American Indian History since 1900 (Teacher Seminar Online)

This seminar is about Native peoples in modern America since the turn of the twentieth century, taking a social and cultural historical approach. It begins with the idea of the Vanishing Race, Geronimo’s final surrender, the Ghost Dance, and Wounded Knee in 1890. Among the early twentieth-century topics discussed, participants will analyze

• Indian children’s attendance at boarding schools
• the Dawes land allotment
• FDR’s Indian New Deal and the service of 45,000 Indians in World War II

Looking toward the latter half of the twentieth century, the seminar will explore the government’s trust termination and relocation policies, civil rights activism, and tribal sovereignty, and how forces such as the Indian gaming industry are changing the landscape throughout Indian Country.

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Donald L. Fixico, Lead Scholar

Donald Fixico (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole) is Regents and Distinguished Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University. A policy historian and ethnohistorian, his work focuses on American Indians, oral history, and the US West. Fixico has worked on twenty-five historical documentaries and written or edited fifteen books, most recently That’s What They Used to Say: Reflections on American Indian Oral Traditions (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017) and Indian Treaties in the United States (editor; Bloomsbury, 2018).

Before joining Arizona State University, Fixico was the Thomas Bowlus Distinguished Professor of American Indian History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Scholar, and founding director of the Center for Indigenous Nations Studies at the University of Kansas. In 2000, President Clinton appointed him to the Advisory Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Patience LeBlanc, Master Teacher

Patience LeBlanc is the secondary social studies coordinator for the Frisco Independent School District in Texas. She has been with the district for twenty years, previously as a middle and high school teacher and instructional coach. She was named a James Madison Fellow in 2010, Texas Lawyers Auxiliary Teacher of the Year in 2011, American Bar Association Teacher of the Year in 2013, and Texas History Teacher of the Year in 2017. She received the Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities Award from Humanities Texas in 2020. In addition, Patience has served as a consultant with the State Bar of Texas and has mentored teachers at institutes and forums with the Center for Civic Education.