CBH Talks: Clash of Convictions: Indigenous versus European Justice in Colonial America
When Europeans brought their notion of ‘civilized’ and ‘savage’ peoples to North America, they also brought their views on crime and punishment. Yet the indigenous approach to justice - holistic rather than punitive - begs the question, who is civilized and who is savage? Nicole Eustace explores points of contrast and connection in these views in her new book Covered with Night, a case study of one colonial-era murder where the two very different notions of justice collide. Join Eustace in conversation with Donald Grinde Jr., a leading scholar of Native American culture whose focus is on its impact on the development of American democracy. They explore the lessons of the book and the connection between today’s restorative justice movement and long-held Native American values.
Participants
Nicole Eustace is professor of history at New York University where she is the director of the NYU Atlantic History Workshop. A historian of the early modern Atlantic and the early United States, she specializes in the history of emotion. She is the author of Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution and 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism. Her latest book is Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America.
Donald A. Grinde Jr. is professor of history at the State University of New York at Buffalo where he served as chair of the American Studies Department and is currently director of graduate studies in the Transnational Studies Department. He has published widely on Native American topics with a particular emphasis on study of the Iroquois Confederation (Haudenosaunee) and the impact of Native American thought on the development of American democracy. He is currently working on The Mission Indian Federation, 1920-1970 as well as collaborating with other prominent Native American Scholars on a book designed to guide K-12 and tribal college curriculums to be more sensitive to Native American ideas and values.
