Assistant Professor of History Dr. Luke Ryan recently presented his scholarship on the American Indian during the annual meeting of the American Society of Ethnohistory. Ryan's paper "New York Indians vs. the United States: The First Claims Victory and Contested Indian Identities" was presented during the society's October 2011 meetings in Pasadena, CA.

In the paper, Ryan asserts "One of the long-term results of the tumultuous Indian removal era was the initiation of claims cases by several tribes against the United States during the latter nineteenth century. The New York Indians vs. United States cases, which culminated in a final decision during 1898, not only spearheaded a treaty-based, tribal sovereignty movement over several decades, but produced a mixed legal victory."