Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England – An evening with author and professor of history, Jean M. O’Brien, Ph.D.

Please join us and the members of the Mohegan Tribe for a special presentation by Professor Jean M. O’Brien (University of Minnesota). Dr. O’Brien will present on her  book, Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England (University of Minnesota Press, 2010).  Drawing on more than six hundred local histories from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, Dr. O’Brien explores how these narratives inculcated the myth of Indian extinction, a myth that has stubbornly remained in the American consciousness. Firsting and Lasting argues that local histories became a primary means by which European Americans asserted their own modernity while denying it to Indian peoples.

This event is free, but please RSVP to let us know you will attend at (860) 236-5621 x238 or [email protected].

Thank you to our event co-sponsors

Jean M. O’Brien (White Earth Ojibwe) is professor of history at the University of Minnesota, where she is also affiliated with American Indian studies and American studies. She is the author of Dispossession by Degrees: Indian Land and Identity in Natick, Massachusetts, 1650–1790.