National Council on Public History

Sean Jacobson, Loyola University Chicago

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

Seeking

• Seeking Additional Presenters
• Seeking General Feedback and Interest
• Seeking Specific Expertise

RELATED TOPICS

• Memory
• Place
• Preservation

ABSTRACT

The Great Lakes region holds rich resources in both Indigenous/First Nations history and North American religious heritage. This roundtable discussion would bring together scholars and public historians who have researched and/or worked at historic sites, archives, or museums occupying the crossroads of Indigenous and religious histories. Traditional settler colonial narratives of Christian missionaries and Native converts often assumed a path toward Native cultural extinction. This panel would explore ways public historians can reimagine heritage sites to emphasize adaptive resistance and Indigenous survivance. It also invites conversation about the challenges of interpreting religious history in a largely secularized 21st century context.

DESCRIPTION

The Great Lakes region holds rich resources in both Indigenous/First Nations history and North American religious heritage. While there is copious and nuanced academic treatment of the “middle ground” between Natives, missionaries, and traders between the 17th-19th century, there are challenges in presenting that history for public audiences. Many monuments and historical landscapes tend to celebrate Catholic and Protestant heritage in a way that obscures Indigenous survivance. This panel would seek to address any of the following:

• religious heritage tourism in the Great Lakes and relationship to settler colonialism
• Christian missions as a vehicle for Native adaptive resistance to removal
• public history engagement at historic sites (esp. mission houses and boarding schools)
• how religious sites can be reinterpreted to elevate Indigenous voices and perspectives
• historical relevance of mission sites for an increasingly secular 21st centuryFor reference, I am a doctoral candidate at Loyola University Chicago researching public history work at these mission landscapes, including the Ferry Mission at Mackinac Island, the Museum of Ojibwa Culture at the St. Ignace mission house, and the Stephen Badin mission chapel at University of Notre Dame. I am seeking additional panelists who could contribute to a roundtable discussion. Ideally, I would like to incorporate a mixture of Native and non-Native panelists to provide multiple perspectives on the evolution of public history work on these issues. Panelists may be academic researchers, museum or historical park staff members, or others who have experience with a particular site or topic expertise. I’m open to suggestions.

Regarding scope, I’ve limited this panel to dealing with the Great Lakes region primarily due to the location of the conference in Montreal, as there is also opportunity to discuss comparative practices at US and Canadian sites. The setting of the Great Lakes as a “middle ground” among Native, Métis, French, and English people also lends to the annual theme of “Crossroads” for NCPH 2022.

Please let me know what your thoughts are!

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Sean Jacobson, Loyola University Chicago, [email protected]

ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 1, 2021. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion