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Land-grab universities
Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system.
Lecture based on findings published in High Country News

Speakers: 
Tristan Ahtone and Robert Lee

Abstract: The United States used nearly 11 million acres of Indigenous territory taken from almost 250 tribes, bands and communities through more than 160 violence-backed land cessions to launch the land grant university system in 1862. In 2020, the groundbreaking "Land-grab universities" investigation identified and mapped these connections for the first time, detailing how expropriated land formed the foundation of land-grant colleges across America. Two years after the story sent shockwaves through the U.S. education system, questions remain about the debts universities owe to Indigenous communities, as well asthe limits of reparative justice when access to current information remains a major obstacle to further research and reporting on the roots of inequalities in academia.

Tristan Ahtone is a member of the Kiowa Tribe and is Editor at Large at Grist.

Robert Lee is Assistant Professor of History and Fellow of Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge

To view the lecture virtually, please register here.