Hidden Hands: US Dependence on Indigenous Power in the Nineteenth-Century American Southwest

Abstract

This is the paper from a presentation given at the Nordic Association of American Studies held in University of Turku, Finland on 06/04/2025.In the 1860s, the US Army relied heavily on its alliance with the Akimel O’odham in Arizona to realize its aspirations of defeating slavery in the South and wresting control of the West from Indigenous peoples. During this critical time, O’odham partnership aided the meager army force in establishing a Southwest military network while advancing the Tribe’s efforts to protect its homeland, people, resources, and autonomy from non-Native and Intertribal threats. Union-O’odham cooperation crushed Confederate dreams of a coast-to-coast empire, weakened the alliance’s Indigenous enemies, such as the Apache, and ultimately shaped the Southwest for conquest