The Florence Arts and Museums Speaker Series is a monthly program meant to inspire conversations about the history and culture of north Alabama, with a focus on how the past shapes the present. This month, Dr. Marie Taylor will deliver her presentation, “The Cherokee Missionary School on Chickamauga Creek: Exploring the History of Indigenous Missions in the Tennessee River Valley, ”at 2pm on Sunday, April 24th, at the Florence Indian Mound Museum.

This talk will provide an overview of the Brained Mission which was established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions on Chickamauga Creek near Chattanooga in 1817. This talk will explore the mission's history, its aims, and the ways in which it was viewed by local Cherokee leaders. As part of the talk, Dr. Taylor will also address contemporary discussions of Indigenous boarding schools in order to think about Indigenous sovereignty and historical memorialization.

Marie Balsley Taylor is an Assistant Professor of Literature at the University of North Alabama. She received her PhD from Purdue University. Her forthcoming book focuses on the role that Algonquian leaders, or sachems, played in shaping seventeenth-century New England Protestant missionary writings. She has published several articles and chapters on the literary history of Indigenous-Protestant relations. In addition to her research, Marie has taught at the Indian University of North America (Crazy Horse, SD) and the Oglala Lakota College (Rapid City, SD).