Authorized Agents

Frank Kelderman

Description

In the nineteenth century, Native American writing and oratory extended a long tradition of diplomacy between indigenous people and settler states. As the crisis of forced removal profoundly reshaped Indian country between 1820 and 1860, tribal leaders and intellectuals worked with coauthors, interpreters, and amanuenses to address the impact of American imperialism on Indian nations. These collaborative publication projects operated through institutions of Indian diplomacy, but also intervened in them to contest colonial ideas about empire, the frontier, and nationalism. In this book, Frank Kelderman traces this literary history in the heart of the continent, from the Great Lakes to the Upper Missouri River Valley. Because their writings often were edited and published by colonial institutions, many early Native American writers have long been misread, discredited, or simply ignored. Authorized Agents demonstrates why their works should not be dismissed as simply extending the discourses of government agencies or religious organizations. Through analyses of a range of texts, including oratory, newspapers, autobiographies, petitions, and government papers, Kelderman offers an interdisciplinary method for examining how Native authors claimed a place in public discourse, and how the conventions of Indian diplomacy shaped their texts.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Indian Removal and the Projects of Native American Writing

1. "Kindness and Firmness": Negotiating Empire in the Benjamin O'Fallon Delegation

2. "Our Wants and Our Wishes": Frontier Diplomacy and Removal in Sauk Writing and Oratory

3. "The Blessings Which We Are Now Enjoying": Peter Pitchlynn and the Literature of Choctaw Nation-Building

4. Rewriting the Native Diplomat: Community and Authority in Ojibwe Letters

Afterword: The Indians in the Lobby

Notes
Index

Sujets

• États-Unis
• History of the Americas
• Indigenous peoples
• 19th century
• United States of America
• USA

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438476193
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Authorized Agents
SUNY SERIES , N ATIVE T RACES
JACE WEAVER AND SCOTT RICHARD LYONS, EDITORS
Authorized Agents FRANK KELDERMAN Publication and Diplomacy in the Era of Indian Removal
Portions of chapter two have appeared in an essay titled “Rock Island Revisited: Black Hawk’s Life, Keokuk’s Oratory, and the Critique of US Indian Policy,” J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists 6, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 67–92.
All author royalties on this book will be donated to the American Indian College Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports American Indian students and tribal colleges.
Cover art: detail, “Council of the Sacs and Foxes, at Washington City,” by Ferdinand Pettrich. Ink and wash on paper. Ferdinand Pettrich Sketchbook, c. 1842. Edwin E. Ayer Collection, Newberry Library, Chicago.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2019 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kelderman, Frank, 1984- author.
Title: Authorized agents : publication and diplomacy in the era of Indian removal / Frank Kelderman.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2019] | Series: SUNY series, Native traces | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018052660| ISBN 9781438476179 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438476193 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Indian Removal, 1813-1903. | Indians of North America—United States—Historiography. | Indians of North America—Government relations—1789-1869.
Classification: LCC E93 .K245 2019 | DDC 973.04/97009034—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052660
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my parents
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Indian Removal and the Projects of Native American Writing
1 “Kindness and Firmness”: Negotiating Empire in the Benjamin O’Fallon Delegation
2 “Our Wants and Our Wishes”: Frontier Diplomacy and Removal in Sauk Writing and Oratory
3 “The Blessings Which We Are Now Enjoying”: Peter Pitchlynn and the Literature of Choctaw Nation-Building
4 Rewriting the Native Diplomat: Community and Authority in Ojibwe Letters
Afterword: The Indians in the Lobby
Notes
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1.1 . The House of Representatives, by Samuel F. B. Morse, 1822. Figure 1.2 . Portrait of Benjamin O’Fallon, by an unidentified artist, c. 1833. Figure 1.3 . An-Pan-Tan-go or the Big Elk, a Maha Chief , after Charles Bird King, 1838. Figure 1.4 . Hayne Hudjihini, the Eagle of Delight , after Charles Bird King, 1838. Figure 1.5 . Petalesharoo, a Pawnee Brave , after Charles Bird King, 1838. Figure 1.6 . Frontispiece of I. G. Hutton, “The Generous Chief,” 1823. Figure 1.7 . Shar-I-Tar-Ish, a Pawnee Chief , after Charles Bird King, 1838. Figure 2.1 . View of the Great Treaty Held at Prarie [sic] du Chien, September 1825 , 1835. Figure 2.2 . Daguerreotype portrait of Keokuk, by Thomas M. Easterly, 1847. Figure 2.3 . Portrait of William Clark, by George Catlin, 1832. Figure 2.4 . The Grand National Caravan Moving East , by Hassan Straightshanks (David Claypoole Johnston), 1833. Figure 2.5 . Portrait of Black Hawk, after Robert Matthew Sully, 1903. Figure 2.6 Council of the Sacs and Foxes, at Washington City , by Ferdinand Pettrich, c. 1842. Figure 2.7 . Council of the Sacs and Foxes, at Washington City , by Ferdinand Pettrich, c. 1842. Figure 2.8 . Ioway map of the Mississippi and Missouri River Valley, c. 1837. Figure 2.9 . Portrait of Robert Lucas, by Robert H. Yewell, c. 1858. Figure 3.1 . P. P. Pitchlynn , by Charles Fenderich, 1842. Figure 3.2 . Page from the diary of Peter Pitchlynn, 1828. Figure 3.3 . Tenskwatawa “The Prophet,” after James Otto Lewis, 1835. Figure 3.4 . Phrenology and physiognomy of Col. P. P. Pitchlynn, 1846. Figure 4.1 . Portrait of Ozhaguscodaywayquay. Figure 4.2 . Portrait of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. Figure 4.3 . Shin-gua-ba-wossin , after James Otto Lewis, 1827. Figure 4.4 . Shin-ga-ba-w’ossin, Image stone , after James Otto Lewis, 1838. Figure 4.5 . Portrait of George Copway, from a daguerreotype by McClees Germon, 1850.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Since this book is about the collaborative nature of publication, it is a particular joy to thank everyone who helped me complete this work, in ways that they may not realize but that I will not forget. I am grateful to my colleagues in the English Department at the University of Louisville for helping me see this project to completion. I am particularly grateful to Susan Griffin, Timothy Johnson, Mark Alan Mattes, Susan Ryan, Stephen Schneider, and Joseph Turner for reading parts of this book. Many thanks are due to my department chair, Glynis Ridley, and to Andrew Rabin, Annelise Gray, Sherry McCroskey, and Taleia Willis for their support of my research. I am also grateful to John Gibson of the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society and to Kimberly Kempf-Leonard, dean of the College of Arts Sciences.
I started this work at the University of Michigan, and I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Julie Ellison, Scott Richard Lyons, Philip Deloria, and Mary Kelley. They are extraordinary mentors who understood this project before I did, and have offered superb guidance to help me see it through. Along the way, I also received much wisdom from James W. Cook, Gregory Dowd, Joseph Gone, Kristin Hass, Tiya Miles, Margaret Noodin, and Michael Witgen. At Michigan, I benefited from workshops with the Native American and Indigenous Studies Interdisciplinary Group and was lucky to have a supportive community in Stefan Aune, Michelle Cassidy, Courtney Cottrell, Joseph Gaudet, Becky Hill, William Hartmann, Sophie Hunt, Emily McGillivray, Steve Pelletier, and Christie Toth.
As a postdoctoral fellow at Oberlin College I received much support from Naomi Campa, Evangeline Heiliger, Shelley Lee, Amy Margaris, Kathryn Miller, Pablo Mitchell, Afia Ofori-Mensa, Gina Pérez, Chie Sakakibara, and Danielle Skeehan. Most of all, I thank Wendy Kozol for invaluable advice and encouragement.
Over the years, many archivists and library staff have aided my research in numerous ways. In particular, I wish to thank Clayton Lewis and Terese Austin at the William L. Clements Library (Ann Arbor), Renee Harvey at the Helmerich Center for American Research (Tulsa), and Delinda Buie Stephens at the University of Louisville Archives and Special Collections. I would also like to thank archivists and staff members at the Bentley Historical Library (Ann Arbor), the Center for Arkansas History and Culture (Little Rock), the Filson Historical Society (Louisville), the Iowa State Historical Society (Iowa City), the Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa), the Missouri History Museum (St. Louis), the National Archives and Records Administration (College Park, MD), the National Portrait Gallery (Washington DC), the Newberry Library (Chicago), the Oberlin College Library, and the University of Oklahoma’s Western History Collections (Norman).
The field of Native American and indigenous studies has been a remarkable and welcoming intellectual community, and I wish to thank Angela Calcaterra, Alicia Cox, René Dietrich, Scott Manning Stevens, Caroline Wigginton, and Kelly Wisecup for meaningful conversations that have helped me develop this project. I have learned much from conversations with fellow panelists and audience members at the American Indian Workshop, the American Studies Association, C19: The Conference of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the Native American Literature Symposium, and the Western Literature Association. The Heidelberg Center for American Studies and the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies provided unique opportunities to workshop early versions of this work.
At SUNY Press, I am indebted to Amanda Lanne-Camilli for her faith in this project, and to Jace Weaver and Scott Richard Lyons for giving it a place in the Native Traces series. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments on the manuscript. Many thanks are due also to Ryan Morris, Anne Valentine, and Daniel Otis for helping me see this book to publication.
In Louisville, I’ve cherished my writing sessions with Byron Freelon, Cynthia Ganote, Melanie Gast, Mary Greenwood, Katherine Massoth, Andrea Olinger, Anna Browne Ribeiro, and Oliver Rollins. Beyond Louisville, I’m grateful to my family and my friends, especially Liz Harmon, Jenny Kwak, Calvin McMillin, Lisa Jong, Chris Broughton, Alexander Olson, Nicolette Bruner, Lisa and Kirk Maki, Meghan Wind, and Jason Ness. Wish you all lived right around the corner. To Gavin Rienne, the person-without-whom, thank you for your love and support.
INTRODUCTION
Indian Removal and the Projects of Native American Writing
In 1821, several American newspapers published the transcript of a speech by a Pawnee tribal leader who had recently paid a visit to Fort Atkinson, an American army post on the Missouri River. Identified by the scribe as Shun-kah-kihe-gah, the Pawnee leader had sat in council with Benjamin O’Fallon, the American subagent at the Upper Missouri Indian agency at Council Bluffs, in the heart of Indian country. In his sp