Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Category
Social Sciences/Humanities
Abstract/Artist Statement
In the early decades of the twentieth century, the University of Montana (UM) developed from a small frontier college into an influential research institution. During its maturation process, the University relied on the acquisition of land to expand. In addition to its main campus in Missoula, the university sought out land for research and recreation. When Congress passed the Flathead Allotment Act (1904), the University became one of many non-Native beneficiaries of federal land dispossession policy in the United States in the 20th century. Existing scholarship has largely honed in on “land grant” universities established through the Morrill Act (1862) which effectively dispossessed 11 million acres of tribal land to support higher education in America. The University of Montana is not a land grant university but nonetheless benefited from the violent practice of dispossession, including allotments that became UM’s own Flathead Biological Station and the National Bison Range (surveyed by a UM professor). Using primary sources from newspaper and UM archives, tribal histories, and secondary scholarship, this research explores how the university acted in its colonial interest at the expense of tribal sovereignty on the Flathead Indian Reservation. My research seeks to engage more critically with the realities of colonization and the university as a settler-colonial space to consider constructive ways that the institution might reckon with its participation in the dispossession of Indigenous land.
Mentor Name
Leif Fredrickson
Personal Statement
My interest in public history and the interrogation of UM’s development is two-pronged: 1) public history creates space for diverse stories, collaboration, and reconciliation, and 2) UM’s development is intimately tied to the history of colonization but has been sorely under-researched in favor of triumphant, exceptionalist histories. My research is deeply impacted by my family’s long history in Montana, and the complicated task of reconciling my culpability in the myriad processes of colonization. My love for this place informs my work and makes it stronger. Amid national discussions surrounding commemoration, legacy, and how modern institutions can engage constructively with their history, the University of Montana History Department and the President’s Office are working together on the Griz130 History Initiative (Griz130). Originally started over concerns surrounding the naming of Elrod Hall on UM’s campus, after Dr. Morton Elrod––a strong advocate of eugenics––and swastika tiles included on the exterior of Corbin Hall, Griz130 has expanded into a multi-year, public history project to engage the campus and community in a broader conversation about UM as a learning place in the Missoula Valley for the last 130 years. As the Griz130 graduate research assistant, I have worked with a team to develop a physical and digital exhibit on UM’s history, and am assisting an undergraduate class in creating a historic walking tour of UM’s campus. The study of history provides ample opportunity for our community to come together, better understand one another, and create a more inclusive environment for students, faculty, and staff here at UM. I am thankful to the History Department and the President’s Office for supporting my research. Thank you also to Drs. Eric Zimmer and Leif Fredrickson for countless hours of advice and revision, and for inspiring me to keep asking questions about the places I love.
Best of GradCon 2024 - Oral Presentation
“It’s God’s Country”: The University of Montana, Flathead Indian Reservation, and Dispossession
UC 330
In the early decades of the twentieth century, the University of Montana (UM) developed from a small frontier college into an influential research institution. During its maturation process, the University relied on the acquisition of land to expand. In addition to its main campus in Missoula, the university sought out land for research and recreation. When Congress passed the Flathead Allotment Act (1904), the University became one of many non-Native beneficiaries of federal land dispossession policy in the United States in the 20th century. Existing scholarship has largely honed in on “land grant” universities established through the Morrill Act (1862) which effectively dispossessed 11 million acres of tribal land to support higher education in America. The University of Montana is not a land grant university but nonetheless benefited from the violent practice of dispossession, including allotments that became UM’s own Flathead Biological Station and the National Bison Range (surveyed by a UM professor). Using primary sources from newspaper and UM archives, tribal histories, and secondary scholarship, this research explores how the university acted in its colonial interest at the expense of tribal sovereignty on the Flathead Indian Reservation. My research seeks to engage more critically with the realities of colonization and the university as a settler-colonial space to consider constructive ways that the institution might reckon with its participation in the dispossession of Indigenous land.