I 've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land.

"I've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land" by Alaina E. Roberts is a historical analysis of settler colonialism, enslavement, and citizenship in eastern Oklahoma during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The author explores the role of enslavement in the resistance of Native tribes to federal assaults on their sovereignty, as well as the experiences of newly emancipated African Americans and the impact of white settlement on Black and Native communities. The book argues for the inclusion of land rights as a form of citizenship during the Reconstruction era and connects existing scholarship on race among Native tribes to the broader context of settlement and statehood. While the book is engaging and would be suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses, it could benefit from deeper engagement with the records of the Five Tribes' governments to include more Native voices. [Extracted from the article]