Indigenous Peoples Day 2023 Celebration at Daybreak Star.
AIS/HSTAA 304: Indigenous Public History
Professor Josh Reid | Fall 2025
Many Native nations and Indigenous communities in the United States recognize the importance of developing and sharing their own histories. Some of these efforts are internal and are just for their community, while other efforts are more outward facing and seek to teach non-Native audiences about the Indigenous past and its continued relevance. Indigenous public history projects serve many different purposes, depending on the needs of a particular tribal nation or community. These projects might occur in institutional spaces (such as in local or tribal museums and schools), in community and cultural centers, online, or at events. Many Indigenous public history projects connect the past to the present and help realize Indigenous futures.
This course will connect students to a specific Indigenous public history project. In this Fall 2025 quarter, we will be partnering with Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, the headquarters of the United Indians of All Tribes, an urban Indian organization founded in Seattle in 1970. With support from the Mellon Foundation and in partnership with the American Indian Studies Department at the University of Washington, Daybreak Star has embarked on a public history project about its founding and subsequent ways it supports the city’s urban Indian community. In this project-based course, students will explore how urban Indian activism in post-war Seattle led to the establishment of Daybreak Star. They will also learn about the activities the cultural center currently offers as they seek to make Seattle’s urban Indian population a more visible part of the city. Through original research that will include archival and oral sources, students will support Daybreak Star’s public history project. Additionally, through readings, discussions, site visits, and other methods, they will learn about and experience effective, ethical, and accountable collaboration with an Indigenous community, the United Indians of All Tribes.
In this course, students will understand:
- How urban Indians in Seattle historically built communities of care and support and how those are maintained so that Native peoples can thrive today and into the future.
- How Indigenous histories are communicated in numerous ways to various and diverse public audiences.
- How to conduct ethical and accountable original research with an Indigenous community.
- How to craft and refine public-facing, professional content in a timely manner and in collaboration with an Indigenous community.
Please note that this course counts toward the university’s Diversity requirement.
A complete, detailed syllabus will be posted around the beginning of the quarter.