Archival Silences and Urban Indigenous History: Approaches to Uncovering Invisible Pasts

The encounter between anthropology and history has great potential to illuminate marginalized social actors and the diverse power relations that were in play in the past, especially in the lives of urban Indigenous people. This article traces the trajectory of the growing interchange between anthropology and history and their different methodologies to document Indigenous history in the city. Researching Indigenous pasts in the urban environment poses particular challenges in confronting researchers with specific types of archival silences and cultural-political erasures. Triangulating diverse historiographic and ethnographic sources and perspectives in what I call "ethnography of the archives" can offer strategies for hearing the silenced voices of the urban environment of the past.