Native American & Indigenous Studies at Penn

Flags of Native Nations

Contemporary flags contributed by Native American nations, at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Ledyard, CT.

Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Mohegan ethnologist, at Aquinnah

Gladys Tantaquidgeon, Mohegan ethnologist and first Native American student in the Penn anthropology department, interviewing Wampanoag elders at Aquinnah, MA. Photographed c. 1928 by Frank Speck.

Penn Museum Archives

Enika Selby studying photographs of Inuit women in the Penn Museum Archives, for a Museum Anthropology class.

2015 Wampum Conference

Kahente Horn-Miller, Kahnawà:ke Mohawk, performs "Skywoman" at the 2015 Wampum Conference at the Penn Museum.

Penn Museum Collections

Student Engagement Coordinator Stephanie Mach, with Lise Puyo, oversees students in the Penn Museum Collections Study Room.

Tue11/12

Gloria Chacon to Speak in Indigenous Studies Lecture Series

Gloria Chacon, of the Department of Literature at the University of California San Diego, will speak in the Department of English as part of this fall's Indigenous Studies Series.
Thu11/14

Tanner Allred to speak on Choctaw History Nov. 14

The presentation will be “This Series of Strong Laws”: Choctaw Governance and the Rise of Indigenous Constitutionalism, 1826-1830. W.

News

Native Books and Films at Van Pelt for Native Heritage Month 2024

October 31, 2024

November is Native American Heritage Month. The Penn Native Community Council (PNCC), in collaboration with the Penn Libraries Collections Department, will explore some of the great works in the libraries collections that were created by people indigenous to the United States and North America.
7th Penn in Latin America and the Caribbean Conference October 10-11

September 24, 2024

There is growing interest in public and community engaged scholarship within universities, including our own, to promote the co-production of knowledge and more equitable and relevant collaborations that address the priorities of partnering actors and communities. In this inter-school and interdisciplinary conference, we are interested in creating a space to analyze academic practices and the ethical and political impacts of our engaged research.
NAIS Launches Tracking Dispossessions Website

May 22, 2022

NAIS has launched a new "Tracking Dispossessions" website to highlight our critical studies of archaeological, museological, artistic, and other collecting processes that have separated Indigenous bodies from their places of interment, and separated Indigenous cultural heritage items from their source communities. Our work includes: composing case studies of dispossessions; mapping the movements of bodies and objects among museums; tracking trends in sales of heritage as “art;” compiling bibliographies; identifying useful resources and initiatives for decolonizing; and drafting guidelines for restorative methodologies to track, investigate, and recover from colonial dispossessions.

More News

Past Events

Indigenous Knowledge Systems

April 17, 2019

In April 2016, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard established the first resistance camp to the Dakota Access Pipeline on her family’s land along the Cannonball River at Standing Rock. The movement known as #NoDAPL became a symbol of indigenous resilience and unity worldwide. Evening talk by Allard, with opening remarks by Curtis Zunigha, Director of Cultural Resources, Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Lenape Center.
Penn and Slavery

April 4, 2019 to April 5, 2019

Symposium co-hosted by the Penn & Slavery Project and the Program on Race, Science & Society (housed in the Center for Africana Studies) with support from the Office of the Provost, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, the Penn Medicine Office of Inclusion and Diversity, and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. Held on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to British North America, this symposium affirms Penn’s commitment to critically investigating and engaging with the history of slavery.

EPIC Gathering at Penn

On April 16-17, a group of Native American and First Nations partners in the EPIC (Educational Partnerships with Indigenous Communities) grant were hosted by the Penn Language Center and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Penn. (Left to right): Stephanie Mach, Curtis Zunigha, Brian Carpenter, Betsy Bissell, Vince Shiffert, Tina Pineda, Alan Corbiere (on screen), Pauline Saribas, Taylor Gibson, Tom Belt, Christina Frei, T.J. Holland, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, Eric Grey Cloud, Lyz Jaakola, Alex Schein.