field of flexible knives.

00:20:58.380 --> 00:21:01.019
It slices right through cotton clothing and shreds

00:21:01.019 --> 00:21:04.000
human skin. And beneath that sawgrass is thigh

00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:07.660
deep, thick, sucking mud. Taylor's troops are

00:21:07.660 --> 00:21:10.359
on foot, completely bogged down, they can't bring

00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:12.640
wagons, they can't effectively position artillery,

00:21:13.180 --> 00:21:15.940
and the cavalry is useless. A nightmare. It was

00:21:15.940 --> 00:21:18.440
a nightmare scenario for a conventional 19th

00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:20.440
century army. And waiting for them in a hammock

00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:22.539
of trees surrounded by this horrific terrain

00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:24.920
are the Seminole leaders, including Alligator

00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:28.460
and Sam Jones. Taylor decided to send the Missouri

00:21:28.460 --> 00:21:31.630
volunteers in first. Okay. ordering a direct

00:21:31.630 --> 00:21:33.970
frontal assault through the mud in the sawgrass.

00:21:34.049 --> 00:21:37.009
It was a tactical disaster. I can imagine. The

00:21:37.009 --> 00:21:38.930
Seminoles were elevated, firing from the cover

00:21:38.930 --> 00:21:41.230
of the trees. They opened a devastating volley.

00:21:42.190 --> 00:21:44.369
The volunteers broke under the fire. Their commander

00:21:44.369 --> 00:21:47.049
was fatally wounded, and they retreated in panic.

00:21:47.289 --> 00:21:49.890
They just broke. Yeah, they ran. Taylor then

00:21:49.890 --> 00:21:52.369
sent in the regular army, the 6th Infantry. They

00:21:52.369 --> 00:21:54.769
suffered horribly. Every single officer in the

00:21:54.769 --> 00:21:57.029
6th Infantry, except for one, was killed or wounded.

00:21:57.390 --> 00:22:01.250
The U .S. ever 26 killed and 112 wounded in that

00:22:01.250 --> 00:22:03.430
swamp, while the Seminoles, who slipped away

00:22:03.430 --> 00:22:05.890
into the deeper Everglades, lost only 11 men.

00:22:06.130 --> 00:22:08.289
I cannot emphasize enough how terrifying that

00:22:08.289 --> 00:22:10.470
must have been for the soldiers. Marching through

00:22:10.470 --> 00:22:13.130
mud, your skin being sliced open by the grass,

00:22:13.529 --> 00:22:16.170
water in your boots, humidity off the charts,

00:22:16.490 --> 00:22:18.990
only to be ambushed by an enemy who is completely

00:22:18.990 --> 00:22:21.970
invisible until the muzzle flashes start. It's

00:22:21.970 --> 00:22:24.009
terrifying. That makes perfect sense why this

00:22:24.009 --> 00:22:26.509
dragged on for seven years. It comes down to

00:22:26.509 --> 00:22:29.950
logistics neutralizing technology. The Ohio Valley,

00:22:30.130 --> 00:22:32.829
where St. Clair fought, was relatively easy for

00:22:32.829 --> 00:22:35.690
the U .S. military to supply and traverse. But

00:22:35.690 --> 00:22:39.349
Florida in the 1830s was an untamed, disease

00:22:39.349 --> 00:22:41.990
-ridden environment that completely negated the

00:22:41.990 --> 00:22:43.950
conventional military advantages of the United

00:22:43.950 --> 00:22:47.470
States. Right. The Seminoles adapted to a decentralized,

00:22:47.809 --> 00:22:50.339
highly mobile form of warfare. They lived off

00:22:50.339 --> 00:22:52.759
the land, striking supply lines and disappearing.

00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:55.400
The U .S. Army simply wasn't equipped to counter

00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:57.720
it. And the disease took a massive toll too,

00:22:57.720 --> 00:23:00.539
right? Huge. By 1842, the Army officially recorded

00:23:00.539 --> 00:23:03.099
almost 1 ,500 deaths, but the vast majority weren't

00:23:03.099 --> 00:23:05.359
from bullets. They were from malaria, yellow

00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:08.700
fever, and dysentery. The military never truly

00:23:08.700 --> 00:23:10.920
defeated the Seminoles in a traditional surrender

00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:13.019
scenario. They just gave up. The war just sort

00:23:13.019 --> 00:23:16.140
of exhausted itself. Some Seminoles were eventually

00:23:16.140 --> 00:23:19.079
captured and migrated west, but a few hundred

00:23:19.079 --> 00:23:21.619
retreated deep into the Everglades and simply

00:23:21.619 --> 00:23:24.700
refused to be conquered. So while the federal

00:23:24.700 --> 00:23:26.480
government is bogged down in the swamps of the

00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:29.299
East Coast spending millions of dollars and losing

00:23:29.299 --> 00:23:32.339
thousands of men, a completely different paradigm

00:23:32.339 --> 00:23:34.779
of conflict has been evolving out west. Yes.

00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:37.259
And this conflict isn't centered around the U

00:23:37.259 --> 00:23:40.319
.S. government. It's centered around. a newly

00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:43.619
independent republic, and a native empire that

00:23:43.619 --> 00:23:46.200
is unlike anything we've discussed so far. We

00:23:46.200 --> 00:23:48.579
are shifting our focus to the Republic of Texas

00:23:48.579 --> 00:23:51.000
and the Great Plains. Here's where it gets really

00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:53.579
interesting, because the sources describe Comancheria,

00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:55.960
the vast territory controlled by the Comanche

00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:58.680
and their Kiowa and Wichita allies, not just

00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:01.420
as a tribe, but as a proto -empire. Right. And

00:24:01.420 --> 00:24:03.180
I think we need to define what that means, because

00:24:03.180 --> 00:24:05.460
they weren't building stone pyramids or capital

00:24:05.460 --> 00:24:09.349
cities. No. They built an empire based on kinetic

00:24:09.349 --> 00:24:13.349
energy and absolute equestrian dominance. Think

00:24:13.349 --> 00:24:15.650
of the Comanche not as a stationary kingdom,

00:24:16.190 --> 00:24:19.250
but as a heavily armed, highly mobile corporate

00:24:19.250 --> 00:24:22.269
monopoly that completely controlled the economy

00:24:22.269 --> 00:24:26.259
of the Southern Plains. Their power stemmed entirely

00:24:26.259 --> 00:24:28.420
from the adoption of the horse. Which were originally

00:24:28.420 --> 00:24:31.079
brought over by the Spanish. Exactly. The Spanish

00:24:31.079 --> 00:24:33.799
Empire conquered the Aztecs and the Incas relatively

00:24:33.799 --> 00:24:36.299
quickly. But when they pushed north into what

00:24:36.299 --> 00:24:39.000
is now Texas and New Mexico, they hit a brick

00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.720
wall. That wall was the Comanche. The Comanche

00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:44.019
just stopped them. Stopped them cold. The Comanche

00:24:44.019 --> 00:24:46.779
acquired Spanish horses, mastered breeding and

00:24:46.779 --> 00:24:49.319
riding, and weaponized them better than the Spanish

00:24:49.319 --> 00:24:51.880
ever did. Right. A Comanche warrior on horseback

00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:54.339
with a short bow could fire a dozen arrows with

00:24:54.339 --> 00:24:56.720
lethal accuracy in the time it took a Spanish

00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:59.599
soldier or a Texas Ranger to reload a single

00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:01.779
muzzle loading rifle. That's a huge tactical

00:25:01.779 --> 00:25:04.980
advantage. Huge. They control the Buffalo hunting

00:25:04.980 --> 00:25:07.700
grounds, they control the trade routes, and they

00:25:07.700 --> 00:25:10.140
raided deep into Mexico for horses, captives,

00:25:10.259 --> 00:25:13.269
and plunder. They dictated the terms of survival

00:25:13.269 --> 00:25:15.670
for everyone else in the region for nearly 70

00:25:15.670 --> 00:25:19.029
years. And this creates massive political whiplash

00:25:19.029 --> 00:25:21.410
when the Republic of Texas gains independence

00:25:21.410 --> 00:25:25.789
from Mexico in 1836. Suddenly Texas is its own

00:25:25.789 --> 00:25:28.210
nation and they are sharing a border with this

00:25:28.210 --> 00:25:31.549
Comanche monopoly. Yeah. And you have two Texas

00:25:31.549 --> 00:25:34.430
presidents who take radically almost violently

00:25:34.430 --> 00:25:37.049
different approaches to dealing with this reality.

00:25:37.630 --> 00:25:40.109
First you have Sam Houston. Right. Sam Houston

00:25:40.109 --> 00:25:42.460
had a very unique background. He had actually

00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:44.839
run away as a teenager and lived with the Cherokee

00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:46.859
for years. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, he spoke

00:25:46.859 --> 00:25:49.019
the languages. He understood native diplomacy

00:25:49.019 --> 00:25:51.880
and the internal politics of the tribes. When

00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:54.640
he became president of Texas, he actively pursued

00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:57.579
a policy of engagement, negotiation and treaties.

00:25:57.619 --> 00:25:59.200
Because he knew they couldn't win a straight

00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:02.420
fight. Exactly. He recognized that Texas, a brand

00:26:02.420 --> 00:26:05.339
new republic, did not possess the manpower or

00:26:05.339 --> 00:26:08.140
the treasury to fight a protracted war against

00:26:08.140 --> 00:26:10.599
the greatest light cavalry in the world. But

00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:13.660
Houston's term ends, and he is succeeded by Maribou

00:26:13.660 --> 00:26:16.279
B. Lamar. And Lamar looks at Houston's diplomacy

00:26:16.279 --> 00:26:19.420
with absolute disgust. He completely reversed

00:26:19.420 --> 00:26:22.059
his course. Lamar was an ideological hardliner.

00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:25.099
He pursued a policy of total deportation and

00:26:25.099 --> 00:26:27.599
extermination. Total deportation. He wanted the

00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:30.220
Comanche, the Kiowa, and even the peaceful Cherokee

00:26:30.220 --> 00:26:33.920
who had moved to Texas. Gone. Period. He refused

00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:37.259
to negotiate. Which leads to horrific flashpoints,

00:26:37.359 --> 00:26:40.539
like the Council House fight in 1840. The Comanche

00:26:40.539 --> 00:26:43.099
actually came to San Antonio under a white flag

00:26:43.099 --> 00:26:45.839
of truce for a peace parlay. They brought captives

00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:48.579
to trade. But the Texas militia locked the doors

00:26:48.579 --> 00:26:50.859
of the council house and tried to take the Comanche

00:26:50.859 --> 00:26:53.880
chiefs hostage. A massive fight broke out and

00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:56.720
the militia killed 33 Comanche chiefs and warriors.

00:26:56.859 --> 00:26:59.200
Which, in the context of Plains diplomacy, is

00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:01.859
a profound, unforgivable violation of diplomatic

00:27:01.859 --> 00:27:03.720
norms. Right, you don't do that. You do not kill

00:27:03.720 --> 00:27:06.259
emissaries under a flag of truce. The Comanche

00:27:06.259 --> 00:27:08.660
retaliated with the great rate of 1840, driving

00:27:08.660 --> 00:27:11.140
hundreds of miles to the Texas coast, sacking

00:27:11.140 --> 00:27:14.339
towns and taking immense plunder. The violence

00:27:14.339 --> 00:27:17.150
escalated exponentially. But let's look at the

00:27:17.150 --> 00:27:19.730
mechanics of Lamar's hardline stance. I hear

00:27:19.730 --> 00:27:21.750
people say, well, it was a brutal time. You needed

00:27:21.750 --> 00:27:24.690
a strong hand to secure the frontier. Yeah. Did

00:27:24.690 --> 00:27:27.710
Lamar's aggressive militarization actually weaken

00:27:27.710 --> 00:27:30.750
Texas's overall stability compared to Houston's

00:27:30.750 --> 00:27:33.210
diplomacy? Because the financial numbers in the

00:27:33.210 --> 00:27:36.549
sources are shocking. Unquestionably, Lamar weakened

00:27:36.549 --> 00:27:40.470
Texas. War is incredibly astronomically expensive.

00:27:40.750 --> 00:27:44.410
You have to pay militias by horses, secure gunpowder

00:27:44.410 --> 00:27:46.910
and maintain supply. over massive distances.

00:27:47.430 --> 00:27:49.730
Right. Lamar's ideological drive for removal

00:27:49.730 --> 00:27:52.250
completely ignored the economic and logistical

00:27:52.250 --> 00:27:54.869
realities of his young nation. The cost of his

00:27:54.869 --> 00:27:57.450
Indian wars ended up exceeding the annual revenue

00:27:57.450 --> 00:27:59.450
of the Texas government for his entire four -year

00:27:59.450 --> 00:28:01.930
term. He bankrupted them. He literally bankrupted

00:28:01.930 --> 00:28:04.500
the Republic. The currency collapsed. When Sam

00:28:04.500 --> 00:28:06.299
Houston returned for a second term as president,

00:28:06.420 --> 00:28:08.559
the government was so broke, he immediately had

00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:10.940
to resume diplomacy and sign treaties just to

00:28:10.940 --> 00:28:13.440
stop the fiscal bleeding. It's a classic example

00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:16.119
of ideology blinding leadership to logistics.

00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:19.039
But the conflict between Texas settlers and the

00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:21.900
Comanche generated stories that transcend the

00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:24.339
politics and get right to the human core of this

00:28:24.339 --> 00:28:27.819
era. Yes. The sources highlight the deeply complex,

00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:30.579
multi -generational saga of the Parker family.

00:28:30.819 --> 00:28:34.000
It starts in 1836 during the Fort Parker Massacre

00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:36.440
when a nine -year -old girl named Cynthia Ann

00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:39.920
Parker is abducted by a Comanche war party. Now

00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:42.940
captive taking was a standard economic and demographic

00:28:42.940 --> 00:28:45.960
practice for the Comanche. They integrated captives

00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:48.339
into the tribe to bolster their numbers. Right.

00:28:48.420 --> 00:28:50.420
Cynthia Ann didn't just survive this abduction.

00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:53.400
She completely assimilated. She forgot her English.

00:28:53.779 --> 00:28:55.980
She grew up within the tribe, embraced their

00:28:55.980 --> 00:28:58.480
culture, married a prominent Comanche chief named

00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:01.559
Pedder Nakona, and had three children. Wow. For

00:29:01.559 --> 00:29:04.079
all intents and purposes, she became fully Comanche

00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:06.200
in her identity and her heart. But the tragedy

00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:08.839
of her story is what happens decades later. In

00:29:08.839 --> 00:29:11.779
1860, Texas Rangers attack a Comanche camp at

00:29:11.779 --> 00:29:14.799
the Battle of Pease River. They realize one of

00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:17.019
the women they've captured has blue eyes. They've

00:29:17.019 --> 00:29:18.859
recaptured Cynthia Ann Parker, but she didn't

00:29:18.859 --> 00:29:21.259
want to be recaptured. No, she didn't. She was

00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:23.619
taken back to her white relatives against her

00:29:23.619 --> 00:29:26.420
will. She was essentially a prisoner in white

00:29:26.420 --> 00:29:29.619
society, deeply mourning the loss of her Comanche

00:29:29.619 --> 00:29:32.200
husband and her children, attempting to escape

00:29:32.200 --> 00:29:34.839
multiple times until she literally starved herself

00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:38.160
in grief. It's so sad. It is a devastating story

00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:42.059
of a woman torn between two warring worlds. And

00:29:42.059 --> 00:29:45.099
the legacy of that tear is embodied in her son,

00:29:45.339 --> 00:29:47.380
Kwana Parker. Kwana Park. He was not captured

00:29:47.380 --> 00:29:49.460
at Peace River. He remains with the Comanche.

00:29:50.109 --> 00:29:52.730
And the son of an abducted Texas settler and

00:29:52.730 --> 00:29:55.170
a Comanche chief grows up to become one of the

00:29:55.170 --> 00:29:58.150
most fierce, brilliant, and famous Comanche war

00:29:58.150 --> 00:30:00.529
chiefs in history. It's incredible. He leads

00:30:00.529 --> 00:30:02.829
the Quahadi Band of the Comanche during the Red

00:30:02.829 --> 00:30:05.289
River War, fighting desperately against the U

00:30:05.289 --> 00:30:07.970
.S. military at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls.

00:30:08.109 --> 00:30:10.569
He is the ultimate synthesis of this frontier

00:30:10.569 --> 00:30:13.690
collision. But even Quanah Parker, with all his

00:30:13.690 --> 00:30:16.269
tactical brilliance, cannot defeat the logistical

00:30:16.269 --> 00:30:19.650
machine of the United States. In 1875, facing

00:30:19.650 --> 00:30:21.509
the overwhelming force of the federal government,

00:30:21.869 --> 00:30:24.269
the destruction of their horse herds, and the

00:30:24.269 --> 00:30:26.529
systemic, deliberate slaughter of the buffalo

00:30:26.529 --> 00:30:29.430
herds that the Comanche relied on for food, Quanah

00:30:29.430 --> 00:30:32.809
Parker realizes the era of the equestrian empire

00:30:32.809 --> 00:30:36.400
is over. He surrenders and leads his people to

00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:39.819
a reservation in Oklahoma, where he incredibly

00:30:39.819 --> 00:30:42.119
transforms himself again, becoming a wealthy

00:30:42.119 --> 00:30:44.980
rancher and a pragmatic political advocate for

00:30:44.980 --> 00:30:47.960
his people. The Parker family saga is the perfect

00:30:47.960 --> 00:30:50.980
encapsulation of this era. It's a multi -generational

00:30:50.980 --> 00:30:53.759
tragedy of two worlds colliding, merging, and

00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:56.279
ultimately tearing each other apart. But as Texas

00:30:56.279 --> 00:30:58.160
was locked in this 40 -year struggle with the

00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:00.859
Comanche, the broader map of the United States

00:31:00.859 --> 00:31:03.500
was changing at lightning speed. And this is

00:31:03.500 --> 00:31:05.599
where the sheer volume of westward migration

00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:08.119
fundamentally breaks whatever existing equilibrium

00:31:08.119 --> 00:31:10.259
remained in the West. Which brings us to the

00:31:10.259 --> 00:31:12.660
Pacific Northwest and the Great Basin, roughly

00:31:12.660 --> 00:31:16.259
the 1840s to the 1870s. For a long time, the

00:31:16.259 --> 00:31:18.180
central plains were just viewed as a highway

00:31:18.180 --> 00:31:20.920
to get to the coast. You have the Oregon Trail

00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:23.160
bringing thousands of wagons full of farmers.

00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:26.220
You have the Mormon pioneers settling in the

00:31:26.220 --> 00:31:28.660
Utah territory to escape religious persecution.

00:31:28.839 --> 00:31:32.779
Yes. And then you have explosive paradigm events,

00:31:33.140 --> 00:31:35.440
the gold rushes. The gold rushes changed everything.

00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:38.980
California in 1849, Pike's Peak in Colorado,

00:31:39.579 --> 00:31:42.940
the gold strikes in Montana and Idaho. Suddenly,

00:31:43.559 --> 00:31:46.099
regions that had seen very light European presence

00:31:46.099 --> 00:31:49.140
are flooded with hundreds of thousands of prospectors

00:31:49.140 --> 00:31:52.440
and settlers overnight. And this creates immense

00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:54.799
immediate pressure on the environment. These

00:31:54.799 --> 00:31:57.039
settlers required roads, they required massive

00:31:57.039 --> 00:31:59.079
amounts of timber, they needed food supplies,

00:31:59.400 --> 00:32:01.000
and they demanded security from the government.

00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:03.019
Of course. The carrying capacity of the land

00:32:03.019 --> 00:32:05.980
was stretched past the breaking point. This demographic

00:32:05.980 --> 00:32:08.900
bomb led to officials, like the Washington Territory

00:32:08.900 --> 00:32:11.460
Governor Isaac Stevens, using highly questionable

00:32:11.460 --> 00:32:14.099
tactics to clear the land. The sources mentioned

00:32:14.099 --> 00:32:17.089
Stevens specifically. How did he operate? Stevens

00:32:17.089 --> 00:32:19.690
essentially used intimidation, coercion, and

00:32:19.690 --> 00:32:22.349
the threat of military force to compel tribes

00:32:22.349 --> 00:32:25.470
in the Pacific Northwest to sign treaties, ceding

00:32:25.470 --> 00:32:27.990
massive amounts of prime land in exchange for

00:32:27.990 --> 00:32:30.569
unrealistically small resource -poor reservations.

00:32:31.230 --> 00:32:33.890
He would dictate the terms, often through terrible

00:32:33.890 --> 00:32:36.450
translations, and demand immediate signatures.

00:32:36.779 --> 00:32:39.200
And when you push people onto unlivable land

00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:41.779
and destroy their traditional salmon fishing

00:32:41.779 --> 00:32:44.359
or hunting grounds, the violence isn't a surprise.

00:32:44.519 --> 00:32:47.019
It's inevitable. Exactly. We see this erupt in

00:32:47.019 --> 00:32:50.119
the Yakima War and the Puget Sound War. The sources

00:32:50.119 --> 00:32:53.039
detail the fate of Nisqually Chief Leske, who

00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:55.460
was a central figure in resisting Stephen's treaties.

00:32:56.119 --> 00:32:58.380
The territorial government put him on trial and

00:32:58.380 --> 00:33:01.059
hanged him for murder in 1858. Yeah. But what

00:33:01.059 --> 00:33:03.160
is absolutely incredible about this specific

00:33:03.160 --> 00:33:06.869
case is the historical postscript. In 2004, the

00:33:06.869 --> 00:33:09.269
state of Washington officially convened a historical

00:33:09.269 --> 00:33:12.529
court and formally exonerated Chief Listy. That

00:33:12.529 --> 00:33:14.490
historical revision is a recurring theme when

00:33:14.490 --> 00:33:17.630
we look closely at this era. It took almost 150

00:33:17.630 --> 00:33:19.710
years for the legal system to admit that Leshy

00:33:19.710 --> 00:33:22.410
was not a murderer. He was acting as a lawful

00:33:22.410 --> 00:33:25.039
combatant in a declared war. The initial trial

00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:28.240
was essentially a judicial assassination to remove

00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:30.480
a political obstacle. And the sources detail

00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:32.519
an even more chilling event just north of the

00:33:32.519 --> 00:33:36.880
border in British Columbia in 1862. We know disease

00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:39.279
was a massive factor in the demographic collapse

00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:42.299
of Native Americans, but usually we think of

00:33:42.299 --> 00:33:44.940
it as an unintentional tragedy, viruses moving

00:33:44.940 --> 00:33:47.829
faster than people. Right. But this incident

00:33:47.829 --> 00:33:50.690
in B .C. was different. Very different. Yes.

00:33:50.789 --> 00:33:53.509
There was a devastating smallpox epidemic sweeping

00:33:53.509 --> 00:33:56.170
the Pacific Northwest. But the sources point

00:33:56.170 --> 00:33:58.789
to a specific incident where workers building

00:33:58.789 --> 00:34:01.329
a road through Silkwood and territory without

00:34:01.329 --> 00:34:03.549
permission actively and intentionally threatened

00:34:03.549 --> 00:34:05.809
the native people with smallpox. They weaponized

00:34:05.809 --> 00:34:08.170
the disease. They essentially said, if you stop

00:34:08.170 --> 00:34:10.469
us from building this road, we will unleash this

00:34:10.469 --> 00:34:13.400
plague on your villages. And when the Stilquin

00:34:13.400 --> 00:34:15.639
fought back against this existential threat in

00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:19.000
what became the Chilcotin War of 1864, the colonial

00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:21.679
government lured six of their chiefs into a peace

00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:24.440
parlay, arrested them, and hanged them. Just

00:34:24.440 --> 00:34:27.329
like she fleshy. And just like Chief Lessie,

00:34:27.550 --> 00:34:30.309
these chiefs were formally exonerated in 2014

00:34:30.309 --> 00:34:33.190
by the British Columbia premier, who officially

00:34:33.190 --> 00:34:35.170
acknowledged that there is strong evidence the

00:34:35.170 --> 00:34:37.750
smallpox was spread intentionally by the colonists.

00:34:38.150 --> 00:34:40.489
It demonstrates a horrifying reality of how these

00:34:40.489 --> 00:34:42.650
lands were taken. The conflicts weren't always

00:34:42.650 --> 00:34:45.449
formal military cavalry charges. Sometimes the

00:34:45.449 --> 00:34:47.610
violence was biological. Right. Sometimes it

00:34:47.610 --> 00:34:50.110
was judicial. Sometimes it was intrastructural.

00:34:50.349 --> 00:34:54.389
But it was always fundamentally about resource

00:34:54.389 --> 00:34:57.989
extraction. gold, timber, and land. And that

00:34:57.989 --> 00:34:59.909
relentless pressure, that closing of the vice

00:34:59.909 --> 00:35:02.630
from all sides, led to some of the most astonishing

00:35:02.630 --> 00:35:05.469
military feats in history as tribes tried desperately

00:35:05.469 --> 00:35:09.389
to escape. In 1877, the Nez Perce tribe in the

00:35:09.389 --> 00:35:11.610
Pacific Northwest faced the appropriation of

00:35:11.610 --> 00:35:14.010
their ancestral lands and a sudden gold rush

00:35:14.010 --> 00:35:16.809
in Idaho. The Nez Perce War. The government ordered

00:35:16.809 --> 00:35:19.349
them onto a fraction of their land. A faction

00:35:19.349 --> 00:35:21.409
of the tribe refused and decided to flee toward

00:35:21.409 --> 00:35:24.389
Canada, led by Chief Joseph. And it is a master

00:35:24.389 --> 00:35:26.670
class in tactical retreat. A band of about 800

00:35:26.670 --> 00:35:28.530
Nez persons. We must remember this isn't just

00:35:28.530 --> 00:35:30.630
a military unit. We're talking about 800 men,

00:35:30.650 --> 00:35:33.469
women, children, and the elderly. Whole families.

00:35:33.610 --> 00:35:36.469
Bringing their entire horse herd with them. They

00:35:36.469 --> 00:35:40.449
fled for four months, covering over 1 ,200 miles

00:35:40.449 --> 00:35:44.079
of incredibly rugged mountainous terrain. Imagine

00:35:44.079 --> 00:35:46.980
that logistics problem. Imagine walking from

00:35:46.980 --> 00:35:49.320
New York to Florida through the Rocky Mountains

00:35:49.320 --> 00:35:52.059
with your entire extended family, your grandparents,

00:35:52.260 --> 00:35:54.480
your toddlers, carrying whatever you can hold.

00:35:55.389 --> 00:35:57.289
And you weren't just walking, you were constantly

00:35:57.289 --> 00:35:59.510
fighting off the U .S. cavalry. Over the course

00:35:59.510 --> 00:36:03.050
of those 1 ,200 miles, they engaged 2 ,000 American

00:36:03.050 --> 00:36:05.789
soldiers across 18 different engagements, including

00:36:05.789 --> 00:36:09.090
four major pitched battles. Incredible. Chief

00:36:09.090 --> 00:36:11.309
Joseph and his brother, Ullekit, along with other

00:36:11.309 --> 00:36:14.570
leaders, utilized brilliant rearguard actions,

00:36:14.949 --> 00:36:17.989
constantly outmaneuvering a modern, well -supplied,

00:36:18.329 --> 00:36:21.250
telegraph -connected military force. They finally

00:36:21.250 --> 00:36:23.469
surrendered just 40 miles short of the Canadian

00:36:23.469 --> 00:36:26.019
border, pinned down in freezing weather. I am

00:36:26.019 --> 00:36:28.099
genuinely curious how this was viewed by the

00:36:28.099 --> 00:36:29.659
American public at the time because you have

00:36:29.659 --> 00:36:32.300
the Telegraph now. Newspapers are reporting on

00:36:32.300 --> 00:36:35.099
this chase daily. Did the public just see the

00:36:35.099 --> 00:36:38.000
Nez Perce as an enemy to be crushed or did they

00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:40.739
recognize the sheer undeniable heroism of what

00:36:40.739 --> 00:36:42.900
Chief Joseph was doing trying to protect his

00:36:42.900 --> 00:36:45.260
families? It's one of the great paradoxes of

00:36:45.260 --> 00:36:48.059
the era. Many military officers who fought them

00:36:48.059 --> 00:36:50.239
and large segments of the American public reading

00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:53.420
the newspapers greatly admired Chief Joseph and

00:36:53.420 --> 00:36:57.000
the Nez Perce. Really? Yes. They respected their

00:36:57.000 --> 00:36:59.760
conduct, their refusal to scalp fallen soldiers,

00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:03.360
and their undeniable tactical genius. General

00:37:03.360 --> 00:37:06.079
William Tecumseh Sherman, who was not known for

00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:08.760
his gentle views on Native Americans, publicly

00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:11.840
praised their fighting ability. Wow. But here's

00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:15.150
the tragic reality. that admiration didn't change

00:37:15.150 --> 00:37:17.989
the policy. Admiration didn't equate to sovereignty.

00:37:18.630 --> 00:37:21.329
That is a heavy truth. You can respect the enemy's

00:37:21.329 --> 00:37:23.869
bravery all you want. But if the federal mandate

00:37:23.869 --> 00:37:26.250
is to take the land and contain them on a reservation,

00:37:26.730 --> 00:37:28.710
the machinery of the state is going to grind

00:37:28.710 --> 00:37:31.230
forward regardless of public sentiment. And while

00:37:31.230 --> 00:37:33.409
the tribes of the Pacific and the Great Basin

00:37:33.409 --> 00:37:35.969
were being cornered, The central heart of the

00:37:35.969 --> 00:37:38.110
country, the Great Plains, was about to become

00:37:38.110 --> 00:37:41.230
the stage for the final, most infamous clashes

00:37:41.230 --> 00:37:44.349
of this entire 300 -year history. The closing

00:37:44.349 --> 00:37:47.010
of the frontier. We are moving into the 1860s

00:37:47.010 --> 00:37:50.329
through the 1890s now. And the historical context

00:37:50.329 --> 00:37:53.019
here is vital. The American Civil War is broken

00:37:53.019 --> 00:37:55.679
out. The regular U .S. Army troops who had been

00:37:55.679 --> 00:37:58.000
stationed out west are recalled back east to

00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:00.440
fight the Confederacy. To fill the void, the

00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:02.840
government authorizes the creation of volunteer

00:38:02.840 --> 00:38:06.119
militias. And these militias, like the Colorado

00:38:06.119 --> 00:38:09.119
volunteers, were composed of local frontier dwelling

00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:12.460
men who had a deeply ingrained, extremely hostile

00:38:12.460 --> 00:38:14.760
settler mentality. Yes, and that is key. They

00:38:14.760 --> 00:38:16.920
weren't professional soldiers following strict

00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:19.849
rules of engagement. Many of them favored the

00:38:19.849 --> 00:38:22.630
outright extermination of Native Americans. This

00:38:22.630 --> 00:38:25.610
shift in military personnel is crucial to understanding

00:38:25.610 --> 00:38:28.769
the escalation of atrocities on the plains. When

00:38:28.769 --> 00:38:31.230
you give military authority to local militias

00:38:31.230 --> 00:38:34.250
whose primary goal is land clearance rather than

00:38:34.250 --> 00:38:37.230
strategic pacification, you remove all restraints.

00:38:37.489 --> 00:38:41.130
This dynamic leads directly to horrors like the

00:38:41.130 --> 00:38:44.570
Sand Creek Massacre in 1864. The sources are

00:38:44.570 --> 00:38:47.789
incredibly stark on this event. Let me set the

00:38:47.789 --> 00:38:49.730
scene neutrally, just reporting the facts from

00:38:49.730 --> 00:38:53.320
the text. The Colorado Territory Militia, led

00:38:53.320 --> 00:38:55.739
by Colonel John Chivington, approached a camp

00:38:55.739 --> 00:38:58.360
of Cheyenne and Arapaho along Sand Creek. Right.

00:38:58.579 --> 00:39:00.679
This was a peaceful camp. They had been assured

00:39:00.679 --> 00:39:03.340
protection by the U .S. government. The camp

00:39:03.340 --> 00:39:05.719
leader, Black Kettle, was actually flying an

00:39:05.719 --> 00:39:08.260
American flag and a white flag of truce above

00:39:08.260 --> 00:39:10.940
his lodge. Yes. But the militia was operating

00:39:10.940 --> 00:39:13.400
under orders to take no prisoners. They attacked

00:39:13.400 --> 00:39:16.159
the sleeping camp. They killed roughly 200 people.

00:39:16.400 --> 00:39:19.099
And the sources explicitly state that two -thirds

00:39:19.099 --> 00:39:21.139
of the victims were women. in children. It's

00:39:21.139 --> 00:39:23.900
horrific. They mutilated the bodies, took scalps,

00:39:24.099 --> 00:39:25.719
and paraded the trophies through the streets

00:39:25.719 --> 00:39:28.380
of Denver. It wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter.

00:39:28.639 --> 00:39:30.739
And the strategic consequence of that massacre

00:39:30.739 --> 00:39:34.139
was a massive violent conflagration. It proved

00:39:34.139 --> 00:39:36.219
to the native tribes that peace treaties and

00:39:36.219 --> 00:39:38.039
white flags were meaningless. Why would you ever

00:39:38.039 --> 00:39:41.599
trust them again? Exactly. It ignited a fierce

00:39:41.599 --> 00:39:44.360
retribution, particularly from the Cheyenne dog

00:39:44.360 --> 00:39:47.320
soldiers, a highly militarized warrior society.

00:39:47.860 --> 00:39:50.059
It essentially set the entire Great Plains on

00:39:50.059 --> 00:39:53.000
fire. You see a similar dynamic in the Dakota

00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:57.050
War of 1862 in Minnesota. That conflict was driven

00:39:57.050 --> 00:40:00.429
by systematic treaty violations, corrupt Indian

00:40:00.429 --> 00:40:03.409
agents withholding food, and literal starvation

00:40:03.409 --> 00:40:05.650
among the Dakota Sioux. Yeah. When they finally

00:40:05.650 --> 00:40:08.230
violently rebelled, the US military response

00:40:08.230 --> 00:40:11.210
was overwhelming. The conflict ended with the

00:40:11.210 --> 00:40:14.409
trial and hanging of 38 Dakota Sioux men in Mankato,

00:40:14.829 --> 00:40:17.449
Minnesota. To this day, that remained the largest

00:40:17.449 --> 00:40:19.949
penal mass execution in United States history.

00:40:20.139 --> 00:40:21.739
I want to pause here for a second because we

00:40:21.739 --> 00:40:24.480
are wading through some extremely violent historically

00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:26.539
charged events and I want to remind you, the

00:40:26.539 --> 00:40:28.619
listener, of our mission today. Good point. We're

00:40:28.619 --> 00:40:31.059
looking at these sources to understand the mechanics

00:40:31.059 --> 00:40:33.079
of what happened. We are neutrally reporting

00:40:33.079 --> 00:40:35.219
the harsh facts provided in the text without

00:40:35.219 --> 00:40:37.559
taking political sides because the history itself

00:40:37.559 --> 00:40:40.039
is heavy enough and understanding the strategic

00:40:40.039 --> 00:40:42.699
reality requires us to look at it unflinchingly.

00:40:43.440 --> 00:40:45.539
And understanding the evolution of the military

00:40:45.539 --> 00:40:48.340
strategy is essential. Because after the Civil

00:40:48.340 --> 00:40:51.519
War ends in 1865, the regular professional U

00:40:51.519 --> 00:40:54.519
.S. Army returns to the plains. And the command

00:40:54.519 --> 00:40:56.900
eventually falls to figures like General Philip

00:40:56.900 --> 00:40:59.840
Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman. These

00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:01.739
are men who had just spent four years fighting

00:41:01.739 --> 00:41:04.579
the bloodiest conflict in American history. They

00:41:04.579 --> 00:41:07.019
bring the concept of total war, the strategy

00:41:07.019 --> 00:41:09.480
of destroying the enemy's economy and infrastructure,

00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:12.139
which they use to break the Confederacy out to

00:41:12.139 --> 00:41:14.400
the frontier. This raises an important question

00:41:14.400 --> 00:41:16.809
regarding this shift to total war. The sources

00:41:16.809 --> 00:41:19.829
spend a lot of time detailing Sheridan's specific

00:41:19.829 --> 00:41:23.130
strategy of winter campaigns. Yes. Why winter?

00:41:23.809 --> 00:41:26.070
From a logistical standpoint, fighting a war

00:41:26.070 --> 00:41:28.670
in the Dakotas or Montana in the middle of January

00:41:28.670 --> 00:41:32.329
seems suicidal for an army. It seems counterintuitive,

00:41:32.369 --> 00:41:35.530
but it was a cold, calculated logistical masterstroke.

00:41:35.989 --> 00:41:37.869
Also. Sheridan realized that during the spring

00:41:37.869 --> 00:41:40.250
and summer, the Plains Indians were practically

00:41:40.250 --> 00:41:42.610
invincible. They were highly mobile. Their horses

00:41:42.610 --> 00:41:44.769
were strong from grazing on the prairie grass.

00:41:45.010 --> 00:41:47.150
They had plentiful buffalo to hunt, and they

00:41:47.150 --> 00:41:49.590
could easily outmaneuver the slow moving cavalry

00:41:49.590 --> 00:41:52.670
columns. OK, sure. But in the winter, the entire

00:41:52.670 --> 00:41:55.829
paradigm shifted. The plains freeze. The grass

00:41:55.829 --> 00:41:58.530
dies. The tribes had to hunker down in sheltered

00:41:58.530 --> 00:42:01.690
river valleys. Their horses, surviving only on

00:42:01.690 --> 00:42:04.369
cottonwood bark, became weak and emaciated. They

00:42:04.369 --> 00:42:06.550
couldn't move their villages quickly. So Sheridan

00:42:06.550 --> 00:42:08.969
decides to launch campaigns in the freezing cold.

00:42:09.190 --> 00:42:12.050
His goal isn't necessarily to engage warriors

00:42:12.050 --> 00:42:14.289
in open battle. His goal is to destroy their

00:42:14.289 --> 00:42:16.809
logistics, to burn their food stores, burn their

00:42:16.809 --> 00:42:19.309
teepees, and destroy their transportation. Exactly.

00:42:19.690 --> 00:42:22.070
You don't win against a nomadic cavalry by trying

00:42:22.070 --> 00:42:24.989
to hold empty territory. You win by destroying

00:42:24.989 --> 00:42:27.570
their ability to survive the winter. Wow. Which

00:42:27.570 --> 00:42:29.710
is exactly the tactic utilized at the Battle

00:42:29.710 --> 00:42:34.000
of Washita River in 1868. General George Custer,

00:42:34.179 --> 00:42:36.820
under Sheridan's command, tracks a Cheyenne camp,

00:42:37.119 --> 00:42:39.400
ironically, Black Kettle's camp again, through

00:42:39.400 --> 00:42:42.019
the snow. Wow, Black Kettle again. They attack

00:42:42.019 --> 00:42:44.679
at dawn. They kill an estimated 100 Indians and

00:42:44.679 --> 00:42:48.280
take 50 prisoners. But the most significant strategic

00:42:48.280 --> 00:42:51.219
move happens after the shooting stops. Custer

00:42:51.219 --> 00:42:53.400
orders his men to round up the native horse herd,

00:42:53.739 --> 00:42:57.480
and they systematically shoot 675 ponies. They

00:42:57.480 --> 00:43:00.690
slaughtered the horses. Yes. Sheridan's winter

00:43:00.690 --> 00:43:03.110
campaign strategy seems like the brutal turning

00:43:03.110 --> 00:43:06.130
point of the entire 300 -year history. That was

00:43:06.130 --> 00:43:08.590
the moment the military realized conventional

00:43:08.590 --> 00:43:11.590
warfare wouldn't work, so they targeted the fuel

00:43:11.590 --> 00:43:14.090
of the nomadic culture itself. Exactly right.

00:43:14.349 --> 00:43:16.869
Shooting those 675 ponies wasn't just an act

00:43:16.869 --> 00:43:19.550
of cruelty. It was a calculated logistical strike

00:43:19.550 --> 00:43:22.070
designed to ensure the survivors could not hunt,

00:43:22.429 --> 00:43:24.610
could not flee, and would be forced to walk to

00:43:24.610 --> 00:43:26.929
the reservations to avoid freezing or starving

00:43:26.929 --> 00:43:29.320
to death. And this strategy of immense pressure

00:43:29.320 --> 00:43:31.320
builds toward the crescendo of the Black Hills

00:43:31.320 --> 00:43:34.940
War in 1876. The Black Hills War. The context

00:43:34.940 --> 00:43:37.820
here is purely economic. Gold is discovered in

00:43:37.820 --> 00:43:40.039
the Black Hills of South Dakota. Now, this land

00:43:40.039 --> 00:43:42.719
was profoundly sacred to the Lakota Sioux. And

00:43:42.719 --> 00:43:45.840
more importantly, it was legally explicitly promised

00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:48.559
to them in perpetuity by the U .S. government

00:43:48.559 --> 00:43:50.440
in the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Right. They had

00:43:50.440 --> 00:43:52.079
a treaty. But the government decides they want

00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:56.400
the gold. So they issue an ultimatum. All Lakota

00:43:56.400 --> 00:43:59.079
must return to the reservations by January 31st,

00:43:59.099 --> 00:44:03.739
1876, or be considered hostile. The tribes, led

00:44:03.739 --> 00:44:05.920
by figures like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse,

00:44:06.659 --> 00:44:09.059
refuse to abandon their sacred land. Which leads

00:44:09.059 --> 00:44:12.000
directly to the most famous, heavily mythologized

00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:14.579
battle of the entire era, the Battle of the Little

00:44:14.579 --> 00:44:17.639
Byhorn. Yes. General George Custer is sent to

00:44:17.639 --> 00:44:20.380
force them back. He finds a massive encampment

00:44:20.380 --> 00:44:23.199
of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho along

00:44:23.199 --> 00:44:25.840
the Little Byhorn River. He splits his forces,

00:44:26.400 --> 00:44:28.099
completely miscalculates the size of the camp,

00:44:28.340 --> 00:44:31.500
gets cut off, and his entire command over 250

00:44:31.500 --> 00:44:34.400
men is annihilated by Native forces. It is an

00:44:34.400 --> 00:44:37.130
overwhelming, spectacular Native victory. But

00:44:37.130 --> 00:44:39.269
from a strategic standpoint, it seals their doom.

00:44:39.789 --> 00:44:42.190
The shock of Custer's defeat galvanizes the U

00:44:42.190 --> 00:44:44.170
.S. government to pour massive resources into

00:44:44.170 --> 00:44:46.650
the region, relentlessly pursuing the tribes

00:44:46.650 --> 00:44:48.909
until they are starved into submission. What

00:44:48.909 --> 00:44:50.829
the sources note about the cultural aftermath

00:44:50.829 --> 00:44:52.889
of Little Bihorn is deeply revealing about how

00:44:52.889 --> 00:44:54.809
this history was processed and packaged for the

00:44:54.809 --> 00:44:57.369
American public. Oh, this detail fascinated me.

00:44:57.730 --> 00:45:00.050
The Anheuser -Busch Brewing Company actually

00:45:00.050 --> 00:45:03.989
commissioned lithograph prints of a wildly inaccurate

00:45:03.989 --> 00:45:07.039
romanticized painting called Custer's last fight.

00:45:07.360 --> 00:45:09.699
Yeah they did. And they distributed these prints

00:45:09.699 --> 00:45:13.260
to be framed and hung in saloons all across America

00:45:13.260 --> 00:45:16.699
as an advertising campaign for their beer. It's

00:45:16.699 --> 00:45:19.480
a perfect example of immediate industrialized

00:45:19.480 --> 00:45:23.000
myth making. The military reality of a devastating

00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:26.239
hubristic defeat was instantly transformed into

00:45:26.239 --> 00:45:29.210
a romanticized tragic martyrdom. It's crazy.

00:45:29.349 --> 00:45:31.269
It painted Custer as a valiant hero fighting

00:45:31.269 --> 00:45:34.289
off savages, which served to justify even harsher

00:45:34.289 --> 00:45:36.929
crackdowns and further land seizures. It shaped

00:45:36.929 --> 00:45:39.090
the American mythos right there in the local

00:45:39.090 --> 00:45:42.269
saloon over a pint of beer. And the final tragic

00:45:42.269 --> 00:45:44.510
culmination of this era, the event that officially

00:45:44.510 --> 00:45:46.909
breaks the back of the resistance, happens 14

00:45:46.909 --> 00:45:50.070
years later in 1890. The Wounded Knee Massacre.

00:45:50.170 --> 00:45:52.230
Right. To understand wounded knee, you have to

00:45:52.230 --> 00:45:54.210
understand the ghost dance. OK, let's talk about

00:45:54.210 --> 00:45:57.139
that. By 1890, the Plains tribes are confined

00:45:57.139 --> 00:45:59.659
to reservations. The buffalo are gone. Disease

00:45:59.659 --> 00:46:02.460
and starvation are rampant. The culture is collapsing.

00:46:03.619 --> 00:46:05.840
Out of this despair emerges a religious movement

00:46:05.840 --> 00:46:08.800
called the Ghost Dance, started by a Paiute prophet

00:46:08.800 --> 00:46:12.099
named Wavoka. The theological belief was that

00:46:12.099 --> 00:46:14.739
if the people danced and prayed, the white settlers

00:46:14.739 --> 00:46:17.500
would disappear, the buffalo would return, and

00:46:17.500 --> 00:46:19.980
their ancestors would rise from the dead. It

00:46:19.980 --> 00:46:23.019
was a spiritual movement of profound, desperate

00:46:23.019 --> 00:46:25.760
hope. But the U .S. Indian agents in the military

00:46:25.760 --> 00:46:28.199
see thousands of Native Americans gathering and

00:46:28.199 --> 00:46:30.420
dancing, and they interpret it as the prelude

00:46:30.420 --> 00:46:33.760
to a massive armed rebellion. Exactly. The military

00:46:33.760 --> 00:46:36.619
moves in to disarm a Lakota band led by spotted

00:46:36.619 --> 00:46:39.320
elk at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

00:46:39.980 --> 00:46:42.019
During the disarmament, a scuffle breaks out,

00:46:42.219 --> 00:46:44.659
a rifle discharges, and the situation instantly

00:46:44.659 --> 00:46:47.400
devolves into a massacre. Devastating. The soldiers,

00:46:47.400 --> 00:46:49.780
utilizing rapid -fire Hotchkiss mountain guns,

00:46:50.280 --> 00:46:53.059
pour fire into the camp. They kill up to 300

00:46:52.969 --> 00:46:55.750
Lakota, mostly old men, women, and children fleeing

00:46:55.750 --> 00:46:58.489
into the snow. It is widely considered the closing

00:46:58.489 --> 00:47:00.690
chapter of the major Indian Wars. The resistance

00:47:00.690 --> 00:47:04.150
was broken. But what the sources highlight is

00:47:04.150 --> 00:47:07.230
the incredibly harsh, unyielding sentiment of

00:47:07.230 --> 00:47:10.289
the American public at the time. They quote a

00:47:10.289 --> 00:47:12.789
newspaper editorial written mere days after the

00:47:12.789 --> 00:47:15.550
Wounded Knee Massacre. And the author of this

00:47:15.550 --> 00:47:18.539
editorial was L. Frank Baum. The man who would

00:47:18.539 --> 00:47:21.260
go on to write The Wizard of Oz, the beloved

00:47:21.260 --> 00:47:23.780
children's author, and what he wrote in 1890

00:47:23.780 --> 00:47:27.539
is chilling. He wrote that our only safety depends

00:47:27.539 --> 00:47:29.900
upon the total extermination of the Indians.

00:47:30.500 --> 00:47:32.840
We had better, in order to protect our civilization,

00:47:33.480 --> 00:47:36.039
follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these

00:47:36.039 --> 00:47:38.300
untamed and untameable creatures from the face

00:47:38.300 --> 00:47:40.579
of the earth. He's shocking. The creator of Oz

00:47:40.579 --> 00:47:44.030
publicly calling for genocide. It perfectly demonstrates

00:47:44.030 --> 00:47:46.550
how deeply ingrained the ideology of complete

00:47:46.550 --> 00:47:48.690
erasure had become in the mainstream American

00:47:48.690 --> 00:47:51.230
consciousness by the close of the 19th century.

00:47:51.730 --> 00:47:53.929
The frontier was closed and the Indian problem

00:47:53.929 --> 00:47:56.130
in the eyes of the public needed to be permanently

00:47:56.130 --> 00:47:58.619
solved. I just want to pause and let the gravity

00:47:58.619 --> 00:48:01.360
of Wounded Knee and that L. Frank Baum editorial

00:48:01.360 --> 00:48:04.940
settle for a moment, because to truly grasp the

00:48:04.940 --> 00:48:07.840
scope of these three centuries of conflict, we

00:48:07.840 --> 00:48:09.820
need to step back from the individual battles

00:48:09.820 --> 00:48:12.219
and look at the final overarching demographic

00:48:12.219 --> 00:48:14.940
numbers. The demographic toll is the true legacy

00:48:14.940 --> 00:48:17.860
of this era. The sources provide population estimates

00:48:17.860 --> 00:48:20.719
and the drop is mathematically staggering. Prior

00:48:20.719 --> 00:48:23.880
to European colonization in 1492, estimates for

00:48:23.880 --> 00:48:26.039
the native population in North America range

00:48:26.039 --> 00:48:29.320
wildly, but they sit anywhere from 2 .1 million

00:48:29.320 --> 00:48:32.840
to as high as 18 million. By the year 1800, shortly

00:48:32.840 --> 00:48:34.980
after the U .S. became independent and the European

00:48:34.980 --> 00:48:37.360
diseases had done their worst, that number in

00:48:37.360 --> 00:48:40.059
the U .S. area was down to roughly 600 ,000.

00:48:40.219 --> 00:48:43.099
And by 1890, the year of the Wounded Knee Massacre,

00:48:43.539 --> 00:48:45.599
the population had declined to a native of about

00:48:45.599 --> 00:48:50.000
250 ,000, from millions down to 600 ,000 down

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:53.300
to 250 ,000 scattered across isolated reservations.

00:48:53.599 --> 00:48:55.619
Let's go back to that U .S. Census Bureau report

00:48:55.619 --> 00:48:58.059
from 1894 that we opened the show with. They

00:48:58.059 --> 00:49:00.280
try to quantify the deaths due specifically to

00:49:00.280 --> 00:49:02.920
warfare over just the 102 years between the signing

00:49:02.920 --> 00:49:06.800
of the Constitution in 1789 and 1891. They estimated

00:49:06.800 --> 00:49:09.980
those wars cost the lives of about 19 ,000 white

00:49:09.980 --> 00:49:12.480
men, women, and children. And they estimated

00:49:12.480 --> 00:49:16.059
the lives of about 30 ,000 Indians, explicitly

00:49:16.059 --> 00:49:18.219
noting that the actual number of native deaths

00:49:18.219 --> 00:49:20.800
was likely 50 % higher. And we must remember

00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:24.190
that is just the death toll. from direct military

00:49:24.190 --> 00:49:27.469
combat over a single century. That does not account

00:49:27.469 --> 00:49:30.829
for the massive compounding mortality from Eurasian

00:49:30.829 --> 00:49:33.449
diseases like smallpox, cholera, and influenza.

00:49:34.110 --> 00:49:35.929
It doesn't account for the deaths from exposure

00:49:35.929 --> 00:49:38.190
and starvation on forced marches like the Trail

00:49:38.190 --> 00:49:40.710
of Tears. And it doesn't account for the total

00:49:40.710 --> 00:49:43.090
systemic disruption of traditional food networks

00:49:43.090 --> 00:49:45.829
like the deliberate destruction of the tens of

00:49:45.829 --> 00:49:48.329
millions of buffalo on the plains. So what does

00:49:48.329 --> 00:49:50.630
this all mean? When historians look back at this

00:49:50.630 --> 00:49:53.610
entire 300 -year span today with all this data,

00:49:54.050 --> 00:49:57.090
how do they categorize it? That is the core debate

00:49:57.090 --> 00:50:00.130
of modern historiography on this topic. Historians

00:50:00.130 --> 00:50:02.309
like Jeffrey Osler, who is cited in the text,

00:50:02.750 --> 00:50:05.429
argue that these events, when looked at in totality,

00:50:05.889 --> 00:50:07.969
the military campaigns, the forced removals,

00:50:08.150 --> 00:50:10.269
the destruction of resources, the deliberate

00:50:10.269 --> 00:50:12.670
withholding of rations, fit the modern legal

00:50:12.670 --> 00:50:15.409
definition of genocide. Other scholars debate

00:50:15.409 --> 00:50:17.909
the terminology, arguing about the specific legal

00:50:17.909 --> 00:50:21.550
requirement of intent versus the unintended consequences

00:50:21.550 --> 00:50:24.110
of disease. But what critical thinking requires

00:50:24.110 --> 00:50:26.690
of us here is looking at those stark numbers

00:50:26.690 --> 00:50:29.670
and understanding the mechanics. It wasn't just

00:50:29.670 --> 00:50:33.070
a series of isolated battles or unfortunate misunderstandings.

00:50:33.309 --> 00:50:35.710
It was a compounding catastrophe of displacement,

00:50:36.269 --> 00:50:39.090
warfare, and forced assimilation driven by an

00:50:39.090 --> 00:50:41.349
insatiable demand for land. I want you listening

00:50:41.349 --> 00:50:44.559
right now. To reflect on that scale, a population

00:50:44.559 --> 00:50:47.940
dropped from millions down to 250 ,000 over three

00:50:47.940 --> 00:50:50.980
centuries. Imagine trying to sustain a culture,

00:50:51.139 --> 00:50:54.139
a language, a family structure through 300 years

00:50:54.139 --> 00:50:57.119
of continuous geopolitical pressure. Almost unimaginable.

00:50:57.300 --> 00:50:59.820
It was a systemic, relentless machine of expansion

00:50:59.820 --> 00:51:02.179
that ground down incredibly resilient cultures.

00:51:02.539 --> 00:51:05.599
And it is absolutely vital to note that those

00:51:05.599 --> 00:51:08.619
cultures did survive. Yes, exactly. The population

00:51:08.619 --> 00:51:11.360
reached its lowest point around 1900, but it

00:51:11.360 --> 00:51:13.280
eventually began to recover and grow throughout

00:51:13.280 --> 00:51:16.780
the 20th century. The tribes adapted, survived,

00:51:17.039 --> 00:51:20.000
and persist today. But the physical and political

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:23.099
landscape of the continent was permanently, irrevocably

00:51:23.099 --> 00:51:26.000
altered by those three centuries. Which brings

00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:28.380
us to the end of our chronological journey today.

00:51:28.670 --> 00:51:31.889
We have traced a continuous threat of conflict

00:51:31.889 --> 00:51:34.909
from the early 1600s, where native tribes like

00:51:34.909 --> 00:51:37.510
the Iroquois played European empires against

00:51:37.510 --> 00:51:39.909
each other in a massive arms race over the fur

00:51:39.909 --> 00:51:42.670
trade. We watched that geopolitical chessboard

00:51:42.670 --> 00:51:44.929
fracture during the Revolutionary War leading

00:51:44.929 --> 00:51:47.630
to the betrayals of the Treaty of Paris. We waded

00:51:47.630 --> 00:51:49.730
into the grueling logistics of swamp warfare

00:51:49.730 --> 00:51:52.309
in Florida, witnessed the 70 -year reign of the

00:51:52.309 --> 00:51:54.969
Comanche equestrian empire in Texas, tracked

00:51:54.969 --> 00:51:58.070
Chief Joseph's agonizing 1 ,200 -mile retreat

00:51:58.059 --> 00:52:00.400
through the Pacific Northwest and finally arrived

00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:02.860
at the tragic freezing snows of Wounded Knee

00:52:02.860 --> 00:52:07.179
in 1890. It is a heavy, deeply complex history.

00:52:07.860 --> 00:52:10.780
It defies simple narratives of good and evil

00:52:10.780 --> 00:52:14.320
and instead reveals the brutal pragmatism, the

00:52:14.320 --> 00:52:17.019
logistical realities, and the devastating human

00:52:17.019 --> 00:52:20.500
cost of nation building. It is absolutely vile

00:52:20.500 --> 00:52:22.900
to understanding how the map of North America

00:52:22.900 --> 00:52:25.059
was actually drawn. I want to thank you for guiding

00:52:25.059 --> 00:52:28.059
us through this incredibly dense, difficult material

00:52:28.059 --> 00:52:30.679
today and helping us break down the actual mechanics

00:52:30.679 --> 00:52:33.659
of how this history functioned. And to you, listening,

00:52:34.340 --> 00:52:36.739
the towns you drive through, the highways you

00:52:36.739 --> 00:52:39.179
commute on, the state borders you cross, they

00:52:39.179 --> 00:52:41.360
are all directly mapped over the history we discussed

00:52:41.360 --> 00:52:43.650
today. Every inch of it has a story. It really

00:52:43.650 --> 00:52:46.349
does. This is an ancient history. It is the foundational

00:52:46.349 --> 00:52:48.469
bedrock of the modern geography of the United

00:52:48.469 --> 00:52:50.630
States. The past is always present in the landscape

00:52:50.630 --> 00:52:52.789
if you know how to read it. Exactly. And I want

00:52:52.789 --> 00:52:55.949
to leave you with one final provocative thought

00:52:55.949 --> 00:52:58.670
to mull over, something that bridges this 300

00:52:58.670 --> 00:53:01.150
-year history directly to your life right now.

00:53:01.400 --> 00:53:03.780
We talked about how the frontier officially closed

00:53:03.780 --> 00:53:06.539
in 1890. But consider the fact that many of the

00:53:06.539 --> 00:53:08.840
treaties signed to end the specific conflicts

00:53:08.840 --> 00:53:11.360
we talked about today. Treaties that were often

00:53:11.360 --> 00:53:14.840
broken, ignored, or signed under extreme military

00:53:14.840 --> 00:53:17.219
coercion, like the ones pushed by Isaac Stevens,

00:53:17.539 --> 00:53:20.820
are still active, legally binding documents under

00:53:20.820 --> 00:53:23.800
the U .S. Constitution. Yes, they are. Today,

00:53:23.980 --> 00:53:26.260
right this very minute, those exact treaties

00:53:26.260 --> 00:53:29.719
form the basis of massive ongoing Supreme Court

00:53:29.719 --> 00:53:32.460
battles over land. rights, water rights, hunting

00:53:32.460 --> 00:53:35.539
access, and tribal sovereignty. The frontier

00:53:35.539 --> 00:53:39.059
may have closed in 1890, but the legal wars over

00:53:39.059 --> 00:53:41.719
these exact same territories using the exact

00:53:41.719 --> 00:53:44.119
same documents are still being fought in courtrooms

00:53:44.119 --> 00:53:46.320
right now. The ink on those treaties is very

00:53:46.320 --> 00:53:48.659
much still wet. The history isn't over. Something

00:53:48.659 --> 00:53:50.300
to think about the next time you look at a map

00:53:50.300 --> 00:53:52.760
or read a Supreme Court headline. Thank you for

00:53:52.760 --> 00:53:55.400
joining us on this deep dive. Keep asking questions,

00:53:55.579 --> 00:53:57.300
keep looking past the surface, and keep your

00:53:57.300 --> 00:53:59.480
curiosity alive. We'll see you next time.