Indian Wars Everywhere

References to the Indian Wars, those conflicts that accompanied US continental expansion, suffuse American military history. From Black Hawk helicopters to the paratroopers that shout “Geronimo” as they jump from airplanes, the figure of the Indian has been indelibly linked with warfare.

In Indian Wars Everywhere, Stefan Aune shows how these resonances signal a deeper history, one in which the Indian Wars function as a shadow doctrine that influences US military violence. The United States’ formative acts of colonial violence persist in the actions, imaginations, and stories that have facilitated the spread of American empire, from the “savage wars” of the nineteenth century to the counterinsurgencies of the Global War on Terror.

Ranging across multiple centuries and continents, Indian Wars Everywhere reflects on what it means for the conquest of Native peoples to be thought of as a success that can be used as a blueprint for modern warfare.