NAIS 51 Pan-Indianism in American History
This course provides the history of pan-Indian movements in Indigenous North America from 1680 to the present. In the current era of self-determination, tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous nationhood, we perhaps sometimes forget that pan-Indian movements have played a significant part in the history and experiences of Native peoples of North America. We will explore the many ways in which Native peoples have aligned themselves with other tribal nations religious, military, educational, economic, and environmental movements, in the process cutting across linguistic, cultural, religious, and national lines. Indigenous North Americans have deployed pan-Indianism as a strategy to confront both international such as colonialism and the struggles for control of contested Borderlands, and more regional and localized forces. Taken in its entirety, understanding pan-Indianism is essential to understanding the history of Native North America.