Indigenous Studies Working Group

Welcome

_{Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, (Anthropology, Berkley Center); Bette Jacobs (Law School, O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law)}

The Indigenous Studies Working Group of Georgetown University gathers together colleagues and students interested in the field of Indigenous Studies. We promote greater respect, awareness, and collaboration with Indigenous peoples in our region, in the United States, and across the world. All with serious interest in Indigenous peoples are welcome here.

We honor the Indigenous peoples whose land became the Greater Washington area, especially the Piscataway, Anacostank, Pamunkey and others. The second Monday in October is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, after earlier being Columbus Day. Many states and over 130 cities, including Washington D.C. recognize this. Viewers are welcome to weigh in on debates about Columbus Day and Columbus statues. Over 44 statues have come down in the US. On climate change, international Indigenous leaders have become “guardians of the future” and are helping save forests. Native American month is November, a time to reflect on painful legacies. Association of Indigenous Anthropologists (AIA) (new window) recommends readings and reminds us there are 574 federally recognized tribes (new window) in the United States. Historically, about 500 distinct Native languages (new window) were spoken in North America. Currently, Ethnologue lists 245 indigenous languages in the United States, with 65 already extinct and 75 near extinction (new window) with only a few elder speakers left.

An international map for Indigenous locations is a “work in progress” without legal boundaries. It provides a sense of the range of lands and names of Indigenous peoples. NPR published an Americas historical legacy variation map to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2022.

What is Indigeneity?

Indigenous peoples—also known as Native, Aboriginal or First Nations peoples—identify themselves as the original inhabitants of their home regions. Concepts rooted in place as well as sacred land animate their stewardship. Indigenous groups today are actively protecting, defining, and transforming their own identities in the context of centuries of colonization, forced assimilation, and genocide. The concept of indigeneity and the suffering, survival, and resilience behind it are in need of exploration. Our network is a work in progress, and both faculty and student interest at Georgetown is growing. Our members include faculty from several departments and across Georgetown schools in the main campus and Law School. They also include students from councils (CISA and NALSA) on both campuses.

Why do we need a network?

Today’s university- and country-wide soul-searching concerning misunderstandings about race, the fluidity of identity, and the construction of ethnic group solidarities benefits from adding the dimension of Indigenous studies to the mix of Georgetown’s diversity-oriented events and courses. While our campus is rightfully engaged in heightened awareness concerning race, ethnicity, gender, nationalism, and identity, Indigenous peoples are often marginalized—if not getting lost—once again. We need a better framing for students and faculty in the campus community to benefit more systematically from consciousness-raising concerning issues of Indigenous identity, rights, legacies, and (re)vitalization. We hope that this website can become a forum for discussion of issues that are crucial to Indigenous communities. Casa Latina is hosting Indigenous activities, and the Campus Ministry provides space for smudging and meetings. Please check their site and the Circle of Indigenous Students’ Alliance CISA for updates. See NASC’s pre-covid and still relevant student petition, signed by many students in 2019.

Relevant courses:

2024 GU Study Abroad in Cusco, Peru: Indigenous Peoples and Globalization – School for International Training SIT Peru: Indigenous Peoples & Globalization.

Ezra Rosser, expert on Federal Indian Law and the Navajo, is visiting at GU law and welcomes student visits even if you are not in his classes.

Melinda González is a Puerto Rican cultural anthropologist and poet whose courses include environmental justice issues for Indigenous peoples.

Anita Gonzalez, co-founder of GU’s Racial Justice Institute, is teaching Cross-Cultural Perf. Studies in Spring 2024.

Kevin Healy regularly teaches courses on Indigenous movements in Latin America.

Bette Jacobs teaches in a Spring cycle her Indigenous Health Law and Access to Health Care (new window) .

Stay posted for relevant School of Foreign Service courses through the Diversity office. “Treaties between Sovereigns: An Overview of American Indian and US Relations” was taught by Prof. Charles F. Sams III (Umatilla) and Prof. Stan Thayne Sp. 2021.

Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner (Luiseño/Cupeño) has left our Philosophy Department for University of Maryland, creating an Indigenous Studies Lab. She was key to developing GU course offerings and helping Indigenous students, and can be found through the Washington Consortium of Universities.

Cinthya Ammerman, recipient of the prestigious ACLS Emerging Voices postdoctoral fellowship, was 2021-22 faculty in Georgetown’s Humanities Initiative.  From Mapuche territory in Chile, her research compares the interconnected colonization of Wallmapu (Chile) and California Native territory. 

CULP 375 “Indigenous Peoples, Conflict and Resilience” team-taught by Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer (new window), Faculty Fellow Berkley Center (balzerm@georgetown.edu); Bette Jacobs (new window), Distinguished Professor of Health Administration (Bette.Jacobs@georgetown.edu)

At American University, courses on indigeneity are taught by Elizabeth Rule (Chickasaw) and Buck Woodard.

At George Washington University, the AT&T Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy (new window) has closed.

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SCHOLARSHIPS & RESOURCES for Native American and Alaskan Native Students:

https://earthjustice.org/office/tribal-partnerships; https://www.edumed.org/financial-aid/native-american-students-scholarships-resources/ (new window). Soul of Nations lists fellowship opportunities. See also Tribal Technical Assistance Opportunities Available (new window). Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) of the Aspen Institute has opened Champions for Change applications (new window). National Congress of American Indians has entrepreneur opportunities. See also a student guide for college resources and scholarships resource guide.

News and Events

For Indigenous perspectives, see Native News Online.

The US Institute of Peace is hosting an Indigenous Peace Builders Summit April 11-12. To attend, send your name and affiliation to Julia Schiwal jschiwal@usip.org (new window) by April 9. An online option for April 11, including the keynote by Debra Haaland, Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior, is possible with registration. RSVP Now (new window).

Institute of Peace also hosted 1/24/24 The Afro-Indigenous Peoples of Honduras: Exclusion, Conflict, and Migration (new window), available online.

A new play by Rhiana Yazzie with an Indigenous theme is Nancy (new window), a world premiere production about a fictional conversation between Nancy Reagan and Esmeralda, a Navajo mother, in an exploration of identity, ancestry, and ambition. Use code GEORGETOWN on Mosaic’s website (new window) to get discounted tickets for $20.

Academy Awards Oscar Night included Lily Gladstone, nominated for best actress for Killers of the Flower Moon. Winner of the Golden Globe, her talent and impact are huge. See also our Cultural Expressions section.

Madeline Sayet’s 2024 Where We Belong about her Mohegan ancestry and much more, at Folger Shakespeare Theater co-sponsored with Woolly Mammoth, was sensational. See her website for more information on this exciting actor/scholar.

Smithsonian Mother Tongue Film Festival 2024 Feb 21-24 theme was Finding Balance. Smithsonian 2023 Mother Tongue Film Festival 2/ 23-26, theme was Coming Home. Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival is annual, part of their Recovering Voices (new window) program. https://mothertongue.si.edu/ (new window) Some films remain open access.

Holding Sacred Space: Connecting through the Spirituality of Sound was February 26, 2024 at GU’s Dahlgren Chapel, including dancing in the chapel! Co-sponsored by the Department of Performing Arts, African American Studies, and the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access. Hope Khodaei (Piscataway) participated, with Afro-Indigenous performers. 

We are mourning the passing of N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024), the great Kiowa writer and philosopher. For a celebration of his life, including many obits, see the special site of SAR. A poignant less known angle on his amazing life was his friendship with the Siberian (Nenets/Khanty) poet Yuri Vaella, resulting in the book Meditations after the Bear Feast.

Washington Post has a Race in America: Giving Voice podcast series. 1/4/24 featured Devery Jacobs. See also Amber Midthunder.

Australia’s controversial referendum failed to recognize Indigenous in its constitution. Ramifications are serious and polarization has intensified.

Nov 16 at GW Lisner 3-5 featured 2024 Journalists’ Guide to Environment and Energy (new window) with Indigenous affairs reporter Debra Utacia Krol (Xolon Salinan).

Ken Burns’ The American Buffalo is available for streaming on PBS, as is Native America.

Nov 13 the community lunch for our working group, sponsored by the SFS Office of Diversity included students and faculty, with lively discussion. For further information contact Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer balzerm@georgetown.edu.

Nov 9 GU online forum: Indigenous Communities, Child-Family Separation and the Catholic Church, included Indigenous speakers. For a recording, contact Gillian Huebner gh559@georgetown.edu .

Two great exhibits in DC feature Indigenous artists: at National Gallery of Art “The Land that Carries Our Ancestors” and at the Renwick Gallery “Sharing Honors and Burdens”. In New York Brazilian artist Chico has a retrospective:

International Indigenous Women’s Day, celebrated Sept 5, reminds us of prominent female leaders. See https://www.culturalsurvival.org/ for Indigenous activism. This day is commemorated in honor of Aymara warrior Bartolina Sisa who in 1780, along with her husband Túpac Katari, led an important part of the Aymara-Quechua rebellion against the exploitation and abuse of Spanish colonizers in Peru.

See the impressive obituary of Ada Deer, first woman to lead Bureau of Indian Affairs.

School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe featured Harvard’s Philip Deloria “The Year the Stars Fell” September 27 with an online option.

Hawaiian Fire Disaster in Maui and Indigenous responses are in the news.

Congresswoman Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico), head of the Department of Interior (Deb Haaland Is Sworn In As Interior Secretary), continues to make news with a 2023 healing campaign to listen to communities seared by boarding schools. Brookings provided perspective on her appointment. See also her 2021 UN address and her dialogue with Joy Harjo. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/17/deb-haaland-road-to-healing/.

Georgetown University co-sponsored in October 2023 the forum on Faith and the Family: Propagating and Preventing Child-Family Separation Across Time and Context (new window). Earlier the workshop for GU Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues sponsored: Indigenous Communities, Intergenerational Knowledge, and Climate Change in Mesoamerica (new window), 2/ 28, 2023.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act June 15, 2023.

Elizabeth Rule’s 2023 book Indigenous DC (GU Press) is out. See also the app.

A beautiful Graduation Ceremony for Indigenous Scholars was on May 19. Congratulations Class of 2023, and Professor Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner (Luiseño/Cupeño) for organizing it.

Round House Theater featured Mary Kathryn Nagle’s On the Far End, Directed by Margot Bordelon April 1 – May 7, 2023.

Winner of 2023 DC International Film Festival:

Art Events: American University‘s Katzen Arts Center hosted Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala 2/4-5/14. Festival 3/31, 4/1 ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, hosted The Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art through 4/2. Shaped by the Loom: Weaving Worlds in the American Southwest (new window) Bard Gallery, NYC 2/17-7/9. Filmmaker and artist Sky Hopinka was featured on PBS 1/23.

On April 17-28, 2023, the 22nd session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (new window) (UNPFII) took place. Its theme focused on “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach.”

Land Back and Sacred Land News: Arizona disputed land at Oak Flat threatened with copper mining; Rappahannock of VA reclaimed parcel of Fones Cliffs homeland. Contested buy backs occurred in Cayuga territory, upstate NY. Bison hunt news.

Woodrow Wilson Center Nature-Based Solutions and Indigenous Voices: Lessons from Canada 2/28 was recorded. Their Canada and Arctic programs periodically feature Indigenous issues.

George Washington University lecture by Dr. Nelson Moldonado-Torres. “Living and Thinking Under Catastrophe:  Combative Decoloniality as Counter-Catastrophe Thinking, Creation and Action.” 2/6 6-8.   

GU talk: “Settler Ableism, Settler Nationalism: Disability and Land sovereignty” with Professor Jess L. Cowing (Wooster) 2/6, 3-4:30 pm HFSC Herman room and zoom. tinyurl.com/Feb6dsevent (new window)

“Divine Feminine Medicine: A Virtual Discussion”  2/13 7:30 pm. www.mosketuhconsulting.com

CISA hosted a wonderful poetry, song and art performance in Riggs 11/28/2022 6-8.

National Museum of the American Indian presented Native Cinema Showcase 11/18-25/2022.

GU’s Kyle Shernuk spoke to the Asia In Depth history seminar on “Indigenous Taiwan: Ethnographies, Identities, and Oceans for the 21st Century” 11/17/2022.

NALSA hosted a book talk on the Native American Indian Movement and Leonard Peltier at GU Law School 11/14/2022. Raising Indigenous Voices in Academia and Society blended conference was held 10/20-25/2022. For information contact: neyooxet.greymorning@mso.umt.edu .

Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and their protected areas have been under siege in the Amazon, as 2022 murders have revealed. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva [Lula] won Brazil’s 2022 presidential election. Brazil’s National Museum, burned in 2018, is being revived with Indigenous leadership. Chile’s 2022 draft constitution features environment and Indigenous rights.

Pope Francis’s reconciliation project for Canada’s First Nations was launched with an apology denouncing “catastrophic” residential schools. Some claimed too little too late, while others wept.

Reparations for the “stolen generations” of schoolchildren taken from their families in Australia were announced. Australia’s National Anthem was edited to become more inclusive. Aboriginal history is reflected in the obituaries of activist Rosalie Kunoth-Monks and singer Archie Roach.

Cultural Survival’s 2022 panel “Securing Indigenous Rights in the Green Economy” is available on youtube. See also their “call to action” for 2022, and their coverage of COP 27.

Some of Russia’s Indigenous people have been speaking out against the war in Ukraine. Russia’s Indigenous are being mobilized to fight in Ukraine at higher proportions than their demography warrants. New laws in Russia further restrict who has the right to be defined as Indigenous. For perspective, see M. Mandelstam Balzer’s recent book. Her book talk was April 2022 for GU’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and E European Studies.

The 15th session for the United Nations “expert mechanism” review of violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples took place in Geneva July 2022. See also http://www.firstpeoples.org/ (new window) .

The US supreme court in 2020 ruled that much of eastern Oklahoma is Indian Country, confirming treaty rights of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, as well as local Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole Nations. The ruling came in a context of heightened societal awareness for rights of BIPOC. Poet laureate Joy Harjo and Lawyer Sarah Deer provided reflections. Ramifications ensued and in 2022 McGirt v Oklahoma was revised with further infringements on tribal self-governance.

Land: Virginia Rappahannock have regained riverside land in historical partnership and Monacans have won a battle to save burial grounds and their historic Rassawek capital. Two Delaware Indian groups, Nanticoke and Lenape, are buying back ancestral lands. Similar movements in California and the mid-west are using Land Trusts to reclaim homelands. Georgia is integrating Muscogee (Creek) tribal lands into plans for Ocmulgee Mounds National Park. Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts were restored — great news for the Inter-Tribal coalition of the Navajo Nation and the Hopi, Ute Indian, Ute Mountain Ute and Pueblo of Zuni Tribes that fought for this since 2017.

Indigenous at GU: Anishinaabe Theater Exchange (new window) was at GU for the May 4 opening of the Lab for Global Performance and Politics’ annual (new window) “Gathering.” Also featured was the play Andares weaving Mayan, Muxe and Wixarika Indigenous myths with current concerns. These exciting events are available on the Lab’s youtube. The background panel “How We Go Missing” was co-sponsored by the Racial Justice Institute 4/29 and is available on request. Artist-performer Edward Keith Colston (Tuscarora/ Lumbee) presented in Professor Anita Gonzalez’s Cross-cultural Performance class 4/7/22. He is an important local resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P37HrB5Cwss (new window). Center for Latin American Studies sponsored “Embracing Multiple Visions of Indigenous Education in Latin American Universities:  Experiences in Mexico and Peru“ 4/4/2022.

Pacific Islanders and Indigenous Peoples Share Their Sacred Values seminar was recorded 2/19/22.

New Zealand Art seminar Bard College 2/22/22.

Indigenous Women Leaders were confirmed for National Endowment for the Humanities (Shelley Low, Navajo/Dine); for National Museum of American Indian (Cynthia Chavez Lamar, Pueblo), and appointed for Indian Health Service (Roselyn Tso, Navajo).

Indigenous activists were in Scotland for climate change workshops and demonstrations. A summary of Indigenous statements and actions is at Cultural Survival.

Energy politics and protest is crucial for President Biden’s administration. Demonstrations at the White House pushing for climate action Oct 11-15 joined Indigenous and ecology activists. Organizers included People vs Fossil Fuels. See Winona LaDuke’s (Ojibwe) Line 3 pipeline protest explanation; and Chippewa writer Louise Erdrich’s plea.

In honor of American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage November 2021, the Census Bureau released new data. Indigenous Peoples’ Days and Months call attention to issues but symbolism can be augmented every day.

Explore our Resources and Other Offerings!

Bears Ears National Monument Controversy

Dr. Bette Jacobs, GULC’s Native American Law Students Association, and GULC’s Environmental Law Society discussed Public Lands, Sacred Lands, and Presidential Authority.

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Justice in America for Native Americans

Watch the video of the April 24, 2017 panel and stay current on the Health Law Initiative’s continued work on Justice for Native Americans

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Resources

The Indigenous Studies Working Group maintains a growing list of resources for Indigenous studies, support, and outreach on the Georgetown campus, throughout the Washington metropolitan area, and across the United States.

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Recommended Reading

Browse our growing list of academic and popular literary sources for those interested in learning more about Indigenous histories, cultures, and politics.

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Film Database

See our extensive listing of wide-release and independent films, documentaries, and series, many directed, written, and performed by Indigenous directors and actors themselves.

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Cultural Expression

See examples of traditional and contemporary Indigenous music and visual arts from performers and artists across the world.

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