Our website uses cookies to understand content and feature usage to drive site improvements over time. To learn more, review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Indigenous Americans and Globalization
Indigenous Americans and Globalization
There are lots of misconceptions about globalization. Examining the relationship between Indigenous Americans and globalization helps us challenge those misconceptions.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
What are the two misconceptions about globalization that this video addresses?
What are some examples of Indigenous Americans’ contributions to globalization?
Who was Paul Cuffee Jr., and was globalization good for him?
What sort of things do neoliberal policies promote?
What is the Dakota Access Pipeline, and what does it tell us about the impacts of globalization on indigenous communities?
: (music playing)
: When Americans think about globalization,
: we think of trade and economic influence between nations.
: What we may forget is that indigenous nations
: have actively participated in these economic practices,
: particularly the production of goods and services.
: We also tend to misunderstand how the cultural changes
: that these indigenous nations experienced affected them.
: They were not destroyed by exposure to other ways of life.
: Rather, they were able to both maintain their own cultures
: and contribute their ideas, goods,
: and resources to other communities.
: Understanding this phenomenon requires a journey
: between past and present,
: between African and European encounters
: with the Americas' indigenous crops, materials, knowledge,
: and economies that caused this impact.
: To what extent was globalization
: both bad and good for indigenous nations?
: How did indigenous peoples cope with this inconsistency,
: collectively and as individuals?
: Historians have found a lot of evidence
: showing how indigenous American nations
: impacted African and European cultures in profound ways.
: The histories they've written show us
: that indigenous Americans
: were active participants in globalization.
: They also point us to some of the problems
: that globalization brings up.
: A closer look at indigenous communities
: and individuals in the Americas
: can help us dispel two misconceptions.
: The first is the idea
: that globalization is a one-way affair,
: which it certainly is not,
: and the second is the misunderstanding
: that globalization is always beneficial.
: Let's start with the first.
: Globalization isn't a top-down force
: that influenced indigenous people--
: they had a role, too.
: This realization isn't new,
: though many people haven't encountered it.
: Historians have discussed
: indigenous international influence before-—
: but they didn't always describe it terms of globalization.
: In 1903, for example,
: the Canadian anthropologist Alexander Francis Chamberlain
: wrote a study about indigenous influence.
: In it, he wrote that he wanted to tell his reader,
: "What we owe to the race
: "from whom we have snatched a continent.
: And the debt is, indeed, great."
: What does this debt include?
: One of the first things that comes to mind
: is a set of crops cultivated by indigenous Americans.
: They include food crops like corn, potatoes, cacao beans,
: tomatoes, vanilla, peppers, cassava, and maple,
: and non-food crops like cotton, tobacco, and rubber.
: In addition to cultivating these crops,
: indigenous Americans came up with systems
: to produce goods and distribute them.
: In Canada, for example, the Ojibwa and other nations
: were at the center of the maple trade.
: This was so lucrative that the maple leaf
: came to represent the Canadian nation.
: These key goods were not the only things they exchanged.
: Indigenous Americans also distributed
: their knowledge and culture.
: They knew how to process foods
: like corn to make them more nutritious.
: Spreading that knowledge was as significant as the corn itself.
: Other nations also shared medicinal technologies
: and information about how to prevent diseases like scurvy.
: Indigenous Americans also influenced language,
: daily life, and politics.
: Over 2,000 English words have indigenous American origins.
: With English fast becoming a global language,
: indigenous American words are being spoken all over the world.
: Some also attribute cultural practices
: like taking daily baths or caring for the environment
: to indigenous Americans,
: for whom respect for land and water is paramount.
: In terms of politics,
: there is evidence that indigenous Americans influenced
: the very structure of American government.
: Since the U.S. union of many colonies
: was arguably modeled after the Iroquois Confederacy.
: So, there were many political, economic, and cultural ideas
: that Europeans and Africans gained
: from their encounter with indigenous Americans.
: But these exchanges got increasingly complicated.
: In 1790, the 1st U.S. Congress passed
: the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act,
: regulating trade between colonists
: and indigenous Americans.
: This act put all interactions between colonists
: and indigenous peoples under federal control.
: This gave indigenous nations some official recognition
: as sovereign domestic dependent nations.
: But it changed the dynamics of the trade.
: It favored colonists, who wanted to use trade to-–
: as they put it-– "civilize" indigenous Americans
: rather than exchange with them on an equal footing.
: Similarly, Spanish colonial laws in 1791
: prohibited contact, communication,
: and intermarriage between racial groups.
: As we can see, indigenous Americans played
: a crucial role in globalization,
: and they had to cope with the benefits and problems
: that came with it.
: But let's zoom in a bit more,
: to look at the individual scale.
: Looking at the lived experiences of indigenous individuals
: helps us see how they have contributed to,
: and coped with, globalization.
: Paul Cuffee Jr., a sea captain and abolitionist
: of African and Pequot ancestry,
: talked about his experiences in his life history.
: In it, he tells us about how, at the age of 12,
: he made his first voyage as a hand on board a merchant vessel.
: Between 1817 and 1821,
: Paul Cuffee made approximately 20 voyages
: to the rich whaling waters of the Galapagos Islands,
: Panama, Peru, Scotland, the West Indies,
: and the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
: During these voyages,
: he amassed a massive fortune of $96,000--
: $9.6 million in today's money.
: His success rivaled that
: of his father Paul Cuffee, Sr.--
: one of the wealthiest people of color
: in the Americas at the time.
: These whaling endeavors also introduced him
: to an international trade market,
: which he expertly navigated
: thanks to his seafaring knowledge.
: He was able to sell his goods and profited greatly.
: Paul Cuffee Sr. and Jr. both drew on their cultural heritage
: to become master seafarers
: and businessmen in an increasingly global world.
: For the Cuffees, a global economy provided opportunities
: that might not have existed otherwise.
: But the impact of globalization
: wasn't and isn't positive for everyone.
: So now let's take a look at another misconception
: sometimes surrounding globalization:
: that it is always beneficial.
: This certainly hasn't always
: been the case for indigenous Americans.
: Globalization definitely creates new opportunities--
: like the markets the Cuffees were able to explore.
: But it also completely changes the game--
: for better or for worse.
: Globalization has always broken down barriers
: between regions and created international networks.
: But in the last half century,
: new economic forces have intensified this trend-—
: sometimes to the detriment of indigenous peoples.
: Some of these economic forces are neoliberal,
: which means that they promote
: the economic over the political;
: free trade;
: little government intervention in markets;
: fewer regulations, including
: labor and environmental protections;
: no barrier to the flow of goods;
: and state enforcement of property rights and contracts.
: These economic forces contribute to globalization.
: They open up the world to trade
: and push back against political barriers to industry.
: But the force of globalization
: can sometimes collide with local self-determination.
: In 2016, Standing Rock Sioux historian LaDonna Brave Bull
: created a cultural preservation and spiritual resistance camp
: against the Dakota Access Pipeline,
: an oil pipeline more than a thousand miles long,
: cutting through Sioux territory.
: Her goal was to remind Americans of the importance of respect
: for the land and water, indigenous American land rights,
: and the environmental consequences of oil drilling.
: This pipeline--
: which is important to powerful multinational companies--
: created major problems for this local community.
: Aside from its importance
: as a farming and hunting area for the Sioux,
: the land also matters
: because it's the site of ancient burial grounds
: and the source of clean water from the Missouri River.
: To protect this land against the pipeline,
: the Sioux sued in court,
: citing environmental protections and land rights,
: but they lost.
: This situation exemplifies the clash
: between the global and the local.
: The local is the indigenous Sioux nation.
: The global is in the form of multinational companies,
: who have an interest in building their $3.7 billion pipeline.
: They are both operating in a world
: governed by neoliberal economic forces,
: which puts industry first and pushes back against
: any barrier to growing that industry.
: Sadly, those barriers have often included
: indigenous claims over land
: as well as environmental protections.
: But the Sioux persisted
: and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest brought in
: thousands of supporters from all over the world.
: This local indigenous claim
: turned into a global conversation.
: Protesters stayed in camps for months.
: People protested in their home towns as well,
: and international supporters tagged their social media posts
: with #NoDAPL-- hashtag No-D-A-P-L--
: to signal their solidarity.
: Ultimately, the U.S. government
: sided with the builders of the pipeline
: and forcibly removed the protestors,
: using attack dogs and water cannons
: to clear out encampments.
: Workers bulldozed sacred sites in the path of the pipeline,
: a tragic moment for the Sioux.
: For LaDonna Brave Bull and supporters,
: the flow of oil to global markets
: that began on May 14, 2017,
: serves as a grim reminder of what can happen
: when indigenous self-determination
: clashes with global economic interests.
: But it's certainly not the only relationship,
: between globalization and indigeneity,
: as we've seen from this brief survey
: of regional, individual, and global interactions.
: Indigenous Americans were not "primitive"
: when they first encountered European travelers.
: Nor were they passive in the global exchanges that followed.
: Rather, the diverse cultures, societies,
: and politics of indigenous Americans
: have influenced people all over the world.