Finding Common Ground (2018) – Happy Indigenous People’s Day from The Texas Freedom Colonies Project!

The National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture are reframing American history. How do we talk about the intersections of various peoples? How do we talk about shared histories? The symposium Finding Common Ground, moderated by Michel Martin, weekend host of NPR’s All Things Considered, focuses on the complex history of African Americans and Native Americans, and how their intertwined stories have become an essential part of American identity. Speakers explore how African Americans and Native peoples have energized each other’s movements both historically and in contemporary times, and how collective actions have been shaped by cooperation, conflict, accommodation, oppression, and resistance. Finding common ground is not always easy, but it is a vital necessity in the realization of American democracy. Distinguished speakers include Lonnie G. Bunch III, Kevin Gover (Pawnee), Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation), Tiya Miles, and Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche). The symposium, co-sponsored with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, was webcast and recorded in the Rasumson Theater of the National Museum of the American Indian on February 15, 2018.