Bozeman Magazine

Eric Zimmer, an author and historian who specializes in Native American and public history, will speak about Indigenous people’s efforts to reclaim their ancestral homelands on Thursday, Nov. 3, from 6 to 7 p.m. at American Indian Hall, Room 166, at Montana State University. The event is free and open to the public.

Zimmer, currently the A.B. Hammond Visiting Assistant Professor of Western United States History at the University of Montana, will speak about “Reclamation Histories: Indigenous Land Recovery at Boarding Schools and Beyond.” During his presentation, Zimmer will lead a conversation and screen films about two Indigenous land reclamation projects.

One project is the subject of his forthcoming book, “Red Earth Nation: Reclamation and Recovery on Meskwaki Land.” The book examines the story of a tribe in Iowa that defied federal directives and bought back part of its homeland in 1857, then rebuilt its community on Meskwaki land and Meskwaki terms.

The other is the Rapid City Indian Boarding School Lands Project, an award-winning Indigenous-led community research and advocacy project based in Zimmer’s hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota. Zimmer will show “Remember the Children,” a short documentary about the search for graves of children who died at the school, which also led to an ongoing, years-long effort to reclaim Native land in Rapid City.

Both stories offer historical context and lessons learned to anyone interested in the modern movement to uncover the stories of Indigenous boarding schools or reclaim tribal lands.

In addition, Zimmer will talk about how his work in public history and his engagement with Native American communities influenced his dissertation and forthcoming book on residential schools and helped him craft a fresh, scholarly interpretation. What public historians learn from working with broader communities, Zimmer will explain, can shape the internal conversations among academics. His work is a case study in the significance of public history to academic programs.

Zimmer spent six years as a senior historian at the consulting firm Vantage Point Historical Services, where he worked on a variety of narrative, digital, oral and exhibit-based history projects for clients across the United States. His scholarship and the collaborative projects with which he is affiliated have received high honors from numerous American history associations.

Zimmer will hold a master class for graduate students in MSU’s departments of History and Philosophy, American Studies, and Native American Studies in the College of Letters and Science on Friday, Nov. 4.

Zimmer’s appearance is co-sponsored by the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands and Peoples of the North American West, the Department of History and Philosophy, and the Wallace Stegner Chair in the Department of History and Philosophy.

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