The Origins of the US Military in the Indian Wars

By Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz
Professor Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz in this talk will look at the history of the U.S. military in expanding U.S. imperial interests and establishing a state based on genocide and slavery.
The military built by the colonies that coalesced into the independent U.S. military developed out of continual genocidal wars against Native nations in taking the continent during the first 100 years. President Garfield in the Compromise of 1877 moved troops from the South, to stop the St. Louis Commune, which was established to support the national strike of railroad workers against wage cuts.
The military, with 3,000 federal troops and 5,000 deputized special police, killed at least eighteen people in St. Louis. The commune included not only railroad workers and other unionists but also African Americans and Native Americans. The Missouri senators who called for the military were themselves shareholders in the railroads that were being struck.
Sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom