An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States: Chapters 8–9

by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
This award-winning book traces the history of indigenous peoples before, during, and after the founding of the United States of America.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Introduction–Chapter 1, Chapters 2–3, Chapters 4–5, Chapters 6–7, Chapters 8–9, Chapter 10–Conclusion
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. inaugurate
    commence officially
    President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861, two months after the South seceded from the Union.
  2. homestead
    land acquired by living on and cultivating it
    The Homestead Act, the Pacific Railway Act, and the Morrill Act all took land from Indigenous peoples.
  3. disillusioned
    freed from false ideas
    During the war, many Indigenous soldiers who had begun the war fighting for the Confederacy became disillusioned and went over to the Union side.
  4. reprieve
    the act of postponing or remitting punishment
    In all, 303 Dakota men were sentenced to death. After a review of the trial records, President Lincoln decided that thirty-nine of them should be executed. One was given a last-minute reprieve.
  5. scaffold
    a platform from which criminals are executed
    On December 26, 1862, thirty-eight Dakota prisoners took their assigned places on a specially constructed scaffold.
  6. ambitious
    having a strong desire for success or achievement
    Their attack was led by John Chivington, a one-time Methodist pastor and an ambitious politician known as the “Fighting Parson.”
  7. parson
    someone authorized to conduct religious worship
    Their attack was led by John Chivington, a one-time Methodist pastor and an ambitious politician known as the “Fighting Parson.”
  8. wanton
    not restrained or controlled
    This photograph
 of a man standing on the ground, with another on top of a huge pile of buffalo skulls,
 demonstrates the magnitude of the wanton killing of the animals during this time.
  9. annex
    take territory as if by conquest
    The Apache people resisted domination by Spain, then Mexico, long before the US annexed their territory in 1848.
  10. haughty
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    Congress appointed a commission to negotiate with what they called the “haughty, self important, and avaricious savages” for a way to legally open the Black Hills for Americans.
  11. avaricious
    immoderately desirous of acquiring something
    Congress appointed a commission to negotiate with what they called the “haughty, self important, and avaricious savages” for a way to legally open the Black Hills for Americans.
  12. posthumously
    after death
    Although Custer led 225 soldiers and himself to their deaths, he was promoted to general posthumously.
  13. vilify
    spread negative information about
    In contrast to its coverage of the Cheyenne and Chief Joseph, the New York Times vilified Sitting Bull and Geronimo and their followers.
  14. profoundly
    to a great depth psychologically
    For the most part, even the settlers who opposed killing Native people outright believed in white supremacy and were profoundly uncomfortable with Native existence and sovereignty.
  15. delinquent
    a young offender
    The industrial school model began in the 1800s in England, where boarding schools were created to train juvenile delinquents and children from families living in poverty.
  16. philanthropist
    someone who makes charitable donations
    In 1939 the philanthropist Edwin Embree published an account of a visit he had with a man he called Sun Elk, who was thought to have been the first child from Taos Pueblo to attend Carlisle beginning in 1883.
  17. fallout
    any adverse and unwanted secondary effect
    There were beatings...and having to kneel for hours on cold basement floors as punishment....My mother lived with a rage all her life, and I think the fact that they were taken away so young was part of this rage and how it—the fallout—was on us as a family.
  18. rampant
    occurring or increasing in an unrestrained way
    ...abuse of both girls and boys in the missionary and boarding schools was rampant.
  19. resilience
    the ability to recover readily from adversity or change
    There were also acts of sabotage and refusal to participate. Many children continued to speak their languages and practice their ceremonies in secret. This resilience helps to explain why so many survived.
  20. stratify
    divide society into social classes or castes
    Although the Hawaiian social and political structure was stratified, relationships among the classes were closer and relatively respectful compared to the oppressiveness of the European system of royalty, nobility, and commoners discussed in the beginning of this book.
  21. heathen
    a person who does not acknowledge your god
    Just as they had with Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Europeans generally viewed native Hawaiians as exotic, primitive heathens.
  22. derive
    come from
    The word “Alaska” is derived from an Unangan word that means “place the sea moves toward.”
  23. reclaim
    reassert one's right or title to
    Indigenous nations were able to use that acknowledgment later to strengthen their sovereignty and reclaim land.
  24. repeal
    cancel officially
    By the late 1940s Congress was trying to repeal the Indian Reorganization Act and end the relationship between the federal government and the Indian tribes.
  25. dispossess
    deprive someone of something, especially property
    The Termination and Relocation Acts of the 1950s were part of the centuries-long efforts to dispossess Indigenous peoples.
Created on Tue Oct 20 21:50:15 EDT 2020 (updated Fri Nov 06 08:51:06 EST 2020)

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