Knockin' on the Door? Native Americans
One way to understand American history is to see it as a series of efforts by outsiders to become insiders, to join fully in American life. This is a story told by African American history, by immigrant history, and by labor history, for example.
This year’s Documents in Detail webinar series will focus on the efforts of outsiders to “knock on the door” and gain full admittance to American life. Using sources from our CDC volumes, 50 Core American Documents and Native Americans, we will examine what people thought was the American way of life and why people wanted to join it. In the later sessions in the series, we will examine the question of whether the terms on which outsiders join in American life have now changed.
While Native Americans were legally members of their own sovereign nations, in practice they were pushed to assimilate into Anglo society in a myriad of ways. Using sources from the late 19th century, we will dig into the costs of assimilation and the difficulties Natives experienced while navigating two distinct cultural worlds.
Our webinars meet monthly on Wednesday nights at 7:30-8:30 pm ET. Participants who remain digitally present for the duration of the webinar will receive an attendance letter from Teaching American History for 1 hour of professional development.