How can we read colonial sources to see greater agency, power, and leadership related to Indigenous women?
What is the Source?
What is the Story? (Podcast)

Join Dr. Kai Minosh Pyle (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) as they discuss how we can use sources written by white settlers to read between the lines and see more full lives of Indigenous people, women, and LGBTQ2S+ people.

Using “A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner” or “The Falcon,” Dr. Pyle discusses passages that showcase the leadership and power of Indigenous women, including a woman who may be identified as a Two-Spirited person. We talk about the ways history has been written and interpreted to privilege certain versions of power and the ways flipping the perspective of historical sources can challenge the Euor-colonial progress narratives so common in Canadian history.

We also spoke about Dr. Pyle’s writing on Ozaawindib found in The Activist History Review. and looked at this map from 1836. Dr. Pyle’s website is www.Mekadebinesikwe.com.

When we look at Canadian history from the perspective of Indigenous people it changes how we think about LGBTQ2S+ history and how we think about women’s history -Dr. Kai Minosh Pyle

Additional Archives

Check our other resources here:

Latest Video

Related Video