Join us for the Bentley Historical Library’s series of talks exploring the history of the University of Michigan.
The 1817 Project: U-M’s Origins, Indigenous Lands, and Institutional (In)Action
Thursday, April 10, 2025; 7:00 PM EDT
Attend in-person at the Detroit Observatory in Ann Arbor
OR online
Signed on September, 1817, the Treaty of Fort Meigs ceded 4.6 million acres of Indigenous land to the United States, setting aside 1,920 acres for “the corporation of the college at Detroit”–the fledgling University of Michigan.
This was just the beginning of U-M’s complex history with Michigan’s Native American communities.
The 1817 Project research team will present four snapshots of their research into this history, spanning over 200 years, from a re-examination of U-M’s origins, to Native American student organizing and activism, and a study of broader patterns of Native American student enrollment.
One of the foundational Project Sites of the Inclusive History Project, the 1817 Project team includes Jay Cook (Professor of History and Director of Research for the UM-Ann Arbor Inclusive History Project); Michael Witgen (citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Professor in the Department of History and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University); as well as postdoctoral and graduate students Jonathan Quint, Gabrielle Hickmon, Veronica Williamson, and Cheyenne Travioli (citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), all part of a larger team working on the project.
>> If you’d like to attend this event IN PERSON at the Observatory, register here.
>> If you’d like to attend this event VIRTUALLY, register here.
Giving It All Away: The Story of William W. Cook and His Michigan Law Quadrangle
Quotas and the President: Jewish Inclusion and Exclusion at U-M in the 1920s
Not Just a Copy: How the Bentley Digitized Ann Arbor History in the Ivory Photo Collection
Myths and Mysteries of the Little Brown Jug: The History of College Athletics
Secret Histories: Uncovering the Hidden Truths of U-M’s Past
Making Big History: Adding Billions of Years to Students’ Education
How U-M’s First Hospital Made History – with Joel Howell
Four Years of “Making Michigan” and Four Decades at Michigan: Some Reflections – with Gary Krenz
A Stunning Achievement: The Improbable Collaboration of the Bentley Library and the Vatican Archives
More Than “First Do No Harm”: Modeling Global Engagement with the U-M/Ghana Partnership
A City’s Conscience: The Life and Career of Josephine Gomon
Wolverine Writers II: Stories of Fire, Ice, and Rebirth
Poets at Michigan: Then and Now
A Library for All: U-M, Google, and the Importance of Having a Copy
Keeping Resistance Alive: Chandler Davis and Academic Freedom at U-M
Fifty Years of Native American Student Activism with Bethany Hughes
To Put Living Force Into the Symbols: The Journeys of Anatol Rapaport
Wolverine Writers: History and Storytelling Across Campus and through the Years
Seeing Anew Symposium 1: The Observatory and 19th-Century Science and Scholarship
Seeing Anew Symposium 2: The Observatory in the History of Astronomy
Seeing Anew Symposium 3: The Observatory as an Historic Site for Contemporary Education
Seeing Anew Keynote: Astrophysicist Brian Nord in conversation with Gary Krenz
The McCarthy-Era Red Scare in Michigan: Its Meaning, Then and Now with David Maraniss
Sing to the Colors: My Complicated Love Song to the University with James Tobin
Undermining Racial Justice at the University of Michigan with Matthew Johnson
Anti-Fascism at U-M: Defending Democracy During the Spanish Civil War with Juli Highfill
Radical Roots, Contested Place: African American and African Studies at U-M with Stephen Ward
Stars Rising: Why U-M’s Detroit Observatory Matters — and Where It’s Going with Gary Krenz
Telling the Truth About the Liberal Arts: Histories and Futures with Terry McDonald