About

As students in AMST 231: Contemporary Indigenous Activism (taught by Meredith McCoy) we spent our respective terms learning about various social justice issues within Indigenous communities, the historical events that have caused these issues, how Indigenous people have mobilized in the past, and how they are mobilizing now. Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island (North America) and the Pacific Islands are fighting to revitalize Indigenous languages, uphold tribal sovereignty, and combat violence against Indigenous women, among many other struggles. A major reason Indigenous people in America still experience disproportionate social and political injustices is because they are disregarded and ignored from public discourse and conversation. There has been a systematic erasure of Indigenous people and their histories in this country, so we hope to do our part in counteracting that by sharing the information we've learned with you. Through a variety of digital and physical formats, this installation shines a light on contemporary Indigenous activism and investigates social justice through the lens of Indian Country.

This website's purpose is to showcase the work of the Carleton students in AMST 231: Contemporary Indigenous Activism over the two terms that the class has been offered so far. The final for the class is to create a public facing project to educate the Carleton community about Indigenous activism. In Fall 2019, the class was offered for the first time. The 2019 class decided to create this website as one component of that final project. This served as a way to have all of the components that students had worked on in one place and to include some additional resources. The 2023 class added to this website and created additional components. They also had a group of students working on publicity to let the Carleton community know about the exhibit and the presentation of the components, as well as feedback to identify how effective the project was at educating the community (public feedback was an aspect that the 2019 class had said was lacking in their project).

We recognize that the work we have done does not cover all of Indigenous activism today. Both classes discussed important concepts such as decolonization and sovereignty, and there is some overlap in the issues and events discussed. However, what was covered was shaped by what the class was interested in and what they felt the Carleton community most needed to know about and would be receptive to. The 2019 class chose to focus on land acknowledgments, understanding the history of the land that Carleton College is located on. The 2023 class chose to focus more on different strategies of Indigenous activism and the places where these fights are taking or have taken place. Since Indigenous activism is current and ongoing, there were also events represented in the components from 2023 that had not yet happened in 2019. We hope that future iterations of this class can continue to fill in some of the holes but also know that it will never be perfect. Regardless, because of the active erasure of Indigenous people from the United States' historical narrative, we hope that this project will help bring visibility to Indigenous issues in the United States and amplify the work that Indigenous people are doing throughout Turtle Island. We also hope that it motivates those interacting with the various components of the project to think about their role in Indigenous activism, whether as an Indigenous person or as an ally, and to get involved. 

The citations for which students worked on which components are shown below. 

Website by:

Fall 2019: Jackie Tyson & Taylor Yeracaris. 

Posters by: 

Fall 2019: Jen Fonder, Harry Matthiasson, Zia NoiseCat, & Kira Roberson. 

Fall 2023: An additional map was installed in the Carleton Library, as created by Sam Gilbert, Ella Cunningham, Katie Munro, Dorothy Chou, Jonah Barer, Maddy Brown, Pah Na, and John Overby.

Podcast by:

Fall 2019: Henry Alexander, Rebecca Margolis, & Calla Slayton.

Zines by:

Fall 2019: Caro Carty, Izzy Rankin, & Connor McNamee. 

Fall 2023: Charvez Freeman, Doug Thompson, Anniya Harris, Lydia Olson, Ava McQuain, Adele Fredericks, & Lauren Garrity.

Timeline by:

Fall 2023: Jonah-Kai Baker, Kai Johnson, Lydia Montgomery, Grace Wallace-Jackson, and Eliza Lox.

Publicity and feedback:

Fall 2023: Alex Mazur, Stella Pinto, and Angel Garcia-Ramirez.