The Indian World of George Washington: Why We Cannot Understand the History of the United States without Native Americans

George Washington’s place in the foundations of the Republic remains unrivalled. His life story–from his beginnings as a surveyor and farmer, to colonial soldier in the Virginia Regiment, leader of the Patriot cause, commander of the Continental Army, and finally first president of the United States–reflects the narrative of the nation he guided into existence. Yet American history has largely forgotten what Washington himself knew clearly: that the new Republic’s fate depended less on grand rhetoric of independence and self-governance and more on land–Indian land. This talk will reveal the relationship between Washington and the Native leaders he dealt with intimately across the decades and how Native Americans shaped the life of the man who shaped the nation.

GUEST SPEAKER:
Colin Calloway is John Kimball, Jr. 1943 Professor of History and Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds in England in 1978. After moving to the United States, he taught high school in Springfield, Vermont, served two years as associate director and editor of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and taught for seven years at the University of Wyoming. He has been associated with Dartmouth since 1990 when he first came as a visiting professor. He became a permanent member of the faculty in 1995.