Red power in the age of Nixon : an analysis of the official memory of Native protest.

The Nixon administration is remembered for being one of the most progressive presidencies in history in terms of federal Native policy, and yet was still thoroughly colonial. One of the easily visible facets of its coloniality was its interactions with Native protesters, wherein government organizations put down protests using physical violence and sometimes lethal force, and repeatedly ignored well-researched and widely supported legislative proposals of Native social leaders. This thesis explores the rhetorical tools that federal officials used to support the official narrative of a progressive and peaceful Nixon administration in a series of interviews conducted for the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in 2007 and 2008.