Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s Capital

Dr. Elizabeth Rule (Chickasaw Nation) will present on “Guide to Indigenous DC”, a digital map and mobile app featuring sites of importance to Native peoples across the Nation’s capital, including Georgetown’s Dumbarton Bridge, Congressional Cemetery, the Embassy of Tribal Nations, and sites of Indigenous activism and art installations. Dr. Rule’s affiliated full-length book manuscript, Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s Capital emphasizes Indigenous peoples’ contributions to Washington, DC, highlights the historical and contemporary federal tribal policy developed in the city, and acknowledges the peoples whose homelands upon which the District of Columbia was built. Together, the map, app, and book showcase the empowering stories of how Washington, DC is a place of tribal history, gathering, and advocacy with a long, rich history.

Pictured: The Lummi Totem Poles at the Congressional Cemetery 

Dr. Rule is Assistant Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University. She is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Rule’s research on Indigenous issues has been featured in the Washington Post, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, The Atlantic, Newsy, and NPR, and scholarly venues American Indian Culture and Research Journal and American Quarterly.

Rule’s additional forthcoming monograph Reproducing Resistance: Gendered Violence and Indigenous Nationhood analyzes the intersection of violence against Native women and reproductive justice. She is the creator of the Guide to Indigenous Lands digital mapping project, which includes the Guide to Indigenous DC and Guide to Indigenous Baltimore mobile applications, among others. Previously, Dr. Rule has held posts as Director of the Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy at George Washington University, MIT Indigenous Communities Fellow, and Ford Foundation Fellow. Rule received her Ph.D. and M.A. from Brown University and her B.A. from Yale University.