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Native Indigenous Peoples

Professor Adrienne Benally

Image of Assiant Professor Adrienne Benally of Environmental Studies

The Native Indigenous Peoples website at Swarthmore College will provide important links between events, courses, programs and related presentations for and by Native Americans, Indigenous Peoples and First Nations.

These include talks and lectures, formative Land Acknowledgement, college and community programs, and recognition of Indigenous Peoples here in Pennsylvania and surrounding areas, along with revitalization of suppressed and erased histories and cultural achievements of Native peoples.

In academic terms, these include social change and sustainability programs by the Lang Center for Social and Civic Responsibility, and various disciplines, including Sociology / Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Peace and Social Conflict, Languages, Humanities and Historical Comparative studies.

We also endeavor to build a foundation on which to build college-wide programs – for students, faculty, staff and community members – adding Indigenous diversity in culturally appropriate ways. 

Spring 2024 Programming

"Powerlands" Film Screening

Label: April 25th 5-7 PM, Science Center 101

Powerlands (2022) is a new, award-winning documentary produced by Ivey Camille Many Beads Tso (Navajo, Dine) on Indigenous women's environmental justice/climate justice activism.  Manybeads Tso travels around the world focusing on Indigenous women's anti-colonial and EJ activism in the US (Black Mesa, Navajo reservation), in Columbia, and in the Philippines. This event is part of Resisting Extraction and Building Resillience on the Navajo Nation, a symposium that works to raise awareness about the ongoing colonial impacts of and resistance to extractive industries on the Navajo Nation and surrounding region.

Resisting Extraction and Building Resilience on the Navajo Nation

Label: April 26th 1-4 PM, Science Center 101

This one-day Symposium brings together a panel of Navajo (Diné) speakers to discuss their advocacy work to raise awareness about the ongoing colonial impacts of and resistance to extractive industries on the Navajo Nation and surrounding region. Collectively these speakers represent a cross-generational voice bringing diverse perspectives to the issues.  Our speakers will share both how they fight against unrelenting social and environmental injustices on Navajo territories, and how they work to reclaim and rebuild decolonial futures. 

The Symposium’s agenda will include a film screening, panel presentations, class visits, and an interactive roundtable discussion designed to bring awareness and understanding to the Swarthmore College community about Native American and Indigenous Peoples struggling with environmental injustices as place-based peoples with deep reciprocal relationships to their lands and the natural world that is informed by their cultural worldview and cultural practices. 

Indigenous Speaker Series

Over the course of the 2021-2022 academic year, Swarthmore held an Indigenous speaker series. This series was geared towards bringing nationally known scholars, activists, and respected elders to share wisdom on Native Nations & Indigenous Studies programs, and current issues in general. Details and recordings of these events can be found here. 

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