This is a past event.

The American legend of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe, has underpinned popular folk narratives about the development of the United States, particularly in the Upper Midwest, for over a century.

However, the legacy of Paul Bunyan has a darker side--it serves to obscure the real-life dispossession and destruction of environments and spaces in which Indigenous peoples have inhabited and have had relationships with dating to before colonization.

Building off of the work done by Nik Nerburn in his ‘zine’ In The Shadow Of Paul Bunyan (2014), this talk traces the history of the legend of Paul Bunyan. It places it alongside settler colonial development and environmental degradation, bringing these histories into conversation with awareness (or lack thereof) surrounding historical and contemporary Indigenous relationships to land and environment in various American geographies.  

This lecture is partially funded/sponsored by the Visiting Professor Program which is funded by a grant to the Office of the Provost from the State of Michigan's King-Chávez-Parks Initiative.  If you have any questions regarding this Brown Bag, please contact Dr. Mark Rhodes (marhodes@mtu.edu) in the Department of Social Sciences.