Decolonizing the Wakarusa Museum: The Role of Public Education and Forced Displacement Within the Settler Colonial Structure
Issue Date
2023-04-11Author
Cox, Claire
Publisher
Department of History, University of Kansas
Type
Thesis
Rights
Copyright 2023 Claire Cox
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum aims to preserve, collect, and display the history of the Wakarusa River Valley before the construction of Clinton Lake. However, Indigenous perspectives and Native voices have been omitted from the historical narrative. To this day, the Wakarusa Museum does not acknowledge the Native American history that was submerged beneath Clinton Lake. As a result, the Wakarusa Museum is an institution of colonization. This thesis argues that the Wakarusa Museum exemplifies the consequences of living under a settler colonial empire by exposing two foundational pillars of settler colonialism: public education and forced displacement.
Description
Submitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors.
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