Multiple Voices, Multiple Histories: An IHR Seed Grant Symposium

During World War II, the United States built ten internment camps to incarcerate Japanese American citizens.  The only two located on American Indian land were in the state of Arizona: the reservations of the Gila River Indian Community and the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The U.S. Army built makeshift barracks to house the thousands of suspected enemy aliens on their lands. The WRA also used a former Navajo Boarding School as a Citizen’s Isolation Center. 

We invite the public to join us in exploring the social dimensions of these two different communities and the overlapping histories of internment in Arizona. There has been no comprehensive exploration about these overlapping histories, and this symposium will be the first to fully engage these questions. This symposium features scholars from around the nation and Japan who are doing research on this unique moment in U.S. history. The symposium, occurring during Arizona’s centennial, will highlight a key moment in Arizona history that was a part of national United States history. 

Free parking is available in the Apache parking structure.

Scheduled panelists include:
Myla Vicenti Carpio, American Indian Studies, ASU
Sara Begay, educator, Navajo Nation
Laura Fugikawa, Asian American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lynn Horiuchi, independent scholar
Noriko Ishiyama, School of Political Science and Economics, Meiji University, Japan
Jun Kamata, Japan Women's University
Karen J. Leong, School of Social Transformation, ASU
Henrietta A Lopez, Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project, Gila River Indian Community
Ruth Okimoto, independent scholar
Ty Phu, English, University of Western Ontario
Semana A. Thompson, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Gila River Indian Community
Michael Tsosie, Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside (and former Museum Director, Colorado River Indian Tribes)