The role of Indigenous peoples in American history is being reconsidered in a new book, co-edited and co-authored by a professor in the .
(University of North Caroline Press, 2015) features 19 essays by leading scholars of Native American history, including , associate professor and director of Native American studies.
Stevens is also the book鈥檚 editor, along with Susan Sleeper-Smith, professor of history at Michigan State University; Juliana Barr, associate professor of history at the University of Florida; Jean M. O鈥橞rien, professor of history at the University of Minnesota; and Nancy Shoemaker, professor of history at the University of Connecticut.
He says the book is designed to illuminate the 鈥渦ndeniable centrality鈥� of American Indian history to the full sweep of U.S. history.
鈥淭his book is for anyone who teaches or studies U.S. history because it presents major themes, events, historical figures and approaches in a new light,鈥� says Stevens, an expert in diplomatic and cultural strategies of resistance among North American Indians. 鈥淚t clearly demonstrates how Native American nations, in a struggle to retain their sovereignty, have shaped the history of the United States, even while their own histories were being ignored or suppressed.鈥�
Among the issues that Stevens and his colleagues address are settlement and colonization, economic and political power, citizenship and movements for equality, and political identity.
Already, the book has drawn praise from critics and colleagues alike. Penn State professor Ari Kelman says it confirms what historians have long suspected鈥攖hat the experiences of Indigenous peoples are 鈥渃entral, rather than peripheral鈥� to the American story.
Scott Manning Stevens
Adds Dartmouth professor Colin Calloway: 鈥淭his book gives us a new set of tools with which to chip away at the old block. [It is] a much-needed addition to the field of Indigenous studies.鈥�
A citizen of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, Stevens joined the 黑料不打烊 faculty in 2013, after simultaneously serving as director of the D鈥橝rcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago and adjunct professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame. He also has held teaching positions at the University at Buffalo, Arizona State University and Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. and master鈥檚 degree in English and American literatures.
