Ryan W. Booth is a postdoctoral fellow at Washington State University and a member of the Upper Skagit Tribe in Washington state. Dr. Booth was named a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow for the 2019-2020 academic year to research the similarities between the US West and British India in the nineteenth century. Dr. Booth earned his PhD in history at Washington State University in 2021. Booth’s dissertation explored the history of the Native people who served as U.S. Indian Scouts from 1866 to 1947 in the US West and its imperial implications at the turn of the twentieth century. He holds degrees from Loyola University Chicago (BA 2001, cum laude) and Central Washington University (MA 2011). Booth worked previously for the Society of Jesus Oregon Province as a scholastic, National Park Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and for Heritage University.
In a vivid recollection of the U.S.–Apache Wars, Captain John G. Bourke wrote about an 1883 milit... more In a vivid recollection of the U.S.–Apache Wars, Captain John G. Bourke wrote about an 1883 military campaign in pursuit of Chiricahua Apaches, who had fled to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. While many readers of Bourke’s account examine it for particulars about military tactics or mentions of the notable people involved, such as General George Crook or Geronimo, the account provides an important window into how U.S. Army officers viewed the Native people they pursued or used as U.S. Indian Scouts. Captain Bourke himself represented a vanguard of army officers interested in documenting and understanding Indigenous people as part of the nascent field of anthropology. What emerges from his writing is a view of Native people as the ideal warriors, in need of some guidance, but ultimately the best fighters the army could ever imagine. Bourke articulated the American version of a global idea known as the martial race theory: the idea that certain races excelled at war because it was supposedly in their nature.
Named after one of the Little Bighorn battle's casualties, Captain Myles W. Keogh, Fort Keogh was... more Named after one of the Little Bighorn battle's casualties, Captain Myles W. Keogh, Fort Keogh was defined by its status as a geographical and cultural junction. The nearby rivers provided ample drinking water for personnel stationed at the fort and their horses, as well as a seasonal steamboat resupply, supplemented in the winter by an overland route from Bismarck, North Dakota. More importantly, the western fort brought hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of labor, materiel, and jobs to an otherwise desolate region during the late nineteenth century, for where the army went, railroads followed. Bolstered by a government freighter contract, the Northern Pacific Railroad delivered much-needed supplies--including food, military equipment, horses, and personnel--to Fort Keogh with a new frequency and convenience beginning in 1881. Such transactions, especially those concerning the acquisition of food and supplies, offer a glimpse into the Northern Plains' connection to the global commodities market. Indeed, the records of Fort Keogh's post commissary reveal a surprising microcosm of native-born and immigrant cultures flourishing along the Yellowstone and illuminate the daily life, history, and economy of the fort's early residents.
Washington State University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2021
The Native people who served as US Indian Scouts from 1866 to 1947, a formally designated Indigen... more The Native people who served as US Indian Scouts from 1866 to 1947, a formally designated Indigenous US Army unit, provide insights into a complex relationship with the American Empire and its settlement of the West. Both the scouts and the army changed over time through acculturation, but scouts also demonstrated agency and resistance. Across the world, Indigenous troops—endowed with a martial spirit—patrolled the boundaries of empires. Over time, martial races became loyal ones as vanguards of military might. Indian Scouts represented a moment when two cultures converged and forever changed their cultural trajectory.
Books about World War I tend to fall into either macroscale or minutiae
types of history writing.... more Books about World War I tend to fall into either macroscale or minutiae types of history writing. Both have a place, but few manage to bridge the gap between the two. Professor William C. Meadows manages to capture both camps in this book about Native American code talkers in the Great War. In the waning months of the First World War, the American forces needed a way to communicate over their telephone and other communication lines in code, since their German enemies had developed ways to intercept American messages. During the Battle of St. Etienne and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the U.S. Army used Choctaw soldiers to deliver coded messages over the telephone lines between the front and headquarters. But this is only part of the story of these Native soldiers.
In a vivid recollection of the U.S.–Apache Wars, Captain John G. Bourke wrote about an 1883 milit... more In a vivid recollection of the U.S.–Apache Wars, Captain John G. Bourke wrote about an 1883 military campaign in pursuit of Chiricahua Apaches, who had fled to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. While many readers of Bourke’s account examine it for particulars about military tactics or mentions of the notable people involved, such as General George Crook or Geronimo, the account provides an important window into how U.S. Army officers viewed the Native people they pursued or used as U.S. Indian Scouts. Captain Bourke himself represented a vanguard of army officers interested in documenting and understanding Indigenous people as part of the nascent field of anthropology. What emerges from his writing is a view of Native people as the ideal warriors, in need of some guidance, but ultimately the best fighters the army could ever imagine. Bourke articulated the American version of a global idea known as the martial race theory: the idea that certain races excelled at war because it was supposedly in their nature.
Named after one of the Little Bighorn battle's casualties, Captain Myles W. Keogh, Fort Keogh was... more Named after one of the Little Bighorn battle's casualties, Captain Myles W. Keogh, Fort Keogh was defined by its status as a geographical and cultural junction. The nearby rivers provided ample drinking water for personnel stationed at the fort and their horses, as well as a seasonal steamboat resupply, supplemented in the winter by an overland route from Bismarck, North Dakota. More importantly, the western fort brought hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of labor, materiel, and jobs to an otherwise desolate region during the late nineteenth century, for where the army went, railroads followed. Bolstered by a government freighter contract, the Northern Pacific Railroad delivered much-needed supplies--including food, military equipment, horses, and personnel--to Fort Keogh with a new frequency and convenience beginning in 1881. Such transactions, especially those concerning the acquisition of food and supplies, offer a glimpse into the Northern Plains' connection to the global commodities market. Indeed, the records of Fort Keogh's post commissary reveal a surprising microcosm of native-born and immigrant cultures flourishing along the Yellowstone and illuminate the daily life, history, and economy of the fort's early residents.
Washington State University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2021
The Native people who served as US Indian Scouts from 1866 to 1947, a formally designated Indigen... more The Native people who served as US Indian Scouts from 1866 to 1947, a formally designated Indigenous US Army unit, provide insights into a complex relationship with the American Empire and its settlement of the West. Both the scouts and the army changed over time through acculturation, but scouts also demonstrated agency and resistance. Across the world, Indigenous troops—endowed with a martial spirit—patrolled the boundaries of empires. Over time, martial races became loyal ones as vanguards of military might. Indian Scouts represented a moment when two cultures converged and forever changed their cultural trajectory.
Books about World War I tend to fall into either macroscale or minutiae
types of history writing.... more Books about World War I tend to fall into either macroscale or minutiae types of history writing. Both have a place, but few manage to bridge the gap between the two. Professor William C. Meadows manages to capture both camps in this book about Native American code talkers in the Great War. In the waning months of the First World War, the American forces needed a way to communicate over their telephone and other communication lines in code, since their German enemies had developed ways to intercept American messages. During the Battle of St. Etienne and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the U.S. Army used Choctaw soldiers to deliver coded messages over the telephone lines between the front and headquarters. But this is only part of the story of these Native soldiers.
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acculturation, but scouts also demonstrated agency and resistance. Across the world, Indigenous troops—endowed with a martial spirit—patrolled the boundaries of empires. Over time, martial races became loyal ones as vanguards of military might. Indian Scouts represented a moment when two cultures converged and forever changed their cultural trajectory.
types of history writing. Both have a place, but few manage to bridge the gap
between the two. Professor William C. Meadows manages to capture both camps in this book about Native American code talkers in the Great War. In the waning months of the First World War, the American forces needed a way to communicate over their telephone and other communication lines in code, since their German enemies had developed ways to intercept American messages. During the Battle of St. Etienne and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the U.S. Army used Choctaw soldiers to deliver coded messages over the telephone lines between the front and headquarters. But this is only part of the story of these Native soldiers.
acculturation, but scouts also demonstrated agency and resistance. Across the world, Indigenous troops—endowed with a martial spirit—patrolled the boundaries of empires. Over time, martial races became loyal ones as vanguards of military might. Indian Scouts represented a moment when two cultures converged and forever changed their cultural trajectory.
types of history writing. Both have a place, but few manage to bridge the gap
between the two. Professor William C. Meadows manages to capture both camps in this book about Native American code talkers in the Great War. In the waning months of the First World War, the American forces needed a way to communicate over their telephone and other communication lines in code, since their German enemies had developed ways to intercept American messages. During the Battle of St. Etienne and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the U.S. Army used Choctaw soldiers to deliver coded messages over the telephone lines between the front and headquarters. But this is only part of the story of these Native soldiers.