The settler colonial limit of acceptability: Mark Mallory, ‘The Names of Four Scouts: Slavery, Settler Colonialism, and the Limits of Incorporation at the Texas Capitol Complex since 1983’, Journal of Texas History, 2, 1, 2026, #4 | settler colonial studies blog

The settler colonial limit of acceptability: Mark Mallory, ‘The Names of Four Scouts: Slavery, Settler Colonialism, and the Limits of Incorporation at the Texas Capitol Complex since 1983’, Journal of Texas History, 2, 1, 2026, #4

12Jul26

Abstract: This essay takes the commemorated names of four Seminole Negro Indian Scout Medal of Honor recipients to examine public memory at the Texas Capitol Complex since 1983. Using archival documents, newspapers, exhibits, and monuments, it traces how the Texas State Preservation Board responded to criticism through limited incorporations of Black, Tejano, and women’s histories while preserving narratives that disavow slavery and settler colonialism. It argues that these incorporations reinforce a framework centered on Texas “pioneers,” obscuring Native histories and misrepresenting the complex intersections of Blackness and Indigeneity embodied by Black Seminole history.

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