Second Annual Tulane Indigenous Symposium

Sovereignty is the full right and power of a governing body over itself, without any interference from outside sources or bodies. The colonial history of the gulf south region is fraught with infractions to the sovereignty of Indigenous governance, land rights and physical bodies. Disputed territories, extraction of wealth and minerals from the earth and water, sugar and cotton antebellum plantation monopolies and rebellions throughout the circum-Caribbean and in the gulf south all characterize a region where the personal sovereignty of human bodies and the natural world were and are consistently at risk. Despite concerted harm to Indigenous bodies and minds, and decimation of the natural landscape and further isolation and dispersal of Native populations, gulf south Indigenous communities continue to persist, nurture, and fight for sovereignty.

The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South invites you to the 2nd Annual Indigenous Symposium on Tuesday, April 2 from 8:30am – 5:30pm in the Qatar Ballroom on Tulane’s Uptown Campus.

Featured speakers and panels will discuss methods of resistance that include a territorial acknowledgement, archaeology, foodways, a social activist roundtable, a cultural demonstration, and a presentation of new research from various scholars. Featured keynote speaker Dr. N. Bruce Duthu will present "Tribal Sovereignty and Juridical Spaces: Tribal Lands as Domains of Self-Determination, Subsistence and the Sacred." Tribal representation will include: Atakapa-Ishak, Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, United Houma Nation, Isle de Jean Charles Band, Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, Diné Nation and Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe. According to Executive Director of New Orleans Center for the Gulf South Rebecca Snedeker, “In our region, with global issues that soon all coastal peoples will face, we must establish models that help us see and accept where we are and support us in being creative and respectful in our solutions.” The symposium will address the following questions: How did Indigenous communities respond to, and resist, new methods of oppression during times of transition? How did they maintain cultural identity and survival amidst challenges to food sovereignty and access to land? How can we situate the struggles of the colonial period to the current context of a diminished coast, oil dependency, the rights to occupy ancestral lands? What are creative innovations for survival in the 21st century for Gulf South communities and how do we all resist oppression and demand sovereignty in our land, our communities, and our bodies? Join us! This event is free and open to the public.