On Mar. 2, Yale University history professor and award-winning author Ned Blackhawk gave a remarkable lecture about the American Revolution’s indigenous origins. The lecture took place at the Dodd Center for Human Rights at the University of Connecticut.
In the lecture, Blackhawk, of the Western Shoshone tribes, argued that Native Americans played a significant role in the American Revolution. Blackhawk began the lecture with a question on how the United States, which was founded on indigenous lands, can become one of the world’s most powerful countries. Building off the question, Blackhawk described that within the past two generations, the history of the origins of the American Revolution has expanded, so it includes Native Americans in it.
The first thing Blackhawk presents is the last grievance against the British crown. The last grievance targets Native Americans by calling them “the inhabitants of our frontiers” and “merciless Indian Savages” whose warfare rule contributes to “an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” The discussion of Native Americans being called “merciless Indian savages” brought attention to how Native Americans were seen and treated by the colonists.
The next thing Blackhawk presented was a map of eastern North America. The map was flooded with the names of Native American tribes, including Nauset, Mohawk, Okehocking, Mosopelea and Accomack. This map is significant as it represents the owners of the land the British stole from, Blackhawk said. It also represents how Native Americans contribute to the origins of the American Revolution since they were a massive presence in eastern North America in the 18th century.
Blackhawk showed another map containing the locations of forts that were owned by the British and the Native Americans. While the map was shown on the projector screen, Blackhawk talked about the Seven Years’War, a massive conflict between Great Britain and France that took place between 1756 and 1763. In his discussion about the Seven Years’ War, Blackhawk mentioned the Proclamation of 1763 and how that resulted in the division between Native American settlers and American colonists in terms of land. He said the proclamation resulted in serious conflicts between the colonists and the Native Americans. One conflict he described was the Conestoga Massacre, which led to the deaths of several Native Americans and the jailing of the ones who survived.
Moving on from massacres, Blackhawk discussed Benjamin Franklin’s stance on the Conestoga Massacre. In the discussion, Blackhawk said that Franklin made a pamphlet that identified racist beliefs within white Christians that targeted Native Americans. A quote from the pamphlet was shown on the auditorium’s projector screen.
“The only Crime,” the quote said. “Of these poor Wretches seems to have been, that they had a reddish brown Skin, and Black hair. I call thus publicly call on the Makers and Venders of these Accusations to produce their Evidence…What had little Boys and Girls done; what could Children of a year old, Babies at the Breast, what could they do, that they too must be shot and hatcheted? Such action is done by no civilized Nation…(especially) not against their Friends.”
At the end of Blackhawk’s lecture, Blackhawk hosted a question and answer session for attendees. An array of questions were asked, including ones that talked about the Intolerable Acts and Confederate Native American tribes.
After the session, the audience gave a massive round of applause for Blackhawk. One audience member, Ryan Tfaif, a fourth-semester student majoring in education, said he enjoyed the lecture.
“I found it pretty interesting,” Tfaif said. “I have an extra credit assignment for this, so it was good to go over something we haven’t done in class and learn about things like the proclamation line of 1763. It was good to come to an event like this.”
After the talk, Blackhawk noted the importance of taking the time to understand more about Native American culture and mentioned an upcoming screening of the movie “Up and Down the River.”
“It’s very important to think about the erosion of our Native American society,” Blackhawk said.