A ridiculous, ASB scenario crossposted from the oneshots thread.
Guns of the Southwest
Native American nationalism, after lying dormant for decades, experienced a revival in the late 2010s, the Administration of Donald Trump. The building of oil pipelines and federal-supported expansion of mining into native-held lands created controversy and led to several nearly-violent incidents. Names like Standing Rock have stayed in the memories of many natives, despite as many defeats as victories for their cause. The result of this series of encroachments on reservations throughout the country resulted in the emergence of a new movement: Native Consciousness (or NC). NC emphasized connection with ones native heritage, and a general rejection of white American capitalist culture (a not altogether uncommon sentiment in the days of Bernie Sanders) with a dose of separatism in some of the more extreme circles. Though supporters of NC tried to reform the United States, it eventually became apparent that their cause was not destined to be successful. At least in this reality.
In those days, roughly 2030 AD, a daring plot was hatched that could possibly realize the goals of the Native Consciousness movement. Rather than reform the United States, perhaps the United States could be prevented from forming. The United States military was working on creating a machine that could transport people and large vehicles through time. Word of this reached NC radicals, and it was decided that the machine could be stolen in a daring raid which would be followed by a mass exodus of Conscious Natives (a term of the era) into the past.
The plan would require extensive planning, a large number of participants, and funding. Several nations and Native American entrepreneurs were persuaded to invest in the plot. With their millions, munitions, building materials, medicine, foodstuffs, and vehicles were stockpiled while a large force (made up of primarily men) was assembled to travel to the past. A considerable fighting force, made up of a mixture of native American mercenaries, inmates, reservation police, and veterans was assembled. This force would hardly stand up to the United States military, but was more than a match for any enemy where they were going.
The time machine was plucked from a government lab, and, with the armed forces, government intelligences agencies, and state police hot on their trail, it was spirited into the plotters base, located on the Santa Clara Indian Reservation. The assembled time-travelers rushed through the gate created by the machine, bringing millions of dollars’ worth of modern technology to their destination. When all had gone through, a half dozen brave men made a final stand against elements of the New Mexico State Police and United States Army Special Forces, finally destroying the machine and any chance of the plotters being followed with a suicide vest.
On the other side of the gate, several thousand 21st century Americans had arrived in the year 1680. The destination of the NC plotters was a contentious debate. Many suggested arriving prior to the year 1492, and inoculating Native Americans against Eurasian diseases while providing them with weaponry. The plan was eventually ruled out as unfeasible. Finally, the decision to arrive at the time of the Pueblo Revolt, which was successful for over a decade even in unaltered history, was reached. Immediately upon arrival in the 17th century, emissaries were sent to meet with the leaders of the revolt, which had historically begun just a week later. The uptimers spoke to the leader of the revolt, Popé, and promised their support.
On August 10th, 1680, an overwhelming force swept through Spanish settlements in the Province of New Mexico, capturing nearly every Spaniard known to reside there. A provisional government was set up in Santa Fé, with Popé as a figurehead leader. Uptimers, eager to create a semi-centralized state, constructed a constitution and legislature that would allow individual pueblos and tribes to operate with autonomy in a federal system. A federal military was brought into being (dominated primarily by the uptimers) that would protect the borders against any attempts of Spanish reconquest. Most pueblos joined into the new Confederation, some willingly, but some only at the business end of a Kalishnikov.
News of the new, unbeatable men that defeated Spanish arquebusiers as easily as a cat kills vermin spread quickly. More and more bands petitioned to come under the protection of the Confederacy and use their assistance to throw off the Spanish yoke. The men from the future had a busy several years. Their statesmen attempted to keep the various entities of the Confederacy in line, while its technicians attempted to set up a modern, industrial economy on a small scale, while soldiers ranged across the continent, fighting the European.
A pitched battle fought near what would elsewhere be the city of Tampico turned into a massacre, as five hundred Spanish were slaughtered in a headlong charge against uptimers with automatic rifles proved to the Spanish that reconquest of the north was impossible, and that their foe was simply too strong to defeat. By 1685, the border between the new Pueblo Confederacy and Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain was set. On both sides, populations were forced to flee. Criollos moved south, while natives and slaves made their way north, to a society they hoped would treat them better.
The second phase of liberation then began. Whereas before, only a trickle of uptimers reached the East Coast of North America, after the peace with the Spaniards, the Confederacy focused its full might on the English and French. Logistics were difficult, but under the direction of 21st century engineers, a series of roads was built to shuttle men and supplies east.
Word of the near-invincible men from the west had reached Eastern Native Americans, who fought alongside the forces of the new Army of the Pueblo Confederacy. Spanish Florida and the growing English colonies along the eastern seaboard fell quickly, but growing supply issues forced the native forces to stop around the Mason-Dixon Line. Like in the west, white colonists were driven out of their settlements. This was a relatively uncontentious issue. The Confederacy faced an interesting question with what to do with the considerable slave populations of these colonies. In the end, owing to an alliance between black nationalists and the NC movement (and even a handful of African-American time travelers), it was decided that the East Coast would be left to the former slaves. Out of the chaos of the English withdrawl, a new state emerged, the Kingdom of the New Kongo, led by a man allegedly some sort of nobility in his homeland.
The Cherokee proved to be another beneficiary of the uptimers. Only a middling power before the arrival of men from the future, they were given gifts of technology and medicine, while a fair number of people with allegedly Cherokee ancestry from the future settled in their lands. A powerful kingdom was formed by these people, as they took smaller tribes under their protection.
This proved to be about the limits of possible expansion for the Confederacy and its allies. French Canada was simply too far away, and getting weaponry to the rather strong Iroquois Confederacy was deemed too difficult.
Without any major conflict predicted in the near-future, the large force of uptimer fighting men slowly demobilized. Many settled down with wives hailing from the 17th century, but a fair number constructed their own settlements, feeling that they could never quite fit in with the society they had helped. With few exceptions, their story was untold. It was common knowledge that these fighters came from the future, a future in which the white man ruled all America, but the details of this future were kept intentionally vague.
And so, time went on, and one-hundred years have passed since Popé and his Kalishnikov-wielding forces stormed Santa Fé and expelled the Spanish from New Mexico.
The Pueblo Confederacy, despite several near-civil wars, has survived, and even expanded its borders and influence. The descendants of the uptimers by and large rule the Confederacy, and though attempts at universal education have been implemented, it is generally families that hold on to the secrets of modern technology. Despite this, some uptime advances have been made near-universal. A series of roads has been built, while mines and factories exist to produce things like solar panels and telegraph wires to keep the Confederation together. Loyalty to the individual federal entities within the Pueblo Confederation is high, but the entities have an understanding that disunited, they are easy targets for the Europeans. A lingua franca, commonly referred to as ‘Puebloese’, made primarily of 21st century English, 21st and 17th century Spanish, as well as a host of different native American languages is used for trade and inter-entity communication, and can be found as far south as Mexico City. Religiously, the Confederation is even more fragmented, with various forms of Christianity, indigenous religions, and Peyotism, as well as a thousand more admixtures of them found in the Confederation. Religious freedom is, by and large, standard throughout the Confederation (though the Catholic Church is especially distrusted).
The Pueblo are largely respected throughout the continent. The Great Plains peoples never did submit to control from Santa Fé, but are without a doubt in their sphere of influence. The Pueblo have tried to encourage the migratory Plains peoples to settle down and take up agriculture to little success. Notable amongst the Plains Peoples is a group called the United Bands of the Missouri (UBM). The United Bands are descendants of uptime Plains people and Southwesterners that found it hard to adjust to the 17th century life. They rode north and carved out an empire of their own under the command of a man called Michael Mondragon (a veteran of the Third Gulf War), using automatic weapons to bring the locals in line with their beliefs. The United Bands were initially warlike, and prone to raiding their neighbors rather bloodily, but have since become more peaceful. Their government is a loose confederacy, and the title of President is hotly contested between several different clans, among them the Campbells and Soaring Hawks. The uptimers brought with them modern navigational charts, and in the second generation after 1680, began to establish a presence in the Pacific. Puebloan emissaries have influence with natives along the Alaska Coast and trade regularly with the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands. Further east, Pueblo have visited Japan and China, cowing the peoples of those lands with 21st century firepower.
The Cherokee have expanded in power since they first were gifted by weapons from the future. They have successfully conquered many smaller peoples, assimilating them into the Kingdom. The Kingdom’s leadership is somewhat aggressive and feared in neighboring states. The other major native-led state in the Americas is the Miami Kingdom, established by the eponymous tribe along the banks of Lake Michigan. The Miami were not especially helped by any particular uptimers, but managed to utilize uptime technology more effectively than its neighbors, and has carved out a powerful state.
While the NC plotters have had some success, they never managed to fully expel whites from the Western Hemisphere. Indeed, outside of Native American states, the Americas are divided into European-ruled colonies. British and French colonies hug the Eastern Seaboard of North America, and have recovered from the dark days of 1680s, and, with large militias trained in the use of replica AK-47s to fend off incursions by native forces. The British colony of Penndonia, located between New Kongo and the New England colonies, is heavily armed and a string of outposts exist to detect invasion. The Spanish and Portuguese colonies are superficially unchanged from the days when Europe was the indisputable master of the Americas. A deeper look at the colonies will show an observer that the populace is slowly becoming unsatisfied with European control and that the Spanish Empire is just not as strong as it once was.
The flashpoint of the present time is the settlement of the Ohio Valley and what would have been the American Midwest. The area is located between the settled areas of several players; the Cherokee, New Kongolese, British, and French, while the Miami populate the area natively. Claimed borders in the region clearly overlap, and already, hundreds of settlers have been killed. The Ohio dispute has the potential to disrupt the traditional power structure in North America, as the Pueblo are opposed on philosophical by the migration of New Kongolese settlers into native-inhabited lands. Reports from Santa Fé also indicate that the Pueblo are growing wary of the ever-expanding Cherokee state and fear the day when the Cherokee turn their armies west.
Outside the Americas, scientists and craftsmen have been hard at work studying a handful captured weapons and tomes. In the last half-century, real progress has been made in the production of replicas of the feared Pueblo AK-47. Throughout Europe, large factories running on the power of coal have sprung up, and word from England is that a car that rides on iron rails has been invented. A new era, one in which steel and coal are king, is dawning.
