2017-2018 Annual Report

2017-2018NAISI Annual Report NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES INITIATIVE The Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative Brown University 67 George Street Providence, Rhode Island 02912 Tel: (401) 863-3693 Email: [email protected] www.facebook.com/NAISatBrown To join our email list, learn about our initiative, or stay informed of upcoming events visit: brown.edu/go/naisab STEERING COMMITTEE TABLE OF CONTENTS Paja Faudree Associate Professor, Anthropology LETTER FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE 4 NEWS 7 Linford Fisher POST-DOCTORAL AND GRADUATE FELLOWS 9 Associate Professor, History LECTURES + DISCUSSION 12 EVENTS SUPPORTED BY NAISI 15 NAIS RELATED CAMPUS EVENTS 16 Elizabeth Hoover NAIS COHORT PUBLICATIONS 17 Assistant Professor, American Studies NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS 19 ORGANIZATIONS AT BROWN Joseph Meisel Joukowsky Family University Librarian Adjunct Associate Professor, History ABOUT NAISI Robert Preucel Native American and Indigenous Studies is an Professor, Anthropology interdisciplinary initiative of faculty and students Director, Haffenreffer Museum of interested in teaching and research that Anthropology explores, and increases the understanding of, the cultural traditions and political experiences of Indigenous Peoples (especially in the Western Neil Safier Hemisphere) through historical and contemporary Associate Professor, History lenses. Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian at The John Courses offered by NAIS affiliated faculty explore Carter Brown Library American Indian historic and contemporary lifeways; the history of contact between European and Native peoples; environmental health and research in Native STAFF communities; historic and contemporary peoples of Niyolpaqui Moraza-Keeswood Central and South America; indigenous knowledge Coordinator, Native American and and the sciences; and Native American religion, Indigenous Studies literature, and media. FROM THE NAISI STEERING COMMITTEE Greetings! This marks the second year that the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative (NAISI) has made an important contribution to Brown’s intellectual and social life, and to the University’s mission of forging deeper relationships with surrounding communities. Since its founding in 2016- 17, the Initiative has taken great strides to promote intellectual community and fellowship among the scholars, students, and community members associated with NAISI, to foster and promote collaborative ties to local Native and Indigenous communities, and to build an internal leadership structure and guiding vision for the initiative. We are also grateful to report that the Initiative now has an administrative home on campus, at 67 George Street. We started the 2017-2018 academic year with the following goals: • Develop appropriate programming for NAISI-related events and activities on campus • Support the Native Americans at Brown (NAB) undergraduate group and community • Encourage the intellectual and research pursuits of Brown students and faculty through a small grants program • Increase the outreach to and visibility among local Native and Indigenous communities close to Brown • Improve efforts to recruit new Native and Indigenous students and successfully encourage them to enroll at Brown • Bolster relations with Native and Indigenous alumni • Conduct a national search for a prominent senior scholar who has the intellectual stature and administrative experience to lead the NAISI as its inaugural Director We are pleased with the progress we have made in achieving many of these goals. This report highlights the major activities pursued by the Initiative over the course of the last year. Programming Prior to NAISI’s existence, faculty members from diverse fields and disciplines came together to intentionally form a community grounded in shared research and teaching interests involving Native and Indigenous history, culture, and language, both past and present. We have continued to foster this community on campus through a series of brown bag luncheons and co-sponsored events and have expanded it well beyond the initial circle of participants to include broad participation from faculty, undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and community members. We also started a weekly newsletter to advertize NAISI related events, activities, and announce- ments. The e-bulletin has grown to include 350 subscribers, both from within and outside Brown. 4 Postdoctoral Fellowships We were pleased to partner with several units on campus to offer postdoctoral fellowships to bring outstanding Native scholars to campus. Through this program we have made substantial progress in building a vibrant, successful postdoctoral program in Native and Indigenous Studies, enhancing Native and Indigenous studies on campus, and supporting young scholars who will go on to contribute nationally to the strength of Native and Indigenous Studies. Community engagement From the beginning, NAISI has worked to build bridges between Brown faculty student and staff, and local and national Native communities. Our faculty are involved in a variety of projects that can be found on the NAISI website. In particular, Professor Elizabeth Hoover is collaborating with URI nursing professor and former Brown Superfund Research Project postdoc Marcella Thompson and the Narragansett Tribe on the Namaus Project, which is in the process of gathering and testing samples of fish from reservation ponds to test for heavy metals, exploring the source of contamination found in fish, and determining the most culturally appropriate way to convey information about the fish to the tribal community. NAISI also co-sponsored a retreat for NAB students, coordinated in conjunction with the Native Americans at Brown Alumni (NABA) organization, which took place in the Mashpee Wampanoag community. Students from a wide variety of tribal communities were able to tour the Wampanoag language immersion school, meet with the tribal medicine man and other wellness specialists, and take part as tasting judges in a community food event. The year began in a challenging way that is reflective of the complicated political landscape in Native New England, with a group of individuals, including members of the Pokanoket tribe, occupying an encampment on Mt Hope property, seeking ownership of a landscape that is culturally important to a number of local Indigenous groups. NAISI worked to communicate with the leadership from a number of these communities, including the Mashpee Wampanoag, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Assonet Wampanoag, Herring Pond Wampanoag, and Narragansett tribes. After a series of negotiations, Brown, the Pokanoket group, and other interested local tribes agreed to establish a preservation trust to ensure access to this land for tribal communities. Director search For the second year in a row, we conducted a national search for an inaugural NAISI director. As before, we worked closely with several departments and units on campus to identify and recruit a 5 rich pool of scholars whose scholarly and teaching experience position them to take on this crucial role. From that pool, we identified two excellent candidates who were invited to campus to present their work, share their vision for the Initiative, meet with members of the NAISI and relativant departmental communities, and acquaint themselves with Brown’s resources and opportunities. Although neither candidate was able to accept our offer (for different and complex reasons), the process was informative and helped generate much collegial networking and sharing. As we head into the 2018-2019 academic year, we continue to strategize about the best ways to fill this position. Looking To The Year Ahead This coming year, we look forward to continuing to foster intellectual community on campus through events, lectures, and brown bag luncheons. We are continuing the successful small grants program in order to enable a wide diversity of NAIS-related events on campus. We hope to continue outreach to local Native communities while enlarging our network of national and international indigenous scholars. We also look forward to building the leadership structure of the Initiative by hiring an Assistant Director. This key administrative position will help centralize the many activities that happen under the auspices of NAISI. We continue to seek to fill the position of the Director. As we reflect back on the past year, we are especially grateful to the Provost, Rick Locke, and the Dean of the Faculty, Kevin McLaughlin, for their ongoing support for this Initiative in general, and for the search to hire a new Director in particular. We would like to extend a special thanks to Niyo Moraza-Keeswood for his capable and enthusiastic administrative support. Thanks to each one of you for your ongoing support of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown! With best wishes, Paja Faudree, Associate Professor, Anthropology Linford D. Fisher, Associate Professor, History Elizabeth Hoover, Assistant Professor, American Studies Joseph Meisel, Joukowsky Family University Librarian, Adjunct Associate Professor, History Robert Preucel, Professor, Department of Anthropology, and Director, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology Neil Safier,Associate Professor, History, and Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian at The John Carter Brown Library 6 NEWS Transition to a New Space Brown Bag Series In August of 2017, NAIS transitioned to our new On March 15, NAISI hosted its first Brown Bag home at 67 George Street. This

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