Haley Fellows:
Sawyer Young’s research attempts to fully contextualize the writing of American Indians within a larger framework of Indian politics in the early decades of the twentieth century. He is primarily interested in understanding whether or not elite voices aligned with the goals and concerns of their Indigenous contemporaries in Indian Territory. Moreover, he is concerned with understanding how Indigenous authors in Indian Territory reacted to the monumental US federal policy shifts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Brendan Thomas’ project examines the history of the “Indian New Deal” from a transnational perspective, through a detailed study of the life and career of Alice Lee Marriott. Marriott’s work for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) in the 1940s, as well as her later experience as a public intellectual with a keen eye toward international affairs, provides a lens to examine both the international models that influenced the course of federal Indian policy during the New Deal era and the broader impact that Indian reform had on U.S. foreign policy in the 1940s and 1950s.

Registration is recommended!