In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal discusses her new book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, which traces a thousand years of Native history—from the rise of ancient cities and the arrival of Europeans to today’s ongoing fights for sovereignty. Thomas Donnelly, chief scholar of the National Constitution Center, moderates. This conversation was originally streamed live on November 4, 2025, as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series.
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Today’s episode was produced by Bill Pollock and Griffin Richie. It was recorded by Greg Sheckler and mixed by Bill Pollock. Research was provided by Griffin Richie, Anna Salvatore, Trey Sullivan, and Tristan Worsham.
Participants
Kathleen DuVal is the Carl W. Ernst Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she specializes in early American and Native American history. DuVal is the author of several publications including Give Me Liberty!, co-authored with Eric Foner and Lisa McGirr (2025), Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution (2015), and Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (2025). DuVal is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Guggenheim fellow. She is an elected fellow of the American Antiquarian Society and the Society of American Historians.
Thomas Donnelly is chief scholar at the National Constitution Center. Prior to joining the Center in 2016, he served as counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, and as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Ambro on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Additional Resources
- Kathleen DuVal, Native Nations: A Millenium in North America (2025)
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