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The First and the Forced Essays on the Native American and African American Experience Edited by James N. Leiker, Kim Warren, and Barbara Watkins The First and the Forced Essays on the Native American and African American Experience Copyright 2007 by the University of Kansas, Hall Center for the Humanities This e-book is a product of the “The Shifting Borders of Race and Identity: A Research and Teaching Project on the Native American and African American Experience.” Its publication is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Designed and produced by KLW-Webwork Title page design: Lynne Lipsey Cover credits: “Snake Bit,” Marla Jackson quilter Star quilt, Duane Dudley, Choctaw All rights reserved. This e-book may be downloaded and printed under fair-use principles. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. i The First and the Forced Essays on the Native American and African American Experience Acknowledgments iii Coeditors v Introduction―Kim Warren 1 Overview James N. Leiker, “Tangled Histories: Contemporary Research in African American/Native American Intersections” 8 Ruben Kodjo Afagla, “A Divided Horizon in Their Common Sky? Some Commonalities of African American and Native American Experiences in the United States” 55 Regional and Local Contexts Quintard Taylor, “Native Americans and African Americans: Four Intersections across Time and Space in the West” 90 Tanya Golash-Boza, “Left in the Dark: Collective Memory and Amnesia among African-descended Peruvians” 105 Contested New Identities Arica L. Coleman, “Ancestry DNA and the Manipulation of Afro-Indian Identity” 135 Joyce McCray-Pearson, “Red and Black―A Divided Seminole Nation: Davis v. U.S.” 156 LaRose Davis, “Real Africans, Real Natives, Whoever They Might Be: Refiguring the Mixed Race Concept” 200 Descriptive Imagery José Bravo de Rueda, “(Dis)connections: African and Indigenous Peoples in Peru” 222 Personal Reflections Eugene “Jean” Foggo-Simon, “Their Voices Are Not Silent: The Legacy of St. David’s Islanders, Bermuda” 248 William Loren Katz, “Black Indians: From Concept to Birth” 270 ii The First and the Forced Acknowledgments The First and the Forced: Essays on the Native American and African American Experience marks the exciting conclusion of a project conceived more than four years ago. In 2003, Maryemma Graham, professor of English; Carl Strikwerda, professor of history and then associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Victor Bailey, professor of history and director of the Hall Center for the Humanities; and Donald Fixico, professor of history and then director of the Center for Indigenous Nations Studies, all of the University of Kansas, approached Dr. Gertrude Fraser of the Ford Foundation to sponsor a multiyear, interdisciplinary study of the intersections between black Americans and American Indians. The project has included faculty not only from KU but also from the neighbor institutions of Haskell Indian Nations University and Johnson County Community College, as well as genealogists, activists, tribal leaders, and academics from around the United States. “The Shifting Borders of Race and Identity: A Research and Teaching Project on the Native American and African American Experience” has hosted two oral history workshops, a keynote conference, and a monthly research seminar. Through its website, it has provided an array of bibliographic and curriculum materials for the use of teachers, scholars, reformers, and other interested individuals. The essays in this collection emanate from this four-year body of work. Many people have given input into “Shifting Borders,” and indirectly to this anthology. Without the generosity of our patrons at the Ford Foundation, this project would not have existed. Our many colleagues at Haskell Indian Nations University―most notably Dan Wildcat, Venida Chenault, Julia Goodfox, and Mike Tosee―introduced to all who worked on the grant a wide variety of cultural and intellectual perspectives that inform the topic of Afro indigenous studies. Bobbi Rahder and her students in oral history applied our research to the development of a wonderful exhibit that will tour the state of Kansas in 2007 and 2008. My friend Carmaletta Williams, with whom I have taught African American studies for years, provided helpful advice and conducted numerous interviews that―along with Mike Tosee’s work―will be published in a separate e-book volume, Of Two Spirits: American Indian and African American Oral Histories. Victor Bailey, iii The First and the Forced Acknowledgements director of the Hall Center for the Humanities, and his excellent staff shouldered much of the administrative burden, providing leadership while allowing the scholars much-needed autonomy. Kathy Porsch has been especially helpful in her patient work as liaison between participating contributors and the Ford Foundation. No one has done more to advance the goals of this project than its director, Zanice Bond de Perez, doctoral candidate in American studies at KU, whose dedication, diplomacy, and painstaking eye for detail proved crucial for success. Zanice truly has been the heart and soul of the project. All of the contributors to this anthology deserve commendation for the unique set of insights and questions that they raise. My coeditors, Kim Warren, KU assistant professor of history, and Barbara Watkins, KLW-Webwork coordinator, have been models of patience and perseverance, bringing to this work a shared commitment to sound scholarship. Lynne Lipsey, KLW-Webwork instructional designer, created the e-book. I have been delighted to work with all three. For all the kudos and applause due the many people responsible for this collection and the other products of the “Shifting Borders” grant, the greatest thanks are due the millions of people of Afro indigenous descent, both those living now and those in the past. Only through their recorded lives, their intimate experiences, their willingness to share memories pleasant and painful, and ultimately, their defiance of rigid attempts to fragment the human race into separate categories, do we have access to this history. Understanding the legacy they have bequeathed will prove invaluable as their descendants enter a future where “race” will be more problematic than ever. My colleagues and I have merely recorded the stories that others have lived. My greatest hope is that we are worthy of being their storytellers. James N. Leiker, Professor of History Johnson County Community College iv The First and the Forced Coeditors James N. Leiker, lead research adviser for the Shifting Borders Project and associate professor of history at Johnson County Community College, earned his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1999. He has taught courses in African American studies, the American West, and race in America. Leiker’s writings have focused on the national and social constructions of race as they apply to regional and western history. His articles have appeared in Western Historical Quarterly, Journal of the West, Great Plains Studies, and Kansas History. He is a speaker for the Kansas Humanities Council, a consultant on grants for helping public school instructors teach the history and legacy of the Brown decision, and a regular guest on television and radio programs. His book Racial Borders: Black Soldiers along the Rio Grande was a 2002 cowinner of the T.R. Fehrenbach award for best book on the history of Texas. Leiker’s essay “The Difficulties of Understanding Abe: Lincoln’s Reconciliation of Natural Rights and Racial Inequality” was published in 2007 by Northern Illinois University Press in an anthology Lincoln Emancipated, edited by Brian Dirck. Kim Warren, research and curriculum development faculty for the Shifting Borders Project and assistant professor of history at the University of Kansas, earned her PhD from Stanford University in 2004. She has taught courses in women’s and United States history with emphases on Native American and African American studies. Her articles have appeared in Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains and History Compass, and she has published essays in the Journal of Women’s History and Reviews in American History. With the support of a fellowship from the National Academy for Education/Spencer Foundation, Warren is currently completing a book manuscript comparing African American and Native American citizenship training in schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Barbara Watkins has recently retired as coordinator of curriculum and projects at the University of Kansas Continuing Education. She received her PhD from KU in 1981 and wrote her dissertation as a graduate research fellow with the US Department of Justice. She has written numerous articles on Kansas history and coedited several books including On the Hill: A Photographic History of the University of Kansas, now in its third edition; Old Fraser; Dyche Hall; Embattled Lawrence: Conflict and Community; and a centennial history The Foundations of American Distance Education. She is now the coordinator of KLW- Webwork, a web-design company. Watkins was inducted into the KU Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002 and also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. v The First and the Forced Introduction Introduction―Kim Warren Not until the 2000 United States census was anyone allowed to check more than one of six boxes under the category of race. In that census, a small but significant percentage of the nation’s population checked two boxes (seven million people) or three boxes (400,000 people).1 The census finally acknowledged what many had already known: that race is neither finite nor singularly defined for many Americans. Instead, race is a fluid category that can be defined or redefined by skin color, family heritage, DNA testing, political rights, court decisions, or any number of other factors.
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