In Land, Language, and Women, Julie L. Reed reconstructs the educational worlds of Cherokee girls over the course of 400 years of Cherokee history. In this talk, she will highlight one girl, among the seven, Climber of Trees, a creatively imagined girl who came of age in what is today East Tennessee in the early decades of the 18th century. This innovative approach to Cherokee history and the corresponding footnotes highlight the significance of her time as a faculty member in the history department at the University of Tennessee and the relationships forged with the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Department, McClung Museum, and larger region over the course of many years.

About the Author:

Julie L. Reed is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an associate professor of history and anthropology at the University of Tulsa. Julie’s research focuses on the Native South, the Five Tribes, Indian Territory, the history of social welfare, and American educational history. Her second book Land, Language, and Women: A Cherokee and American Educational History (UNC 2026) examines 400 years of Cherokee educational history through the lives of Cherokee girls studying and learning in very different classroom spaces. Through a Mellon Foundation New Directions Award, this year she is in residence at Western Carolina University studying archaeology and the Cherokee language. With the support of an NEH Collaborative Award, she is
currently working on a co-authored book Sovereign Kin: A History of the Cherokee Nation with Davidson historian Rose Stremlau.