Who's That?

Eastern history professor Dr. John Bowes is raising awareness about current Native American issues while teaching classes and writing books.He said that teaching jobs are tough to find, and he appreciated being welcomed to Eastern.

"They were interested in having me teach Native American classes," Bowes said, "and that's nice to have because it's kind of my true passion when it comes to teaching history."

Bowes spent two years at Dartmouth College in the Native American study program. He received his bachelor's degree at Yale University and his doctorate from UCLA.

Bowes said he didn't always know that his passion for teaching was in Native American studies. In his first couple of classes as a graduate student, he found that there was a lot of material with which to work.

Professors showed him how much was going on in the field, but more importantly, how much could be going on. He was constantly talking to people who focused on the literature or environmental aspects of the field.

"It really made me even more interested in the larger scope of what it means to study Native American history," Bowes said.

His passion recently led to a book published by Cambridge University Press called Exiles and Pioneers, based on his dissertation.

It looks at how the tribes of the Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan regions adjusted to their removal and relocation to Kansas.

Bowes' interest in Native Americans also carries over into his personal life. He said he enjoys watching western movies, which immediately call to mind certain Native American images. He said that the portrayal of Native Americans is better than the John Wayne era of the '50s and '60s but that it is still problematic, and that a lot of important facts and details get changed to suit a story.

"I'm definitely one of those people who if you just want to go for the entertainment value, you don't want to be sitting next to me, because I'll most likely sit there and pick it apart," Bowes said.

Bowes is currently working on two new books. One is a comprehensive look at Native American removal from the Great Lakes region.

Although there have been things written on the topic, it pales in comparison to the vast amount that has been written on southeastern tribes.

Bowes' other book project examines the intersection of migration in the U.S. during the first half of the 19th century. A lot of migration going on at the time - the slave trade, Mormons, and Native American removal - and Bowes said he wants to take a look at what happened when these groups intersected.

Bowes teaches the first half of a general-eduction American history survey course at Eastern, but primarily teaches upper-level classes. He teaches a two-semester-long Native American survey class as well as a course on western expansion.

Bowes looks to the 1800s to interpret the present.

"So much that happened then is directly connected to the events affecting Native Americans today," he said. "I think there's still a long way to go to correct the ways in which Indians are portrayed in general, both in movies and just kind of public imagery and mascots, all those kind of things."

Native American studies are far from Bowes' only passion. He said his first passion is his 1-year-old daughter.

He loves to watch and participate in sports and is currently in his fourth semester of coaching Eastern's women's club soccer team.