Inventing Indian Country: Race and Environment in the Black Hills 1851-1981
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INVENTING INDIAN COUNTRY: RACE AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE BLACK HILLS 1851-1981 A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Stephen R. Hausmann May 2019 Examining Committee Members: Andrew Isenberg, Advisory Chair, History Department, University of Kansas Seth Bruggeman, History Department Jessica Roney, History Department Bryant Simon, History Department Ari Kelman, External Member, University of California-Davis ABSTRACT In 1972, a flood tore through Rapid City, South Dakota, killing 238 people. Many whose lives and homes were destroyed lived in a predominately Native American neighborhood known as “Osh Kosh Camp.” This dissertation asks: why did those people lived in that neighborhood at that time? The answer lies at the intersection of the histories of race and environment in the American West. In the Black Hills region, white Americans racialized certain spaces under the conceptual framework of Indian Country as part of the process of American conquest on the northern plains beginning in the mid- nineteenth century. The American project of racializing Western spaces erased Indians from histories of Rapid City, a process most obviously apparent in the construction of Mount Rushmore as a tourist attraction. Despite this attempted erasure, Indians continued to live and work in the city and throughout the Black Hills. In Rapid City, rampant discrimination forced Native Americans in Rapid City to live in neighborhoods cut off from city services, including Osh Kosh Camp After the flood, activists retook the Indian Country concept as a tool of protest. This dissertation claims that environment and race must be understood together in the American West. ii For Monica iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Creating a work of history is a collaborative process, even if the lived experience of writing is often necessarily a solitary one. In both of those regards, this project has been no exception. Even when sitting and writing by myself, this work had many parents, and it is a pleasure to be able to give them a word of thanks. This dissertation would not have been possible without the continuous support of Andrew Isenberg. As a mentor, Drew taught me what it meant to be a professional, and as a historian and writer he taught me how to communicate big ideas clearly and encouraged me to follow wherever archival paths led. Drew knew when to give me intellectual space to breathe and when to apply a guiding hand, pointing me to where the story lay. In this way and in others, he is a model mentor and always had his door open to discuss environmental history, Star Wars, or baseball, and often all three. My entire dissertation committee gave this manuscript a close reading and it is immeasurably better for their critiques. Seth Bruggeman, Jess Roney, Bryant Simon, and Ari Kelman, all answered questions, read chapter drafts, and lent their time and their sympathetic ears whenever I needed, helping see this project to its conclusion. I can truthfully say my life changed in Harvey Amani Whitfield’s classroom as an undergraduateat the University of Vermont. Amani encouraged me to go to graduate school, informed me of that road’s realities, and has been an unflagging advocate for me every step of the way. This project would not exist without his incredible teaching and guidance. During my years in graduate school at Temple University and the University of Vermont I had the pleasure of knowing many teachers, mentors, and scholars whose expertise and encouragement paved my way to a doctoral degree. Dona Brown, iv Jacqueline Carr, David Farber, Travis Glasson, Peter Lavelle, Jay Lockenour, Tony Magistrale, Abby McGowan, Nicole Phelps, and Gregory Urwin all taught me how to be a historian in classrooms and offices, via red ink and email text, and in ways both obvious and subtle. I was similarly lucky to enter Temple alongside a remarkable array of young graduate scholars who it has been a joy to watch become outstanding historians. Minju Bae, Alexandre Caillot, James Cook-Thajudeen, Jesse Curtis, Sam Davis, Lauren De Angelis, Manna Duah, Richard Evans, Holly Genovese, Ariel Natalo-Lifton, Brian McNamara, Tommy Richards, Sarah Robey, Travis Roy, and Ali Straub, read drafts, offered moral support, drank beer, argued politics, and discussed history with me, generally making graduate school a better and more pleasant place than it had any right to be. Outside my graduate community, Kibbe Conti, Lil Fenn, Brenda McGlynn, Heather Dawn Thompson, and Eric Zimmer lent their wisdom to help me improve this project and understand the political and environmental forces at work on the northern plains. Thanks to each and every one of you. I completed this project while a contingent faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh. The history department at Pitt made me feel not just welcome, but an integral part of that institution’s educational community. In an era of increasing adjunct-ification of humanities departments, more schools should look to the Pitt history department for leadership in how to incorporate non-tenure track faculty into the scholarly life of a department. Leslie Hammond, Alaina Roberts, Lara Putnam, Scott Smith, Liann Tsoukas, Kelly Urban, Molly Warsh, and Mari Webel, all filled in as surrogate advisors and served as role models, giving me an academic home as I worked to finish my dissertation. v Archivists and librarians at the Library of Congress, E.Y. Berry Library, Denver Public Library, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Minnesota Historical Society, South Dakota State Historical Society, Linda Hall Library, Newberry Library, and Rapid City Public Library helped me track down material crucial to the story I tell in the pages that follow. Funding from Temple University, the Center for Force and Diplomacy, the Linda Hall Library, and the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, was critical in sending me to archives across North America. Anyone who works in academia knows that administrative coordinators are the foundation upon which the whole edifice stands. Thanks to Vangeline Campbell, Kathy Carolin, Kathleen Gibson, Patricia Landon, Grace Tomcho, Kathy Truax, Djuna Witherspoon, and the late Patricia Williams for clearing the road and consistently going out of their way to ensure our programs run smoothly and indeed, run at all. Friends outside of the academy opened their homes and their hearts to me both close to home and far away. Brittaney Neiles not only lent me her spare room for extended visits to Rapid City but jumped at the opportunity to assist in research and acted as an enthusiastic tour guide in the Black Hills. Tess Allard, Tim Chapin, Izzy Fay, Patrick and Claire Giblin, Blair Gwillim, and Chuck Whistler all gave regular welcome reprieves from talking and thinking about the Black Hills. My family has supported me in every decision I’ve made and I would never have come to history and teaching if not for their ready supply of books. My mother and father, Julie and Steve Hausmann, happily stoked my curiosity growing up and encouraged me to follow whatever intellectual path I chose. They have put up with me vi and cared for me and always did so with the dedication and love only parents can provide. They always knew I could do it and I’m happy to finally prove them right. Finally, my partner Monica has shared her life with me through the duration of this dissertation. Monica shaped nearly every facet of this project. It began with a conversation in a kitchen in Denver, continued during walks in Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia, and ended with celebratory beers on our roof in Pittsburgh. She contributed with her keen questions and sharp eye for editing, and even more regularly with constant encouragement; she often told me I’m great, but I know she’s the greatest. Monica kept my eye on what really matters, both in this project but more importantly, in our life: closing the screen every once in a while and going outside, or driving to a bakery or brewery, or just giving Matilda a scratch. She has given me her patience, her insight, and her love. She accompanied me on research trips and camping trips and we stood by each other in our sometimes wildly difficult academic pursuits. For these reasons and for so much more, I dedicate this to her. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1 Historiography ......................................................................................................10 Chapter Outline ......................................................................................................28 2. CHAPTER 2: BEFORE INDIAN COUNTRY, TO 1868 ...........................................34 Deep History in the Black Hills .............................................................................40 Lakotas and the Black Hills to the Early Nineteenth Century ...............................53