In this Book
- Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
summary
On October 3, 1873, the U.S. Army hanged four Modoc headmen at Oregon's Fort Klamath. The condemned had supposedly murdered the only U.S. Army general to die during the Indian wars of the nineteenth century. Their much-anticipated execution marked the end of the Modoc War of 1872–73. But as Boyd Cothran demonstrates, the conflict's close marked the beginning of a new struggle over the memory of the war. Examining representations of the Modoc War in the context of rapidly expanding cultural and commercial marketplaces, Cothran shows how settlers created and sold narratives of the conflict that blamed the Modocs. These stories portrayed Indigenous people as the instigators of violence and white Americans as innocent victims.
Cothran examines the production and circulation of these narratives, from sensationalized published histories and staged lectures featuring Modoc survivors of the war to commemorations and promotional efforts to sell newly opened Indian lands to settlers. As Cothran argues, these narratives of American innocence justified not only violence against Indians in the settlement of the West but also the broader process of U.S. territorial and imperial expansion.
Cothran examines the production and circulation of these narratives, from sensationalized published histories and staged lectures featuring Modoc survivors of the war to commemorations and promotional efforts to sell newly opened Indian lands to settlers. As Cothran argues, these narratives of American innocence justified not only violence against Indians in the settlement of the West but also the broader process of U.S. territorial and imperial expansion.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- PART I: REPORTING
- 1. The Sensational Press
- pp. 29-49
- 2. The Red Judas
- pp. 50-75
- CODA: American Innocence in My Inbox
- pp. 76-78
- PART II: PERFORMING
- 3. Pocahontas of the Lava Beds
- pp. 81-105
- PART III: COMMEMORATING
- 4. The Angels of Peace and Progress
- pp. 113-140
- 5. Faithful Americans
- pp. 141-161
- 6. Redemptive Landscapes
- pp. 162-183
- CODA: An Outlaw to All Mankind
- pp. 184-186
- EPILOGUE: Exchanging Gifts with the Dead
- pp. 187-198
- Bibliography
- pp. 221-234
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 235-238
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469618623
Related ISBN(s)
9781469618609, 9781469618616, 9781469633343, 9798890846488
MARC Record
OCLC
897015863
Pages
264
Launched on MUSE
2016-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No