The Native American West: A Case Study of the Columbia Plateau
FAIN: EH-256812-17
Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA 99362-2067)
Christopher William Leise (Project Director: February 2017 to March 2021)
A two-week institute for thirty college and
university faculty to explore the history of the Columbia Plateau as a case
study of indigenous peoples in the American West.
“The Native American West: A Case Study of the Columbia Plateau” explores diverse perspectives on the Indigenous West, the Columbia Plateau, and U.S. history. Just as Plateau peoples’ religion, subsistence practices, politics, and aesthetics were intertwined, this program will employ the interdisciplinary approach required to comprehend Indigenous experiences and perspectives on American history. Framed by scholarly historical works about Native Americans, land, religion, conflict, and ongoing tribal and personal self-determination, the Institute seeks to expand and complicate accepted U.S. history narratives about the West. To offer nuanced interpretations of the Columbia Plateau, we will draw upon both published and oral accounts by members of local Native American communities. This content will reveal spiritual and cultural practices in the eras prior to American and European immigration, and it will contextualize Indigenous and American responses to each encountering the “other.”
Media Coverage
Whitman prof awarded grant for project (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Annie Charnley Eveland
Publication: Walla Walla Union Bulletin
Date: 3/28/2019
Abstract: A summer institute for faculty called “The Native
American West: A Case Study of the Columbia
Plateau,” will happen in part because of funding from the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
The NEH awarded $138,662 to Christopher Leise,
associate professor of English at Whitman
College, to apply to the effort. He and co-director Laurie Arnold, a professor of
Native American studies at Gonzaga University,
will hold the institute at Whitman during the last two weeks of June, according to a report from Whitman.
URL: http://www.union-bulletin.com/local_columnists/etcetera/whitman-prof-awarded-grant-for-project/article_4731f7d8-ade8-11e7-858f- 331598807c96.html
Providing Insight into the Native American West (Media Coverage)
Publication: Gonzaga University website
Date: 8/28/2018
Abstract: After spending two weeks learning about the history, landscape, and customs of the Indigenous Columbia Plateau, the 30 members of this summer’s National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute, “The Native American West: A Case Study of the Columbia Plateau,” returned home not only with greater insights into the narrative of the West, but also with strategies for teaching students and community members about the historical and cultural influence of this region.
URL: https://www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/stories/2018/8/28/providing-insight-into-the-native-american-west
Laurie Arnold discusses Native American West, Columbia Plateau (Media Coverage)
Publication: Gonzaga University website
Date: 10/10/2018
Abstract: Laurie Arnold, Ph.D., Gonzaga University associate professor of history and director of the Native American Studies program, will discuss “The Native American West: A Case Study of the Columbia Plateau” at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 25 in the Jepson Center’s Wolff Auditorium.
The lecture, part of the College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Research & Creative Activity Forum series, is free and open to the public. Arnold, an enrolled member of the Sinixt Band of the Colville Confederated Tribes, will discuss how regional partnerships, collaborations, and public-facing engagement have fostered growth of the Native American Studies program and provided access to national platforms and institutions.
URL: https://www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/stories/2018/10/10/laurie-arnold-to-discuss-columbia-plateau-in-national-contexts-october-25