Equity & Difference
More than mascots! Less than citizens? American Indians talk: Why isn’t the U.S. listening?
Wed. Feb. 10 2016 7:30 p.m.
Kane Hall 120, UW Campus
K. Tsianina Lomawaima
Professor, school of social transformation, Arizona State University
If the current debate over the name of a certain NFL team in our nation’s capital is any indication, many have not yet gotten the message regarding the harmful effects of ethnic stereotyping.
Why is willful ignorance about American Indian realities so deeply entrenched and passionately defended? Key answers are embedded in early 20th century federal court cases and legislation, including the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. Tracing the history of U.S. debates over the status of Native people illuminates the challenges and opportunities that surviving, thriving Native peoples pose for U.S. society.
K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled) is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work straddles Indigenous Studies, anthropology, education, ethnohistory, history, legal analysis and political science. Lomawaima focuses on the early 20th century, examining the “footprint” of federal Indian policy and practice in Indian country. Her research on the federal off-reservation boarding school system is rooted in the experiences of her father, Curtis Thorpe Carr, who at age 9 arrived at Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma. Some of her recent work focuses on early 20th century debates over the status of Native individuals and nations, and the ways U.S. citizenship has been constructed to hierarchically privilege and/or dispossess different classes of subjects.
She is the author of several books including, To Remain an Indian: Lessons for Democracy from a Century of Native American Education (co-authored with Teresa L. McCarty), which received the Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association; Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law (co-authored with David E. Wilkins); Away From Home, American Indian Boarding School Experiences (co-author and co-editor with Margaret Archuleta and Brenda Child); and They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School, which received the North American Indian Prose Award and the American Educational Association Critics’ Choice Award.
Brought to you by the UW Graduate School and the UWAA, Equity & Difference is series of talks that expose and explain transgressions and struggles—both systematic and personal—experienced by too many in our communities today, featuring thought leaders from our campus and around the world who are working to open our eyes to the consequences of prejudice, and seeking solutions for change.
UWAA and UWRA members receive advance registration for the series! Not a member? Join today!
For more information, contact the UW Alumni Association at 206-543-0540 or uwalumni@uw.edu.
