Writing to Resist: Native Activism through Correspondence, 1870-1900

FAIN: FT-286074-22

Justin Randolph Gage
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (Fayetteville, AR 72701-1201)

Research supporting a digital visualization project and book examining how Native Americans used letter writing to pursue their political interests. 

Writing to Resist explores how late-nineteenth century Native Americans living on reservations in the West wrote letters to white Americans to push for justice and self-determination. Western Natives turned the educational goals of the U.S. government on its head, utilizing literacy to decolonize their lives, prevent colonial abuses, and reestablish a sense of sovereignty. Natives knew that English literacy was meant to be a tool that would contribute to the destruction of their cultures, but they did not utilize literacy and the Postal Service in the ways whites expected. In their letters to U.S. officials, allies, and newspapers, Native adults and children criticized U.S. government policies and employees, demanded that treaty promises be kept, and offered their opinions on Indian Affairs. Natives also wrote to fight for land rights and to advocate for advantageous legislation. Their correspondence networks became massive anticolonial machines that stretched across the continent.