Please join the Smithsonian Latino Center, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture for a virtual symposium, The Other Slavery: Histories of Indian Bondage from New Spain to the Southwestern United States. Please see below for information and program details:

The Other Slavery: Histories of Indian Bondage from New Spain to the Southwestern United States

September 24–27, 2021

Available on-demand via: https://nmai.brand.live/c/the-other-slavery

This symposium explores hidden stories of enslaved Indigenous peoples, focusing on the legacy of Spanish colonization in the Americas and Asia and its impact on what is now the southwestern United States. Experts from a range of academic disciplines, including Indigenous studies, anthropology, and history, examine untold stories of coerced labor and peonage and the long-term impact of Indian slavery. Panelists discuss the legacies of Native American enslavement with Indigenous community leaders and cultural workers. The symposium explores the different forms and complexity of human bondage that resulted in hybrid cultures, tangled economic practices, and intricate social relationships between the Spanish and Indigenous communities. This program seeks to give a comprehensive “first voice” to these hushed stories and living legacies. 

The symposium is presented by the Smithsonian Latino Center, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in association with the Smithsonian’s initiative, Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past.