How would Native Americans be affected in a Successful Reconstruction?

[Oba Cahokia]

Assuming in a TL where the US successfully and permanently enfranchises African Americans, establishes common ground for poor whites and freedman with 40 acres and mule, prevents Voting restrictions (No Poll Taxes or Literacy Tests for anyone) and completely prevents Jim Crow Laws from happening. How would Westward expansion and the Indian Wars continue or be different from OTL? We're also going with the assumption that a Black Western State in Oklahoma will be a thing because there were African-Americans who wanted a new life out west. Also we're not going with State Suicide Route.

 

[Anarch King of Dipsodes]

In eastern North Carolina, there was a good deal of pulling and hauling between the Redeemers and the Klan on one side, and a band of outlaws/guerrillas mostly drawn from the Lumbee Indians, including their leader, Henry Berry Lowry.

 

[DanMcCollum]

This is interesting - the Exodusters were a very real thing and their communities are going to be larger in this ATL. My gut tells me that this probably doesn't turn out significantly better for Western native american tribes than what we saw in our own timeline. In OTL the US government utilized Freedmen soldiers in many of the Plains Wars (Buffalo Soldiers) and with a strong African-American presense out West in this ATL, that will be even more of a thing. You probably see lae 19th-century propaganda of the Freedmen and White settlers being partners in bringing 'civilization' to the West. Which is great for the Freedmen and their descendents, but probably not good for Native tribes.

 

[Gabingston]

Didn't some of the Southeastern tribes support the Confederacy? If so, I don't imagine their fate would be pretty in a successful reconstruction.

 

[Oba Cahokia]

Didn't some of the Southeastern tribes support the Confederacy? If so, I don't imagine their fate would be pretty in a successful reconstruction.

The Five Civilized Tribes joined the Confederacy which is why I imagined Oklahoma being split into 2 different states (Lincoln and Sequoyah).

Edit: Lincoln is basically made up Indian Freedman from the Five Civilized Tribes and Exodusters.

 

[Oba Cahokia]

This is interesting - the Exodusters were a very real thing and their communities are going to be larger in this ATL. My gut tells me that this probably doesn't turn out significantly better for Western native american tribes than what we saw in our own timeline. In OTL the US government utilized Freedmen soldiers in many of the Plains Wars (Buffalo Soldiers) and with a strong African-American presense out West in this ATL, that will be even more of a thing. You probably see lae 19th-century propaganda of the Freedmen and White settlers being partners in bringing 'civilization' to the West. Which is great for the Freedmen and their descendents, but probably not good for Native tribes.

Yeah that's the hard part I'm trying to figure out. Hopefully I can find a way to get better conditions for Native Americans at the very least. Any policies would help or any you could think of?

 

[Jedi Dragon]

A problem in this scenario is that settling the west would be a way to unify the white and black populations. Good for them, but bad for the Native Americans. Nobody would care too much about their welfare, and I'm not sure how to change that, beyond having the treaties with Native tribes not be violated immediately.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

The Five Civilized Tribes joined the Confederacy which is why I imagined Oklahoma being split into 2 different states (Lincoln and Sequoyah).

The Quallatown Cherokee of NC also supported the CSA, mostly out of loyalty to their white Chief Will Thomas (they really had nothing to gain and everything to lose from picking a side). They suffered badly for it during and after the war iOTL. Hypothetically if they support Reconstruction (perhaps Chief Will's collapse into insanity per OTL spurs something? Possible PoD here?) they can carve out some support in their mountain enclave. Hypothetically they could be a bridge between Ex-CS Carolinians and the Freedmen.

Virginia's Indians found themselves on the wrong side of Jim Crow OTL when they were labelled "Colored" and treated the same as Blacks. Hilariously, since the "one drop" rule was in effect, many of Virginia's First Families, who claimed ancestry through John Rolfe and Pocahontas, were suddenly "Colored" by law, and a special "Pocahontas Law" had to be passed to prevent the state's elite from having to sit in the Colored section! In this case, Virginia's Indians would benefit in the long run from a successful Reconstruction simply by avoiding Jim Crow.

Sequoyah could eventually, I assume, use the courts to win rights and redress grievance.

Out West the "Uncivilized Tribes" will face a much harder time. Hard to imagine how they arrange anything better at first. The Sioux are likely to go to war with the US per OTL as two aggressive military empires can't coexist. Ditto the Comanche and certain Apache and the other Plains Nations. Perhaps the Osage and any Nations that partner with the US fair better? That said, I could see the more "Civilized" Puebloan cultures and the Navajo eventually following Sequoyah's lead, perhaps some Californian or Oregonian/Washingtonian/Alaskan nations as well.

So, in the near term "not good", but perhaps in the longer run they could use the precedent of the Freemen to gain more rights and perhaps avoid some of the worst abuses of the late 19th/Early 20th centuries (e.g. the Reservation Systems and Indian Schools).

 

[Oba Cahokia]

So, in the near term "not good", but perhaps in the longer run they could use the precedent of the Freemen to gain more rights and perhaps avoid some of the worst abuses of the late 19th/Early 20th centuries (e.g. the Reservation Systems and Indian Schools).

So what happens to the Tribal lands if there are no Reservation Systems? Are they just absorbed federal land or do they basically become something similar to reservations?

 

[Geekhis Khan]

So what happens to the Tribal lands if there are no Reservation Systems? Are they just absorbed federal land or do they basically become something similar to reservations?

Hypothetically if you have a precedent for "Indian States" in Sequoyah you could see some sort of similar arrangements. They'd essentially be somewhere between "states" and "reservations", but with some actual rights and influence within the Federal Government. Not sure how plausible this is, and I'd find it unlikely that even with more rights for POC that racism would still make whites uncomfortable with "Red Senators". I'd imagine some sort of DC-like arrangement: non-voting representation, maybe?

 

[Gabingston]

Virginia's Indians found themselves on the wrong side of Jim Crow OTL when they were labelled "Colored" and treated the same as Blacks. Hilariously, since the "one drop" rule was in effect, many of Virginia's First Families, who claimed ancestry through John Rolfe and Pocahontas, were suddenly "Colored" by law, and a special "Pocahontas Law" had to be passed to prevent the state's elite from having to sit in the Colored section! In this case, Virginia's Indians would benefit in the long run from a successful Reconstruction simply by avoiding Jim Crow.

The one drop rule was/is the stupidest thing ever.