Native American Studies: Faculty

Gordon Russell Visiting Professorship

The Gordon W. Russell Visiting Professorship in Native American Studies was endowed in 1993 by Gordon W. Russell, Dartmouth Class of 1955. The purpose of the visiting professorship is to enhance core course offerings of the Native American Studies Program at Dartmouth. Each year, the NAS Program brings in a scholar from another institution who teaches one or two courses, and participates in other activities of our program.

Gordon Russell Visiting Professorship Alumni

David E. Wilkins (2005-06). Professor Wilkins joined us from the University of Minnesota, where, at the time, he served as a professor and the chair of the American Indian Studies department. He is an expert comparative politics, American political theory, federal Indian policy, tribal government, and the history of colonialism and native peoples. He has published at least eight books since 1987. He taught two courses for us during the fall of 2005: "Native American and the Laws" and "Native American Treaties."

Greg O'Brien (2004-05). Professor O'Brien joined us from the University of Southern Mississippi, where has taught many courses in American History, but his focus of research has been on Southeastern Indians. His first book entitled "Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830" (University of Nebraska Press) was published in 2002. He has also published essays is many scholarly journals. He taught two courses during the fall of 2004: "The Invasion of America: American Indian History, Pre-contact to 1830", and "The Ethnohistory of Southeastern Indians."

Clyde Ellis (2001-02). Professor of History Elon College, Clyde has done research on the early American Indian education experiences, as well as the Kiowa Indians and their experience with Christianity. He is author of three books: "To Change Them Forever: Indian Education at the Rainy Mountain Boarding School, 1893-1920" (University of Oklahoma Press, 1996); "The Jesus Road: Kiowas, Christianity and Indian Hymns," (accompanied with a music CD of 26 Kiowa hymns), and "A Dancing People: Powwow Culture on the Southern Plains" (University Press of Kansas, 2003). Professor Ellis taught Winter Term, 2002 at Dartmouth with two courses: "Get Up and Dance: Plains Powwow Culture," and "American Indian History, 1830 to Present." Toward the end of his residency with us he brought in two guests: Luke Lassiter (anthropologist), and Ralph Kotay (Kiowa elder). The three of them gave a public presentation: "Hymns, History and Experience: The Personal and Cultural Power of Christian Hymns Among the Kiowa indians of Southwestern Oklahoma."

Thomas Abler (2000-01). Professor Abler received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Toronto in 1969. His research interests involve historical aspects of socio-political organization of Native Peoples of North America, including warfare, factionalism, kinship, and mythology. He taught two courses at Dartmouth: "The Invasion of America" and "History of the Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy," during the Fall Term, 2000.

Adrian Tanner (1999-2000). Dr. Tanner is professor of Anthropology at Memorial University, Newfoundland. He authored a book in 1979, "Bringing Home Animals." During Winter Term, 2000, Dr. Tanner taught a course for us called "Peoples of the Northern Forest," which we cross-listed with the Anthropology department. He taught a second course on land issues in Canada and the United States.

Russell Barsh (1998-99). Professor Barsh came to Dartmouth from the University of Lethbridge, Canada. He is a scholar and activist in the field of indigenous rights. From 1978 to 1981, he worked as one of the land claims researchers and treaty negotiators for the Union of Nova Scotia Indians and Mi-kmaq Grand Council. In 1982 he was given a commission as the Grand Council's representative to the United Nations, a role he served roughly half-time until 1993 when he left to help renew the Native American Studies program at Lethbridge. He has taught and written on a range of topics from a Native perspective, and his research and service also contains a strong international component. He taught three courses at Dartmouth: "The Fourth World," "Indigenous Science," and "Oppression, Memory, and Recovery." he also worked with Dartmouth's Environmental Studies Program, coordinating an independent study course with them on indigenous farming at Dartmouth's Connecticut River farm facility.

Alyce Spotted Bear (1996-97). Alyce Spotted Bear (Mandan Hidasta) fulfilled two roles when she came to Dartmouth. She came to us from Cornell University where she had been working on her Ph.D. in Education, as a tribal elder in residence, and also as a visiting instructor. Her courses included "American Indian Education" and "American Indian Women of the Plains, a Cultural History."

Chadwick Smith (1995-96). Chadwick Smith is a Cherokee attorney and a direct descendant of Redbird Smith, Keetowah Society spiritual leader of the Cherokee Nation. Chad taught two courses for NAS in the Winter Term, 1996: "The Political and Legal History of the Cherokee Nation," and "American Indian Law and Policy." After he was elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1999, Chad returned to Dartmouth and gave a public lecture titled: "Indian America's New Buffalo: Why the Cherokee Nation Will Not Support Casino Gaming."

Bernd C. Peyer (1994-95). Professor Peyer joined us from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat; Zentrum fur Nordamerika-Forschung (ZENAF), Frankfurt, Germany. Professor Peyer is a recognized expert in the study of New England Indian intellectuals of the Colonial era. He taught two courses for us: "American Indian Intellectuals" and "Pre-20th Century American Indian Literature." He also presented a public lecture: "Dartmouth's Samson Occom and His Vision of a New England Christian Indian Body Politic."