In this widely acclaimed book from Yale University Press’s Henry Roe Cloud series on American Indians and Modernity, Reid, of Snohomish Coast Salish ancestry, offers a rich history of the maritime world of the Makah people. The Sea Is My Country illustrates the ways in which the Makah shaped the economy of the Northwest Coast while also maintaining their ancient relationships to both sea and land. So far this term, we’ve seen collaborations with a clan and an individual; now we will be reading a work created in close relationship with a nation.

I’m looking forward to discussing this project with all of you.  It adds to the diversity of examples of collaborative history we have had over these past few weeks.  And look who else is reading it!

Leslie Robertson was approached by members of the Kwagu’l Gix̱sa̱m Clan to write a book about their ancestor, Jane Cook.  This book offers a different configuration than Roy’s of the relationship between archival materials, disciplinary history, and community/family engagement.

As this book is lengthy, you can skip parts VIII and IX.  I realize this still leaves a lot to read.  I propose the following strategy. Please get a sense through careful reading in the early chapters of what her methodology does and why she includes so many documents in their entirety.  Then, for the remainder of the book, you can skim more quickly through the documents and focus on the relationship between the various voices (Robertson’s, her collaborators’, and the documents.)

**Remember that we will meet on 23 January at 11am and finish early at 12:30.

This week, Susan Roy’s These Mysterious People brings another discipline’s relationship to Indigenous peoples and colonialism into view: archaeology.  Roy worked for many years doing legal research for xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam)  before doing her PhD.  This book started as her dissertation.  Roy now teaches history at the University of Waterloo.  Her work continues to be in collaboration with Indigenous communities, at the moment particularly with the shíshálh (Sechelt).

Hello everyone,

Paige and I wanted to post these as a way to get our conversation rolling on Tuesday, and to signal the kinds of questions we’ll be asking you to post yourselves as we progress through the term. Thanks!

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From the Smith, O’Brien, Lomawaima, and other readings, begin to construct a history of history. In what ways is our discipline coterminous with, complicit in, and constitutive of colonialism as it manifests at local, national, and global levels?

Taking into consideration the very trenchant critique of trauma-based studies launched by Tuck and Yang, how do we balance a need for surfacing the history of colonialism and bearing witness (perhaps problematic phrasings in and of themselves) with a sensitivity to the concerns raised here? What is a way forward?

Our colleague Daniel Justice uses terms like humility and empathy as important features of ethical and smart scholarship. What role do you feel (pun intended, perhaps) these more affective components of our lives should play in our intellectual work?