American Indian Youth Literature Award presented to Dr. Katrina Phillips | 1/24/2022
History professor Dr. Katrina Phillips’s book “Indigenous People’s Day” was named a Best Middle Grade Book by the American Indian Library Association.
Macalester Native and Indigenous Initiative receives $1 million grant from Mellon Foundation | 1/26/2022
The official Native American news and information source of the Red Lake Indian Reservation shared the news about Mac’s new Mellon grant for the MNI Initiative.
Professor Amy Sullivan’s book is a finalist for the Emilie Buchwald Award | 1/29/2022
History Professor Amy Sullivan’s book “Opioid Reckoning: Love, Loss and Redemption in the Rehab State” was named a finalist for the Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction.
History Department Statement on Racial Justice | June 23, 2020
The History department of Macalester College deplores the murder of Mr. George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Department. We support the protestors who call for justice locally, nationally, and globally. We call on leaders and authorities in the Twin Cities to review the history of recent and extended violence to contextualize this moment and formulate new policies respecting the rights of marginalized peoples.
Macalester College sits on Dakota homelands. Our campus is located five miles from Fort Snelling, which once housed slaves such as Dred and Harriet Scott. Fort Snelling also served as a concentration camp in the wake of the U.S.-Dakota War, a conflict that led to the largest mass execution in the history of the United States.
From redlining and race riots on Plymouth Avenue to the deliberate destruction of the vibrant Rondo neighborhood and the police brutality that led to the creation of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s, our Twin Cities and Macalester communities have been built on the blood of people of color. As historians, we are acutely aware that racism and settler colonialism are not limited to Minnesota or the United States. But Mr. Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officers has laid bare the systemic underpinnings that continue to uphold these injustices.
Justice for Mr. Floyd cannot be an end in itself. Justice now should be part and parcel of the much needed fundamental change to and resolution of pervasive, blatant, and systemic racism and structural violence. It demands our collective long-term and sustained engagement from our institutions and classroom to households and streets. Inspired in part by our students, who have reminded us of the necessity of direct action, the Macalester College History Department has made two donations in the name of Mr. George Floyd: one to MIGIZI, a Native organization that “nurtures the development of Native American youth in order to unleash their creativity and dreams”; and Rondo Avenue, Incorporated, a community partner that serves the African-American Rondo neighborhood in Saint Paul that has been incredibly generous to Macalester History students.
This is just a first step. In the words of our chair, Professor Linda Sturtz, “our charge or vocation (‘calling,’ if you will), as Macalester History professors, is to shape the world for the better by educating students as they become deeply engaged citizens.”
For older posts, visit the Department News Archive.