History Commons^™

Ambiguous Alliances: Native American Efforts To Preserve Independence In The Ohio Valley, 1768-1795, Sharon M. Sauder Muhlfeld

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

"Ambiguous Alliances" examines the revolutionary era in the Ohio Valley from a Native American perspective. Rather than simply considering them as British pawns or troublesome mischief-makers, this account describes how Wyandots, Shawnees, Ottawas, Delawares, Miamis, and their native neighbors made decisions about war and peace, established alliances with Europeans, Americans, and distant Indian nations, and charted specific strategies for their political and cultural survival. They also suffered devastating personal and property loss and encountered significant disruption to their societal routines. Yet much about their daily lives remained unchanged, and their communities continued to foster a strong Indian identity.;This dissertation explores …

Tuscarora Trails: Indian Migrations, War, And Constructions Of Colonial Frontiers, Stephen D. Feeley

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Over a century before the Cherokees' Infamous "Trail of Tears," uprooted refugees already made up a majority among Indians in many regions of the American backcountry. Using the Tuscarora Indians as a case study, I take a new look at the role of refugee Indian groups in the construction of colonial frontiers and examine the ways that Indians thrown together from varying regional and cultural backgrounds wrestled with questions of collective identity. Although the Tuscaroras had once been eastern North Carolina's most influential Indian nation, after devastating military defeat, in the words of one contemporary, they "scattered as the wind …

"Indispensably Necessary": Cultural Brokers On The Georgia Frontier, 1733--1765, Lisa Laurel Crutchfield

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation examines the people who brokered cultural exchange among the various groups in and around Georgia from 1733--1765. Populating the territory were Europeans, Indians, and Africans who interacted frequently with one another despite disparate cultural traits. Cultural brokers not only brought members of each society together but did so in a manner that allowed the groups to achieve a level of understanding that would have been otherwise impossible.;The project concentrates on four categories of cultural brokers: Indian traders, military personnel, missionaries, and the Indians themselves. Members of each of these groups played critical roles as intermediaries between the natives …

"For Men And Measures" : The Life And Legacy Of Civil Rights Pioneer J.R. Clifford, Connie Park Rice

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In an era historian Rayford W. Logan described as “the nadir of black history,” African Americans confronted growing discrimination, disfranchisement, segregation, and frequent acts of violence, including lynching in the decades before and after 1900. It was an era in which a nation, and its people, violated the basic principles of American democracy. Yet despite the difficulties facing black Americans in those decades, J.R. Clifford, West Virginia’s first black editor and practicing attorney, made significant strides in raising the condition and status of not only black West Virginians, but African Americans across the nation, as a result of his quest …

Radicalism In American Political Thought : Black Power, The Black Panthers, And The American Creed, Christopher Thomas Cooney

Dissertations and Theses

American Political Thought has presented somewhat of a challenge to many because of the conflict between the ideals found within the "American Creed" and the reality of America's treatment of ethnic and social minorities. The various forms of marginalization and oppression facing women, blacks, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans have been as much a part of the story of America as have been natural rights and the Constitution.

Taking this into account, this thesis is an effort to argue that the radicalism on display in the Black Panther Party, a group that emerged in the turmoil of the 1960' s, was …