Drawing from archival sources and oral histories, author Thomas Grillot demonstrates how the relationship between Native American tribes and the United States was reinvented in the years following World War I in his book First Americans: U.S. Patriotism in Indian Country after World War I. During that conflict, twelve thousand Native American soldiers served in the U.S. Army. They returned home to their reservations with newfound patriotism, leveraging their veteran cachet for political power and claiming all the benefits of citizenship—even supporting the termination policy that ended the U.S. government’s recognition of tribal sovereignty.

This prerecorded book talk will be streamed at 7 PM CST on Friday, April 21. View it on the Watkins Museum’s YouTube and Facebook

This event is in connection with our exhibit From Then to Now: A Student History of Haskell Indian Nations University.