This is a really good thread by @TheSteamboatGuy (who I think y'all should follow) and something I need to think about in more depth. https://twitter.com/TheSteamboatGuy/status/1357009973654523909

I am in a very privileged position with the region I teach for pre-European history, in a couple ways. First & foremost and forever, the Ioway have made a large amount of oral history & knowledge available, open access, through the work of their Vice Chair and THPO Lance Foster.

This means when I teach about the Land Between Two Rivers (Iowa, some Minnesota, some Missouri) and about the Oneota, I am able to feel comfortable bringing in the history and connections of the Ioway people.

I have also had enough time to build up a repertory of knowledge--limited! my God limited compared to the wealth out there!--on the Mississippians, and especially Cahokia, which is separated from contemporary peoples by a couple degrees.

I would be much more tentative if I were talking about Etowah or Moundville or the "southern Mississippians" as a focus without real connections and discourse and interaction with members of the the tribal communities descended from those kingdoms.

I'll be talking about teaching the "local medieval" at the MAA and K-Zoo this year (virtually), and I really appreciate @TheSteamboatGuy 's thoughts here. I need to spend some time thinking through them, because he's really thoughtful and good on this.