Notre Dame’s History with Native Peoples: Findings, Lessons, and Future
Drawing from the records of Fr. Badin, Fr. Sorin, and Fr. Hesburgh, as well as Chief Leopold Pokagon, the founder of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Zada Ballew ’19 tells a fuller, more complicated story of how Notre Dame was founded and why. In this telling, Indigenous peoples are neither missing nor absent from the narrative — they are central to the history of the land that became Notre Dame. Understand more fully how the early history of the Potawatomi and Notre Dame is remembered on campus.
This event was recorded at Reunion 2026 as the Native American Alumni celebrated their first-ever Reunion.
Indigenous Voices is co-sponsored on ThinkND by the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, the College of Arts & Letters Native American Initiatives, and the Native American Alumni of Notre Dame.
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