History Prof. Doug Kiel, a citizen of the Oneida Nation, discussed the Midwest as a distinct region with its own unique history at the Dittmar Memorial Gallery in Norris University Center Thursday night.
In his talk, titled “Heartland Transformed: Race, Power and Resistance in the Midwest,” Kiel challenged popular Midwest stereotypes and emphasized Midwestern history’s distinctiveness through Indigenous connections to the land, resistance to colonial encroachment and pivotal social movements.
Kiel said stereotypes define the Midwest by its farms and “heartland narrative,” associating it as a place with hard-working Americans.
He said the study of Midwest regional history is “worthwhile” yet “recent” in the scholarly field.
“The articulating narratives of Midwestern history has been something of an absence in broader U.S. history,” Kiel said. “Regional history takes us beyond one-size-fits-all national narratives that don’t necessarily fit everywhere.”
Kiel said Midwest regions could be understood through compilations of spaces and land people situate themselves in, rather than nation-drawn borders.
He said Cahokia, now a state park outside of present-day St. Louis, is a reference point for people from thousands of years ago to think about where they are.
“If we were to think about what someone would call this place, where we are right now, (from) 2,000 years ago or 1,000 years ago, it would be that we are far away from Cahokia,” Kiel said.
Aside from the geographical associations, Kiel said the Midwest region witnessed a wall of resistance during its colonial history.
He said despite inter-tribal differences, Indigenous people are linked and united together throughout history.
“The ways in which Native people came together in moments of land cession, and those moments of land cession are where so many of our present-day rights are encoded, as in those treaties,” Kiel said.
Midwestern history also fits into the histories of industrialism and multiple social movements, Kiel said. The workers’ protests at the McCormick factory in Chicago signify an important moment in the wider history of American labor rights.
Attendee Michael Taft, a construction professional involved in Native American building projects, said he was worried about the lack of Indigenous history in high school education.
“There is literally no American Indian history taught in high schools, very little in colleges and universities,” Taft said. “(Local American culture) expands 800 years of interaction and confrontation.”
Attendee George Stevenson said he cares about how the local history is represented in broader contexts.
Stevenson, who is affiliated with the Cherokee Nation, said the history between the U.S. and Native American tribes are appealing yet complicated for him.
“First, we have to understand what we did before we can learn any lessons from it,” Stevenson said. “But then the question is, what lessons can you learn? And then the question is, what can we do with that? How can you use that to make things better?”
Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized Cahokia as an urban development site, instead of a state park. It also misattributed the movement of McCormick factory workers protesting in the Haymarket affair as an important movement for banker rights, instead of labor rights. The Daily regrets this error.
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