Class Description
Examine more than five centuries of Indigenous history on the land now known as Chicago in this course that is part of the larger Indigenous Chicago project launched in September 2024. The project is a result of nearly five years of close collaboration among the Newberry Library, Native community members in Chicago, and tribal nations with ancestral ties to the Chicago area.
Organized thematically, the course aims to “un-settle” more familiar narratives of Chicago history and to recast the city’s past and present from Indigenous perspectives. To do so, we prioritize sources created by Native people, attend to places where Native knowledge is shared—like place names and oral stories—and read archival sources written from non-Native perspectives “against the grain” to pull out clues about Native presence. In addition to classroom discussion at the Newberry, the course will also include time spent in the Indigenous Chicago exhibition and completing two walking tours.
Dr. Rose Miron is the Director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago and Affiliate Faculty in the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University. She is also co-curator of the Indigenous Chicago exhibition at the Newberry.
Materials List
Required
- Digital Course Packet
Cost and Registration
8 Sessions, $300 ($270 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
We now offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($300), Community Supported ($280), and Sponsor ($320). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
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