On April 11, 2024, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of "Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and IndigenousJustice in Early America" Nicole Eustace and National Book Award-winning historian and writer of "The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History," Ned Blackhawk, joined Humanities New York (HNY) at CUNY Grad Center to discuss their recent works, which throw into relief the role of Indigenous power players like the Iroquois Confederacy in the formation of the U.S. and their continuous influence on aspired-to models of governance, justice, and civility.

This program is part of HNY's American Imagination series: a live, biannual event featuring a pair of prominent people from Humanities fields—artists, activists, scholars, authors, and others—in conversation with each other and with the audience about an important civic or cultural issue. Through dialogue and critical thinking, we aim to better understand one another and the challenges that face us, while examining how we can respond to them.

VIDEO CONTENTS _________

00:00 - Intro by Tim Murray
04:03 - Intro to speakers by Sara Ogger
08:40 - Opening remarks by Ned Blackhawk
10:54 - "Captain Civility" and the origins of "Covered with Night"
13:48 - Ned Blackhawk on nomenclature and why he prefers the term "Indian"
17:49 - Euro-settler versus Haudenosaunee views on justice
29:40 - French relations and the Iroquois' rise to power in the 1600s
40:38 - The Indigenous origins of the American Revolution
47:53 - Civility as it's known today, as practiced by Indigenous peoples
50:37 - Euro-centric individualism versus Indigenous communalism
53:41 - Audience Q&A: The Indigenous-anarchist tradition
57:31 - Q&A: Present-day applications of justice, diplomacy, sovereignty
01:02:26 - Q&A: The Haudenosaunee influence on American democracy
01:07:14 - Q&A: Improving relations between the U.S. government and Indian Nations
01:14:00 - Q&A: Defining the "shared" heritage among Native Americans
01:16:11 - Q&A: Consensus and the role of women in Indigenous governance
01:24:19 - Q&A: Efforts in academia to decolonize/shift the narrative