Ostler’s more inclusive form of politics can be applied to late 19th century industrial relations and gender relations. Thomas G. Andrews illustrates in his book Killing for Coal how the plight of the coal workers was strangely similar to the Sioux’s situation in many ways. The U.S.’s need for coal to support its economic boom was similar to the U.S. government’s need for Sioux land in order to expand, and colliers residency in company towns that had significant control over miners’ lives is reminiscent of the Sioux’s’ lives on reservations. The solidarity that miners gained through their suffering and their representation of it through strikes and protests follow a similar pattern to the banding together of different Sioux tribes and the use
