Kendall Allen, an undergraduate poli sci major, presented an original research paper titled “For Their Greatest Good”: Education as a Diplomatic Tool in Negotiations with Native Peoples as part of a panel at the Florida Conference of Historians (FCH) in Lake City, Florida on February 27-29th. Kendall’s research “spanned a pretty large timeline”, as she put it, “starting with the philosophies of Washington and Jefferson and working towards the fruition of the boarding school era.” Her thesis was that “the purpose of schooling young tribe-members was to strategically reduce the landholdings of Native American nations and pacify troublesome tribes.”
The paper, which had already been presented once and refined by the Phi Alpha Theta History Conference at Texas State, received “stellar” feedback from audience and commentators alike, according to the conference’s faculty liaison, Dr. Ronald Johnson. Dr. Scott Heerman from the University of Miami called Kendall’s research “ambitious, well-polished, and thought provoking.”
Her paper was one part of a three-person panel featuring papers by two other Texas State students, Hannah Thompson and Ileane Marquez.
