They Were Just in the Way | Indian Removal

The Standard American History Myth treats American Indians as if they were an obstacle in the way of westward expansion and our inevitable march of progress. But nothing about what the United States did to the Native Americans was inevitable.

Use the promo code "knowingbetter" for a 26% discount on an annual subscription!

---

Thanks Atun-Shei Films for the voiceovers!

And PotatoMcWhiskey for the Civ6 footage!

---

▬Books▬

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (1970)

Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory (2020)

Rez Life (2012)

Lakota Woman (1990)

The New Trail of Tears: How Washington is Destroying American Indians (2016)

▬Documentaries▬

Reel Injun (2010)

We Shall Remain (2009)

Unspoken: America’s Native American Boarding Schools (2016)

Incident at Oglala (1992)

In Whose Honor? American Indian Mascots in Sports (1997)

More Than a Word: Native American-Based Sports Mascots (2017)

Pioneering the American Frontier (2015)

Return of the Buffalo - Restoring the Great American Prairie (2017)

▬Movies and TV Shows▬
The Book of Boba Fett (2021)

South Park:
S7E7 "Red Man's Greed" (2003)
S21E3 "Columbus Day Special (2017)
S1E13 "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Sl*t" (1998)
S12E6 "Over Logging" (2008)
S13E4 "Pee" (2009)
S4E6 "Cherokee Hair Tampons" (2000)
S15E13 "A History Channel Thanksgiving" (2011)
S14E7 "Crippled Summer" (2010)
S18E1 "Go Fund Yourself" (2014)

Powwow Highway (1989)

▬Videos▬

PragerU:

▬Web Resources and Photo Credits▬

---

Production Assistant - Rozarah

Research Assistant - Jesspsettle

Music - Michael Cotten

Channel Art - PoetheWonderCat

---

0:00 Introduction
5:00 Colonial Period
20:24 Removal Period
39:20 Reservation Period
1:10:38 Allotment Period
1:32:13 Termination Period
1:45:31 Self-Determination Period
1:58:02 Modern Issues
2:18:51 Conclusion

Hashtags: #history #americanindian #nativeamerican #indigenous #indian #native

---

This video was sponsored by CuriosityStream and Nebula.

[annoyedbipolar]

I'm an Ojibwe man living in Minnesota. I thought you did a wonderful job. I have family on both sides of my parents who are native and have unfortunately suffered a large number of the issues you mentioned above.

For instance, my grandfather was punched by grown men for speaking in his first language until he spoke with a stutter in English. He was at the beginning of the air force and out of the service, he became a medicine man. That didn't stop the cops from breaking his back because my grandfather wanted to witness the police brutality beating on his drunken brother.
Or my grandmother on my mom's side who was removed at birth and was raised in a polish-catholic house with an abusive adopted mother.



There are more sad details about both their lives because of this subject but that's a whole lot more writing.
Indian tacos were a nice touch that's what I had for my 18th birthday for dinner. You should have mentioned the movie Smoke Signals. It's one of the few native movies for natives by natives.

[ryanyesman]

Can always count on Atun Shei to dictate historical documents in their proper accents in random YouTube videos

[winstonslone]

My mother was 100% Cherokee. She died of alcoholism at the age of 39. This is so sad. I got sent home from school in 7th grade because the teacher referred to the trail of tears as a relocation. I informed the class of the truth. It was a forced death march through the freezing cold. Some people had no shoes or coats. They also had very little to eat. This is painful but history must be told truthfully unless it will inevitably be repeated.

[patriciaking]

I am an enrolled Cherokee and a history professor.. It's great to hear someone discuss U.S. and Indian history in such a contextual, nuanced way. It is a pleasure to tune in to your podcast. You have a new member!

[KnowingBetter]

I hope you all enjoy this feature-length film. Be on the lookout for the several follow ups! Small corrections:
6:59 Pocahontas had many names. Among her own people, she was primarily known as Matoaka.
1:32:23 While Truman did begin the policy of termination, he did not sign PL280, that was Eisenhower.
1:37:04 I accidentally colored in Sri Lanka as part of India.

[iammrbeat]

Well done and bravo! We need to tell their stories. We have failed to accurately tell their stories for so long.

[AlternateHistoryHub]

Two hour Knowing Better video. What a day

[cheruday]

What happened to the native Americans was genocide. (Period!)

When I was in high school I had history teachers that taught us the truth about controversial subjects. They were fearless and added books to our curriculum that supported the truth.

[Ithqua]

Keep teaching. You're better than anyone I ever had in school.

[RingsOfSolace]

Imagine making a two and a half hour documentary for literally hundreds of thousands to half a million people to view in less than a week. That's part of why I love your channel, you put it out there and no one does it like you.

[keaton_]

Ojibwe here.

I deeply appreciate you doing the deep dive that public school curriculum refuses to even scratch the surface of.

I’m a descendant of a residential school survivor, and telling the truth about our stories of colonization across Turtle Island reminds people that we aren’t just past tense ancient peoples. We’re still here. We’re still living the effects of what colonization has done to us.

Videos like these prove what Victor says in Smoke Signals, “The cowboys don’t always win.”

[despacito]

this is such a incredibly well done video as a indigenous living in saskatchewan your conclusion was on fuckin point it really does feel hopeless sometimes thank you for this video

[Bluedog]

As a Navajo, I thank you for shining the light on the United States' true history when it comes to the topic of Native Americans. But I also like to point out that the fight to defend ourselves isn't over not even by a long shot. Especially concerning the fact that the Supreme Court is currently undergoing preparations to hear the Brackeen v. Haaland case, that is challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act and it's a huge deal for us, especially concerning the fact that it's not just deciding the fate of Native American children for generations to come. But it's also challenging Tribal Sovereignty and if the Supreme Court declares ICWA to be unconstitutional combined with the political climate we're in right now we're afraid that it will set off a domino effect that will result in the total annihilation of Tribal Sovereignty. And thanks to the six republican aligned justices making up the majority in the Supreme Court there's a chance it may happen and if it does then dark days shall be upon on all Native Americans.

[m.streicher]

You have no idea the joy I feel seeing a 2 hour knowing better on a historical topic

[isaacbunsen]

I recall going on a mission trip to a reservation back in youth group when I was still pretending to be christian. There was a native American man giving a presentation to a large number of visiting kids and I remember him saying in reference to a local mountain "There's gold in that mountain. Don't tell the US government.". I'm realizing now that that was probably a grim joke that he knew none of us would get.

[BlueBerry]

So many parts of the segment on boarding schools sounds identical to what happened to the Sami here in Norway. It's painful how many times this has happened, and even more painful how successful it was

[AvengerAtIlipa]

I remember reading the memoir of an Apache veteran who served as a tank commander in WW2. He was given his position because everyone assumed that he would be the best at navigating the company through the countryside. And he was the best, but only because he paid attention during the navigation classes and always kept a map on him.

[Marcai]

I'm not even American so all of this is literally foreign to me, but it was fascinating. I genuinely didn't know the surviving Indian nations were actual *nations*, or even that they did still exist as legal entities beyond what I assumed were more akin to local councils for specific regions of the US. Massive thanks for putting this all together!

[taoistgrandmasterfranklin]

I am an indigenous Arawak native. I took the time to watch your video completely, and I was amazed of the amount of information you were able to discern and to dispel some of the lies in the myths about native people. Most non-natives are not interested in the fax order history and see us as invisible people, or someone who is still complaining about the past. They fail to understand the history that we had to endure. When do Europeans came to the west. How they were successful in genocide majority of our indigenous tribes, and the remaining tribes try to assimilate or to denigrate what was left. They robbed us of our history and culture. I know this personally because of the history that I was taught, and how my own culture was left out of that education. I want to tell you thank you for bringing this history and documentary tonight and I hope many more people are able to see it and take the time to understand what had to endure I know that things have not changed. I do appreciate your research and understanding of indigenous people and I hope sometimes you could have a documentary on other tribes outside of the continental United States, such as tribes from the Caribbean and West Indian islands.

[lisadoes]

I visited an outdoor “settlement” type museum a few years ago. One of the guides mentioned Andrew Jackson, and mentioned that history has not looked kindly upon him. An old man standing next to me spoke up and said, “Yeah, but the Indians had to be moved out. There was no other option.”

I was shocked.

To hear that your neighbor said the same thing was wild to me.