Tuesday January 24, 2023
3:30-5:00 p.m.
McKenzie 375

Remembering, Forgetting, and Mythologizing the Native South

Professor Ellis will discuss the creation of imperial narratives of conquest and erasure and federal policies that led to the marginalization of Louisiana’s small Native nations in the early nineteenth century. This narrative erasure, Ellis argues, has warped our understanding of early American history and has serious consequences for contemporary Native nations in the Gulf South today.  

Elizabeth Ellis is an assistant professor of history at Princeton University where she teaches early American and Native American history. Prior to joining Princeton, she was an assistant professor of History at New York University and director of NYU’s Native Studies forum. Her first book “The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South,” examines the formation of Native nations in the early southeast and the ways that Indigenous migration and immigration practices shaped and limited the extent of European colonization. Liz also writes about contemporary Indigenous issues and political movements and is committed to organizing and fighting for Indigenous self-determination. She is a citizen of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.