An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States (Revisioning History)

311 Pages·2021·4.058 MB·English

by  Kyle T. Mays

PRAISE FOR AN AFRO-INDIGENOUS HISTORY OF
THE UNITED STATES
“Dr. Mays brilliantly makes accessible the knowledge of how Native, Black,
and Afro-Indigenous communities, under the oppressive projects of settler
colonialism and white supremacy, have navigated points of tension and harm,
while simultaneously revealing instances when we’ve resisted by way of
solidarity and allyship. Ultimately, he reminds us that both the ‘Indian
problem’ and the ‘Negro problem’ are, in fact, a white supremacist problem.”
—MELANIN MVSKOKE, Afro-Indigenous (Mvskoke Creek) activist
“Framed as an answer to questions in Mays’s life as well as in his scholarship,
this is a startlingly ambitious and deeply engaging study. Refusing to separate
two sprawling, interconnected stories but respecting the integrity of each,
Mays changes also the whole story of US whiteness as a system of thought and
power. A perfect book to be read in classes or given to friends who want to
understand the mess we are in and the resources of those who resist.”
—DAVID ROEDIGER, author of How Race Survived US History
“is is a bold and original narrative that is required reading to comprehend
the deep historical relationship between the Indigenous peoples who were
transported from Africa into chattel slavery and the Indigenous peoples who
were displaced by European settler colonialism to profit from the land and
resources, two parallel realities in search of self-determination and justice.”
—ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of
the United States
“Only twenty years ago, Kyle Mays’s voice wouldn’t even have passed through
academia’s and media’s gatekeepers. e fact that a voice like this can be heard
1
today and tell his own story is unexpected great news for America . . . and it’s
just the beginning.”
—RAOUL PECK, director of I Am Not Your Negro and Exterminate All the
Brutes
“A bold, innovative, and astute analysis of how Blackness and Indigeneity have
been forged as distinct yet overlapping social locations through the needs of
capital, the logic of the nation-state, and the aims of US empire. While we
know that slavery and settler colonialism are intricately linked, Kyle Mays
uniquely demonstrates that the aerlives of these two institutions are also
linked. ey provide the land, bodies, and capital for ‘newer’ systems of
bondage to flourish, such as mass incarceration. You will never think of the
peoples’ history the same way aer reading An Ao-Indigenous History of the
United States.”
—ROBIN D. G. KELLEY, author of Freedom Dreams: e Black Radical
Imagination
2
REVISIONING HISTORY SERIES
A Queer History of the United States
by Michael Bronski
A Disability History of the United States
by Kim E. Nielsen
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
An Aican American and Latinx History of the United States
by Paul Ortiz
A Black Women’s History of the United States
by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
REVISIONING HISTORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE SERIES
A Queer History of the United States for Young People
by Michael Bronski
Adapted by Richie Chevat
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People
by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Adapted Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese
e Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks: Adapted for Young People
by Jeanne eoharis
3
Adapted by Brandy Colbert and Jeanne eoharis
4
5
BEACON PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
www.beacon.org
Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.
’ 2021 by Kyle T. Mays
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21           8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Text design and composition by Kim Arney
Beacon Press’s ReVisioning American History series consists of accessibly written books by
notable scholars that reconstruct and reinterpret US history from diverse perspectives.
An earlier version of a portion of chapter 4 was previously published as “Transnational
Progressivism: African Americans, Native Americans, and the Universal Races Congress of
1911,” American Indian uarterly 37, no. 3 (2013).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Mays, Kyle, author.
Title: An Afro-Indigenous history of the United States / Kyle T. Mays.
Description: Boston : Beacon Press, [2021] | Series: Revisioning American history | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021020880 (print) | LCCN 2021020881 (ebook) | ISBN ISBN
9780807011683 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780807011713 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: African Americans—Relations with Indians. | African Americans—Race
identity. | Indians of North America—Mixed descent. | Indians of North America—Ethnic
identity | United States—Race relations. | United States—History.
Classification: LCC E98.R28 M39 2021 (print) | LCC E98.R28 (ebook) | DDC
973/.0496073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020880
6
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020881
7
To Liseth, El Don, ChiChi
8
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
INTRODUCTION
Afro-Indigenous History
CHAPTER ONE
Indigenous Africans and Native Americans in Prerevolutionary America
CHAPTER TWO
Antiblackness, Settler Colonialism, and the US Democratic Project
CHAPTER THREE
Enslavement, Dispossession, Resistance
CHAPTER FOUR
Black and Indigenous (Inter)Nationalisms During the Progressive Era
CHAPTER FIVE
Black Americans and Native Americans in the Civil Rights Imagination
CHAPTER SIX
Black Power and Red Power, Freedom and Sovereignty
CHAPTER SEVEN
Black and Indigenous Popular Cultures in the Public Sphere
CHAPTER EIGHT
9