Capital Negotiations: Native Diplomats in the American Capital, 1789-1837

[摘要] ;;Capital Negotiations: Native Diplomats in the American Capital, 1789-1837,” examines the culture of diplomacy created by Native delegates and American officials as they negotiated in the seat of federal power. Between 1789 and 1837, more than 170 delegations of Native peoples from more than forty nations arrived in the national capital to engage in diplomacy with the United States government. Deputations ranged in size from a single diplomat to several dozen. The majority of delegations consisted of members of only one nation, though a notable minority was comprised of individuals from multiple nations. With many of these visits overlapping, Indian ambassadors were visible, nearly ever-present figures in the capital’s streets, theatres, hotels, and federal offices, as well as on the roads and waterways leading to and from the capital. Examining speeches, government records, newspapers, guidebooks, and personal letters, this dissertation uncovers the evolving expectations and strategies of Native diplomats as well as federal officials’ attempts to control Native visits. This project demonstrates the myriad ways in which Natives and federal officials performed diplomatic identities not just for one another but also for a wider American public, through extensive newspaper reporting and public displays of Native culture and American progress. Further, it establishes the importance of the American capital as a physical and ideological space for Native leaders and diplomats. ;;Capital Negotiations” refracts the broader history of United States-Indian policy through the experience of Native diplomats in order to highlight the contingent and contested place, literally and figuratively, of Indians in the American nation.

[发布机构] Johns Hopkins University

[效力级别] Diplomacy

[关键词] Native Americans;Diplomacy;History