Communiqué
“Settling Ohio: First Nations and Beyond” Conference on Tap This Weekend
< < Back toThe early settling of Ohio and the Northwest Territory will be the focus of a conference Feb. 21st and 22nd at the Baker Center Ballroom at Ohio University.
Through a series of speakers, the conference will examine the early Native Americans who inhabited the region plus the onslaught of new settlers coming to the region over 200 years ago.
“Immigrants “settling” Ohio came from the East Coast and Germany, from free people of African descent to slaves crossing the Ohio River, from merchants to Johnny Appleseed,” says conference sponsors Dr. Timothy Anderson, Associate Professor of Geography at Ohio University and Dr. Brian Schoen. Associate Professor of History.
“They fought over what freedom in a rapidly expanding republican nation meant and they left legacies and institutions of enduring significance, including Ohio University,” they note.
The conference features key speakers about the early African-American free people who came to the area along with an in-depth look at the Native Americans who lived here for about 13,000 years prior to the arrival of other “settlers.”
There also will a presentation called “Johnny Appleseed, Apple Cultures, and the Settlements of the Old Northwest.”
The program begins at 1 p.m. on Friday and goes through 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. It is free and open to the public and sponsors are urging all interested area residents to attend.