Education as Cultural Continuity: Wyandot Strategies of Survival and Self-Determination

The second 2025-2026 Indigenous Learning Forum, "Education as Cultural Continuity: Wyandot Strategies of Survival and Self-Determination, 1790–1915" with Tarisa Little will take place October 2nd, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET on Zoom. 

This presentation examines how the Wyandot of Anderdon Nation used education as a strategy for survival and cultural continuity between 1790 and 1886. By establishing and controlling schools in Ohio and Ontario, the Wyandot prioritized Indigenous language, kinship, and spiritual life within colonial systems.

 

Tarisa Little (she/her) is Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University. An ethnohistorian of Indigenous ways of knowing, Settler colonialism, and historical memory, she is committed as a Settler scholar to ethical, community-centered research that foregrounds Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge systems. She is co-editor of the forthcoming volume Reclaiming the Chalkboard: Indigenous Education Reimagined and has published in American Indian Quarterly, Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires, and Active History. Her current research explores Wyandot witchcraft histories. Across her work, she emphasizes relational accountability, methodological integrity, and the transformative power of Indigenous education.