The extent of these Nahuas’ and Oaxacans’ participation in the invasions of 1524-28 undermines the very notion of a Spanish conquest. Their lives as Indian conquistadors in Guatemala suggest that we still have a long way to go to understand the lived experience of colonialism by the American continents’ indigenous peoples. Continue Reading Excerpt: Memories of Conquest, by Laura E. Matthew
In many ways, my initial trip to Chuschi reflects the challenges of doing historical anthropology about the late twentieth century. […] the very people about whom I had been reading—and forming opinions—in the archives were still living. Even in cases where the historical actors had passed away, their children and neighbors still lived. As such, I had to deal with something I never anticipated: the feelings of my archival subjects. Continue Reading Excerpt: The Corner of the Living, by Miguel La Serna
From the 1910s through the 1930s, hundreds of American Indians settled in Los Angeles and worked in the motion picture industry as actors, extras, stunt performers, and technical advisors. Some were recruited from reservations to make films for a short period of time. They camped in the Santa Monica Mountains, shot films in its canyons during the day, and explored the city by night. Continue Reading Nicolas G. Rosenthal: Reimagining American Indian Culture in Hollywood and Beyond
Yet despite today’s typical view of marijuana as a “soft” drug in comparison to, say, the opiates and cocaine, Mexicans of a century ago believed it to be perhaps the “hardest” drug of them all, one that triggered sudden paroxysms and delirious violence. Continue Reading Excerpt: Home Grown, by Isaac Campos
Researching this book transformed my own sense of Mesoamerican history. As I got deeper into the project, it became impossible to ignore the fundamental imprint of Mesoamerican history, culture, and relationships on the conquest period and beyond. So I had to work much harder than I anticipated to weave that preconquest history into my narrative, not just as background but as something integral to my analysis. Continue Reading Interview: Laura E. Matthew on Indigenous conquistadors and complex identities in Guatemala
Any kind of research dealing with living human subjects is sensitive, even more so when it involves recent political violence. One thing I was reminded constantly was that my very presence in the field stirred up a host of issues and anxieties that villagers had either suppressed or were still dealing with. Continue Reading Interview: Miguel La Serna on research in the aftermath of Peru’s Shining Path insurgency
When Peruvian president Ollanta Humala received the news last week that Florindo Flores Hala, a.k.a. “Comrade Artemio,” had been captured, he immediately set out for the Upper Huallaga Valley to congratulate the security forces responsible for bringing down the Shining Path leader. “In the name of the police and the army we can say to the country: mission accomplished,” affirmed the exultant president. The fall of the rebel leader has many asking: is this the end of Shining Path? Continue Reading Miguel La Serna: Peru and the Shining Path: Mission Accomplished?
The virtual exhibit “Documented Rights” raises some interesting challenges for scholars and museum professionals alike. It also reminds us that the struggle “for personal rights and freedoms” means something different for Indigenous people. While NARA should be congratulated for its attempt to do some justice to representing the Native experience, “Documented Rights” sheds light on the difficulty of doing so without replicating settler-colonial/archival patterns of organizing, categorizing, and flattening those histories. Continue Reading Joseph Genetin-Pilawa: “Documented Rights” & Representations of Indigenous History in the Archive
Today, over at the First Peoples blog, UNC Press author Celia Naylor writes about the history and current events surrounding the Cherokee freedmen controversy. In particular, she draws our attention to the historical import of the Dawes Commission, especially as regards sovereignty, race, and citizenship. Continue Reading The Lost History of the Cherokee Freedmen Controversy
The majority of human civilizations across time and place have not organized themselves into nuclear family units based on monogamous, heterosexual coupling. Native North American societies provide hundreds of alternative examples. Continue Reading Rose Stremlau: History’s Definition of an American Family
We’re thrilled to offer our heartiest congratulations to historian Tiya Miles for being awarded a 2011 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (aka the “Genius Grant”). Miles is the author of “The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story”. From the announcement: “A scholar of range and promise, and increasingly an authoritative voice in reframing and reinterpreting the history of our diverse nation, Miles is adding texture and depth to the mosaic that was our shared past and that is our heritage.” Continue Reading Congratulations to Tiya Miles, 2011 MacArthur Fellow
The commissioner of Indian affairs urged that “[the Indian] must be imbued with the exalting egotism of American civilization so that he will say ‘I’ instead of ‘We’ and ‘This is mine’ instead of ‘This is ours.'” Continue Reading Encouraging selfishness on the reservation: An excerpt from Cahill’s Federal Fathers & Mothers
Phillip Round, author of Removable Type: Histories of the Book in Indian Country, 1663-1880, recently sat down for an interview on Iowa Public Radio. He joined American Indian studies lecturer James Coppoc and short story author Eddie Chuculate to discuss the history and current state of Native American literature. Beyond his broad knowledge on Native American literacy and printed word… Continue Reading Listen: Phillip Round on Native American Literature
Malinda Maynor Lowery, author of Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South, shares a personal Thanksgiving story over at FemCentral, the Virtual Institute for Women: “Ooh, I’m going to spend Thanksgiving with the Indians!,” joked a co-worker of mine one autumn afternoon in the late 1990s. He and I were crewmates on one of my short documentary films which discussed… Continue Reading Malinda Lowery on Giving Thanks in a Native Way
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