DC | Turtle Island in 1776: The Native World Caught Between Empires (Symposium)

Join Native and non-Native scholars as they highlight new research on the experiences of 18th-century American Indian leaders and their tribal communities, centering Indigenous perspectives on a continental scale and examining both tribal involvement and non-involvement during the Revolutionary era.

Presentations will address Native Nations across regions of Turtle Island and their interactions with competing empires—Britain, Spain, France, Russia, and the emerging United States—while examining themes of sovereignty, diplomacy, resilience, and cultural continuity amid profound change during the war and early nation-building period. 

Speakers include Philip J. Deloria (Yankton Dakota descent), Greg Sarris (Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria), Brenda J. Child (Ojibwe), Scott Manning Stevens (Akwesasne Mohawk), Colin Calloway, and Nadia Dean.

Individual symposium sessions and full schedule to be announced.

Image: Kimowan Metchewais (Cree [Cold Lake First Nations], 1963-2011), Turtle, 2012. Painting on canvas, 242.5 x 151 x 3.5 cm, 26/9528. © National Museum of the American Indian.

This project received funding from the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: 250,” a Smithsonian-wide initiative supported by private philanthropy and created to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary and advance the Smithsonian vision for the next 250 years.