Studying African Native Americans

This book examines the academic study of the African and Native American contact, African cultural change in Native America, as well as the existence of African Americans with Native American ancestry and Native Americans with African ancestry in the Western Hemisphere. Drawing upon the fields of anthropology, history, and sociology that initiated research into these areas, this book attempts to provide understandings of how scholars have studied and continue to understand the experiences of African-Native Americans or individuals of blended − culturally and/or racially − African and Native American ancestry in the North, Central, and South America. It aims to illuminate problems, perspectives, and prospects for interdisciplinary research. The first part is structured to cover the problems – past and present − encountered in investigating the scope of the topic and presents an overview of the most important academic findings. The second part provides both anthropological and interdisciplinary perspectives on the lived experiences of African-Native Americans with both Native Americans and non-Native Americans. And, finally, it sketches out future directions in scholarship. This book will be of interest to anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and Ethnic Studies and Native American and Indigenous Studies scholars, from undergraduates interested in the topic to graduate students and researchers seeking to interrogate past research or fill explanatory gaps in the literature with new research.

Jack D. Forbes's monumental Africans and Native Americans has become a canonical text in the study of relations between the two groups. Forbes explores key issues relating to the evolution of racial terminology and European colonialists' perceptions of color, analyzing the development of color classification systems and the specific evolution of key terms such as black, mulatto, and mestizo--terms that no longer carry their original meanings. Forbes also presents strong evidence that Native American and African contacts began in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South

The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America Beginning with pre-Revolutionary America and moving into the movement for Black lives and contemporary Indigenous activism, Afro-Indigenous historian Kyle T. Mays argues that the foundations of the US are rooted in antiblackness and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue into the present. He explores how Black and Indigenous peoples have always resisted and struggled for freedom, sometimes together, and sometimes apart. Whether to end African enslavement and Indigenous removal or eradicate capitalism and colonialism, Mays show how the fervor of Black and Indigenous peoples calls for justice have consistently sought to uproot white supremacy. Mays uses a wide-array of historical activists and pop culture icons, “sacred” texts, and foundational texts like the Declaration of Independence and Democracy in America. He covers the civil rights movement and freedom struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, and explores current debates around the use of Native American imagery and the cultural appropriation of Black culture. Mays compels us to rethink both our history as well as contemporary debates and to imagine the powerful possibilities of Afro-Indigenous solidarity. Includes an 8-page photo insert featuring Kwame Ture with Dennis Banks and Russell Means at the Wounded Knee Trials; Angela Davis walking with Oren Lyons after he leaves Wounded Knee, SD; former South African president Nelson Mandela with Clyde Bellecourt; and more.

In The Quest for Citizenship, Kim Cary Warren examines the formation of African American and Native American citizenship, belonging, and identity in the United States by comparing educational experiences in Kansas between 1880 and 1935. Warren focuses her study on Kansas, thought by many to be the quintessential free state, not only because it was home to sizable populations of Indian groups and former slaves, but also because of its unique history of conflict over freedom during the antebellum period. After the Civil War, white reformers opened segregated schools, ultimately reinforcing the very racial hierarchies that they claimed to challenge. To resist the effects of these reformers' actions, African Americans developed strategies that emphasized inclusion and integration, while autonomy and bicultural identities provided the focal point for Native Americans' understanding of what it meant to be an American. Warren argues that these approaches to defining American citizenship served as ideological precursors to the Indian rights and civil rights movements. This comparative history of two nonwhite races provides a revealing analysis of the intersection of education, social control, and resistance, and the formation and meaning of identity for minority groups in America.

Native American Studies covers key issues such as the intimate relationship of culture to land; the nature of cultural exchange and conflict in the period after European contact; the unique relationship of Native communities with the United States government; the significance of language; the vitality of contemporary cultures; and the variety of Native artistic styles, from literature and poetry to painting and sculpture to performance arts.

The anthology African and Native American Contact in the United States: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives explores how anthropologists and historians have, over time, understood the dynamics between Africans and Native Americans. The book brings together four fields of anthropological knowledge and the historical record to illuminate the lived realities at the root of African and Native American contact. The first four chapters are organized around specific paradigms centered on archaeological research, culture, linguistics, and history. These paradigms frame selected readings on specific topics such as ethnogenesis in African-Native American settlements, transculturalization, Cherokee folklore, and the experiences of those of mixed blood. The final chapters are devoted to the 21st century relevance of the four paradigms, as well as 21st century implications of African and Native American contact. Featuring select previously printed works and thoughtfully written original material, African and Native American Contact in the United States thoughtfully combines primary sources that chronicle past events and an anthropological perspective that illuminates authentic experiences. The book is well-suited to courses in American Indian studies, African American studies, American history, and anthropology.

The anthology African and Native American Contact in the United States: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives explores how anthropologists and historians have, over time, understood the dynamics between Africans and Native Americans. The book brings together four fields of anthropological knowledge and the historical record to illuminate the lived realities at the root of African and Native American contact. The first four chapters are organized around specific paradigms centered on archaeological research, culture, linguistics, and history. These paradigms frame selected readings on specific topics such as ethnogenesis in African-Native American settlements, transculturalization, Cherokee folklore, and the experiences of those of mixed blood. The final chapters are devoted to the 21st century relevance of the four paradigms, as well as 21st century implications of African and Native American contact. Featuring select previously printed works and thoughtfully written original material, African and Native American Contact in the United States thoughtfully combines primary sources that chronicle past events and an anthropological perspective that illuminates authentic experiences. The book is well-suited to courses in American Indian studies, African American studies, American history, and anthropology.