If she wins Senate approval, Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico will become the first Native American Cabinet secretary. But perhaps more importantly, as secretary of the Interior, the enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna would also become the first Native person to oversee federal policies involving the 574 federally recognized tribal nations as well as the national parks and public lands. For many, her selection brings history full circle.

After learning of her nomination, Haaland, a 35th-generation New Mexican who in 2018 became one of the first two Native American women...

Today they are seen as emblematic of the depth of American racism. But in their day and for a century beyond, the familiar but unsettling 19th century daguerreotypes of Jem, Alfred, Delia, Renty, Fassena, Drana, and Jack were accepted in some circles as scientific evidence of the inherent inferiority of Blacks.

A Thursday afternoon webinar, “The Enduring Legacy of Slavery and Racism in the North,” took as its starting point a new book on the images, “To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes,” co-published by the ...

Celebrated by Italian immigrants in the United States since 1792, Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1937 to commemorate the “arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.” The explorer’s reputation has darkened in recent years as scholars have focused more attention on the killings and other atrocities he committed against Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. This year, amid a national reckoning on racial injustice, protesters have toppled and beheaded statues of Columbus in various cities, while pressure grows to abolish the national holiday and replace it with one that...

Hillary Clinton’s surprising loss in the 2016 presidential election was chalked up, in part, to a widely held belief that voters prefer male candidates generally, and that they are especially put off by women who appear too ambitious or aggressive.

Those concerns have been revisited by pundits, in workplaces, and across dinner tables with former Vice President Joe Biden’s choice of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate on the Democratic ticket. Some critics have called the former California attorney general overly self-seeking. That buzz has only grown as Harris, a former...