Whiskey Tender

Genízaro refers to Indigenous Americans who were captured and enslaved by Spanish conquistadors from the 17th to the 19th century. Once slavery was abolished and the genízaro were freed, they generally settled on the outskirts of Spanish settlements, adopted Spanish names, and slowly forgot their Indigenous roots.

The Ghost Dance was a spiritual and political movement that arose in the late 19th century among various Indigenous tribes. The movement, founded by the Paiute prophet Wovoka, promised that practicing the Ghost Dance would bring about the return of ancestors, restore traditional ways of life, and remove white settlers from Indigenous lands. The US government viewed the movement as a threat, leading to violent suppression, including the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.

Indian boarding schools were government- and church-run institutions designed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into white American culture. Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing throughout much of the 20th century, these schools stripped children of their native languages, spiritual practices, and cultural identities. Many students suffered abuse and neglect, and the system had devastating effects on Indigenous communities, contributing to the loss of language and intergenerational trauma.

The India Relocation Act, also known as Public Law 595, was a law passed in 1956 as part of the US’s Termination Policy, designed to assimilate Indigenous Americans into mainstream American culture. The law included incentives such as job training and financial relocation support for Indigenous people to leave their reservations and move to cities across the US. These efforts were meant to “disappear Natives into mainstream America” (37), allowing the US government to claim tribal land and end support to tribal citizens, thereby solving the “Indian problem.”

The Quechan or Yuma people are a tribe of Indigenous Americans living on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the banks of the Colorado River, split between the states of Arizona and California. As of 2023, there were approximately 4,000 enrolled Quechan tribal members.

The Red Power movement was a pan-Indian activist movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, advocating for Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and cultural preservation. Inspired by the civil rights movement and organizations like the Black Panthers, Red Power activists organized protests, occupied government buildings, and fought against policies of assimilation and termination. The movement led to significant policy changes, including the return of tribal lands and the passage of laws such as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975).

The Dawes Act, or the General Allotment Act, was a law passed in 1887 meant to reduce communally held tribal land and assimilate Indigenous Americans into mainstream American culture. The US government divided tribal land into individual allotments, which they granted to tribe members. By taking the allotments, Indigenous people were permitted to become US citizens. The remaining land was sold by the US government, resulting in the loss of millions of acres of tribal land.