University Of Chicago Department Of Race, Diaspora, And Indigeneity Inaugural Colloquium: May 4, 2023 Alaina Roberts (University of Pittsburgh)

Alaina Roberts presents: Reconciliation in the Heart of Indian Country?: A Journey Through Identity

In a cross between Saidiya Hartman’s Lose Your Mother and Karen L. Cox’s No Common Ground, historian Alaina E. Roberts embarks on a journey to locate the descendants of the Native Americans who enslaved her ancestors. Along the way, she unpacks the construction and removal of Confederate monuments in Indian nations, the artificially simplified narratives about history used in tribal museums and cultural centers, and the longstanding racial divide in Native American communities. Native people may often be left out of the United States’ very Black/white discussions about racism, but tribal history and modern-day issues are both separate from and reflective of the broader nation.