Investigating the Settler Colonial Structuring of the United States: The Family Place Portfolio

Settler colonialism is increasingly recognized as an aspect of United States history and society. But understanding how settler colonialism is an ongoing structure rather than a historical event that happened in the past is challenging for current students to grasp. The processes and acts that initially dispossessed most Indigenous land in North America and gave settlers access to it occurred prior to the twenty-first (and twentieth) century. This article describes a pedagogical tool that works to illuminate these processes and through them, the settler colonial structuration of the United States. Through the Family Place Portfolio, students research their own family’s presence in North America, the history of one place meaningful to their family, and the Indigenous history of that place. Critical attention is paid to processes of racialization and the differential access to land, rights, and status. Expressed in a visual portfolio, students’ research regarding these interlinked components reveals some of the moments and places where American settler colonialism as structure gradually took form and was put into place.