The Hartwick College History Department will welcome scholar, author and SUNY-Cortland Lecturer Amy Schutt to deliver the 2007 Richard L. Haan Lecture in Native American Studies at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 10. The annual event will be held in Eaton Lounge in Bresee Hall.
Schutt, the author of "Peoples of the River Valleys: The Odyssey of the Delaware Indians," will deliver a lecture titled "A Place for the Generations: Delaware Indians, Land, and the Construction of Relationships in Early America"
The history of the Delaware Indians in the 17th and 18th centuries reveals both struggle and strength. Waves of epidemic disease, warfare, and European migration made Delawares' efforts to maintain a place for themselves and the next generation an urgent matter. In a world that linked mediation, land, and authority, Delawares constructed a role for themselves as peacemakers and alliance builders. Schutt's lecture will examine this important story, and will raise key issues about intergenerational and intercultural relations in early America.
In "Peoples of the River Valleys," Schutt offers a fresh interpretation of the history of the Delaware, or Lenape, Indians in the context of events in the mid-Atlantic region and the Ohio Valley. It focuses on a broad and significant period: 1609-1783, including the years of Dutch, Swedish, and English colonization and the American Revolution. She examines important themes in Native American history-mediation and alliance formation-and shows their crucial role in the development of the Delawares as a people. Drawing extensively upon primary sources, including treaty minutes, deeds, and Moravian mission records, Schutt reveals that Delawares approached alliances as a tool for survival at a time when Euro-Americans were encroaching on Native lands.
The annual lecture honors Richard L. Haan's life-long interest as a Hartwick College History Professor and scholar in Native American Studies, and is funded by donations from students, colleagues, and friends to the Richard L. Haan Fund.
