Around New England

Harvard Hires First Professor of Native American Studies

February 9, 2018

Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has hired the university’s first-ever professor of Native American studies, as part of its history department, after more than 10 years of lobbying by activists. Philip Deloria is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the author of a 1998 book called Playing Indian, about white Americans adopting American Indian dress and customs to try to create a new American identity; in the book he argues:  “the self-defining pairing of American truth with American freedom rests on the ability to wield power against Indians — social, military, economic, and political — while simultaneously drawing power from them.”


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