Scholar Documents Historic Ties Between African-Americans and Native Americans

Scholar Documents Historic Ties Between African-Americans and Native Americans: Dr. Tiya Miles was a graduate student in literature at the University of Minnesota when, out of personal interest, she took a seminar on Native American history. One course reading delved into the contacts between the Catawba Indians of South Carolina and African-Americans.

“That changed my whole trajectory,” Miles says. “I switched, in the context of that class, from focusing on African-American 19th century literature to focusing on African-American-Native American relations, also in the 19th century.”

Now an associate professor of American culture, history, Afro-American and African studies, and Native American studies at the University of Michigan, Miles has emerged in this decade as a leading scholar of Cherokee-African American relations.