Sayet, Madeline. "A brief history of Indian policy." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/a-brief-history-of-indian-policy. [Date accessed].

A brief history of Indian policy

A bit of the history leading up to the start of the contemporary Native theater movement.

Download the transcript
Madeline Sayet
Arizona State University

To engage students in the performance history of Shakespeare in America, they need to be familiar with the political landscapes in which his plays were taught and staged. Further, to bring the Indigenizing Shakespeare Movement into our classrooms, it is imperative that our students are informed and knowledgeable of this history—one that most of them were never taught.

Further learning

Video

Indigenizing Shakespeare Movement

Many Native artists have found ways to reimagine Shakespeare, bridging communities to illustrate the importance of Indigenous language revitalization, Native art, and storytelling.

Madeline Sayet
Essay

Shakespeare and the history of Indian policy in the United States

It is important when teaching Shakespeare in America to acknowledge the colonial legacy that brought his texts to this land.

Madeline Sayet
Reading list

Indigenous Shakespeares

Selected readings to contextualize Shakespeare and indigeneity in your classroom.

Madeline Sayet

Recommended

Video

The Doctrine of Discovery

A brief history of how the Doctrine of Discovery became legal precedent for the seizure of Native lands across the world.

Scott Manning Stevens
Essay

Hamlet and the color of criminality

Bringing Hamlet into a recognizable universe of modern concerns and asking students to think about the demands reading Shakespeare and race places on them as 21st-century thinkers.

Ian Smith
Reading list

Indigenous sovereignty and The Tempest

A reading list to consider further the question of Indigenous sovereignty in The Tempest.

Scott Manning Stevens