The Civil War was not just a rupture between Northern and Southern states and Americans over the issue of slavery; other groups were drawn into the dispute. Several American Indian nations officially sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War.  These lectures will approach a familiar topic, the Civil War, from a less familiar vantage point by focusing on Indigenous perspectives. The lectures also invite the audience to engage with primary sources to better understand historical methodology.

Join us as Fay Yarbrough delivers three lectures on Thursday, October 15–Saturday, October 17 in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.

• Thursday, October 15, 5:30 p.m., Lecture 1: "The Road to Disunion from an Indigenous Perspective”
• Friday, October 16, 5:30 p.m., Lecture 2: "The Civil War through an Indigenous Lens”
• Saturday, October 17, 11:30 a.m., Lecture 3: “An Indigenous Reconstruction”

Fay Yarbrough received her doctorate in American history from Emory University and completed her undergraduate degree at Rice University. Her research interests center on interactions between Native peoples and people of African descent in the nineteenth-century. Her last monograph Choctaw Confederates: the American Civil War in Indian Country (University of North Carolina, 2021) explored Choctaw Indians’ participation in the American Civil War. Most recently she co-edited with Michael Maas Empires and Indigenous Peoples: Comparing Ancient Roman and North American Experiences.  This anthology puts into conversation scholars of the ancient world and North America. Yarbrough also published the monograph Race and the Cherokee Nation: Sovereignty in the Nineteenth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) and coedited with Sandra Slater an essay collection titled Gender and Sexuality in Indigenous North America, 1400-1850 (University of South Carolina Press, 2011). Her work has also appeared in the Journal of Social History, Journal of Southern History, and the edited volumes Race and Science and Civil War Wests: Testing the Limits of the United States. In 2020 Yarbrough was the visiting editor at the Journal of Southern History.

At Rice University, Yarbrough academic titles include William Gaines Twyman Professor of History, and affiliated faculty with the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and the Center for African and African American Studies. She previously taught at large state institutions: the University of Kentucky and the University of Oklahoma. Yarbrough is currently the Senior Associate Dean of Humanities for Faculty and Graduate Programs.

These lectures are part of the annual Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecture Series and will generate a book published by The University of North Carolina Press. Lectures are sponsored by the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center.