What is history?
The idea of what is history arose during a discussion in one of the courses I was a TA for at Six Nations Polytechnic (SNP) in Six Nations of the Grand River.
The participants are primarily mature students, most are from Six Nations of the Grand River reserve although some are urban Indigenous and some are from other Haudeonsaunee reserve communities all are Haudenosaunee (Six Nations / Iroquois). These students are working on their Ogwehoweh language BA's (as a side note SNP is the first accredited BA program of it's kind in Canada) most of their courses are in the Cayuga or Mohawk language depending on the stream they are in, while the history course includes some language material it is limited as it can be challenging to find historic material written in our languages, let alone translated! I am so inspired by these students, many are parents, work full time and take these courses a few at a time. Their knowledge of history, ceremony and language varies but they are all committed to reclaiming that which colonial systems such as residential schools and the 60s scoop tried to take away from us - our knowledge of ourselves and our nations.
So when the conversation focused on "what is history" as a public historian - and anti-academic academic more on that later - I was in my element.
We often answer this question with the products of historical inquiry - museum displays, books, documentary films, even encyclopedias. Or perhaps we turn to the primary objects and material culture - the tangible - archival records (letters, diaries, old maps), paintings, photos, a pottery shard. Or perhaps the more intangible - a song, a traditional dance, oral histories, a beloved family recipe. I would argue history is all of those things and more - it is landscapes, the smell of cooking over a fire, a place name... and probably many more things as well.
If history is all of those things how are we supposed to learn how to do history?? How do we be historians?
For these students they not only have to learn to produce history though their assignments but also be wise consumers of history by engaging with that which has been written about their community and at the same time the tangible and intangible elements of our culture.
But where our conversation went that day was so much deeper and I think it is something we should all remember - most importantly history is about a story of the past - this story is filtered both through the lens of the person sharing it and the lens of the person it is being shared with - the storyteller and their audience - there is a relationship, an interaction between these two participants and their life experiences - so we agreed that history is really about relationship, and if relationship is the core of history the way history has engaged with Indigenous peoples, (like much of the interactions of western practices, laws, customs and education) has been rather negative (see my post "Does History Really Help") .
Reflecting on the role of the academics in 1881 Chief Elias Johnson (Tuscarora) said:
"The Antiquarian, the Historian, and the Scholar, have been a long time studying Indian character, and have given plenty of information concerning the Indian, but it is all in ponderous volumes for State and College libraries, and quite inaccessible to the multitude—those who only take up such book as may be held in the hand, sitting by the fire,—still remain very ignorant of the Children of Nature who inhabited the forests before the Saxon set his foot upon our shores.
There is also a great deal of prejudice, the consequence of this ignorance, and the consequence of the representations of your forefathers who were brought into contact with the Indians, under circumstances that made it impossible to judge impartially and correctly.
The Histories which are in the schools, and from which the first impressions are obtained, are still very deficient in what they relate of Indian History, and most of them are still filling the minds of children and youth, with imperfect ideas. I have read many of the Histories, and have longed to see refuted the slanders, and blot out the dark pictures which the historians have wont to spread abroad concerning us. May I live to see the day when it may be done, for most deeply have I learned to blush for my people." [1]
I've been taught that as a Haudenosaunee person there is no word in our languages for "rights" we have responsibilities and obligations, so then where does that leave my students and I as we become historians of our own communities - Johnson did not in fact live to see a day when Indigenous people were treated equitably (in fact worse was to come for his community which lost huge amounts of it's remaining land in 1961 due to a hydro-electric project) as Indigenous historians our responsibility is to pick up where he left off.
For a great example of Indigenous Historians working to build better relationship take a look at https://shekonneechie.ca/
