Civilizing’ the Pillagers: Identity, Race, and Domesticity in Ojibwe Country, 1830-1890

Dr. Harper’s talk centers on the identity of Susan Bonga, who was a member of the Pillager band of Ojibwe Indians residing in northern Minnesota and the daughter of a prominent fur trader of mixed African-Ojibwe ancestry. A moment of crisis in her life is analyzed by discussing the contexts of the federal “civilizing” program, female domesticity, and Christian missions in Ojibwe country, all of which significantly influenced notions of identity about and among Indians in the region in the 19thcentury. Through examining discourse surrounding Susan’s marriage engagement in 1880, she illustrates how hierarchies of “civilized” and “race” awkwardly intersected as they produced tensions in conceptions of her identity. She gives particular attention to gendered aspects of colonialism in her examination of how missionaries sought to restructure Ojibwe communities by looking at the ways in which Ojibwe women both adapted and subverted forms of patriarchy, individualism, capitalism, and domesticity that were imposed in Native communities.
The History Department is hosting Dr. Mattie Harper, a Berkeley PhD and current UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, who is a candidate for a position in our department.

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