Marking Time: The Question (or Problem) of Periodization in Native American History
AHA Session 252
Saturday, January 7, 2017: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Room 503 (Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room Level)
Chairs:
Erika Bsumek, University of Texas at Austin
Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, George Mason University
Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, George Mason University
Panel:
Juliana Barr, Duke University
Erika Bsumek, University of Texas at Austin
Brenda Child, University of Minnesota
Boyd Cothran, York University
Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, George Mason University
Joshua Reid, University of Washington
Erika Bsumek, University of Texas at Austin
Brenda Child, University of Minnesota
Boyd Cothran, York University
Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, George Mason University
Joshua Reid, University of Washington
Session Abstract
This roundtable considers the utility of mainstream historiographical framing in Native histories. How do the time periods American historians commonly use limit, enhance, or shape the work of those teaching and writing Native American history? Are there alternate frameworks (chronological or otherwise) that would function more effectively? Panelists will discuss how the centuries of Native history prior to 1492 make us reconfigure a picture of Native responses to European invasion and the political, economic, and cultural changes it occasioned. Others ask: What are historians to do when Indigenous people, both historically and in the present, demand that we focus on continuity rather than change? How can a focus on a specific place alter the way we write history? The panelists in this session cover a breadth of different time periods, geographic regions, and thematic areas in their own research and will consider the above mentioned questions and others related to writing, researching, and teaching Native American history.
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