Rose Stremlau (Associate Professor of History, Davidson College) and Brooke Bauer (Assistant Professor of History and Native American Studies, University of South Carolina Lancaster)
February 9, 2021
Native women’s perspectives and experiences are accessible in the documentary record, and attention to them fundamentally alters traditional historical narratives for the better by infusing them with relevance for twenty-first century students. Beginning with a reframing of early colonial encounters and ending with an analysis of the modern justice movement for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (#MMIW), we will emphasize two themes characterizing Native women’s histories across chronological time and geographic place: exposure to trauma and violence and then resistance to settler colonialism and resilience. By providing examples of specific women whose voices were documented in non-Native authored sources or who spoke and wrote for themselves, we will demonstrate how centering Native women opens up new opportunities for understanding the human experience and framing US history in ways that provide students with models of collaborative leadership, mobilization in response to injustice, and models to heal harmed communities.
Subjects
History / American History / Indigenous Americans / Activism / Women's History /