Sayet, Madeline. "Indigenous Shakespeares." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/indigenous-shakespeares. [Date accessed].

Indigenous Shakespeares

Selected readings to contextualize Shakespeare and indigeneity in your classroom.

Download the transcript
Madeline Sayet
Arizona State University

Blackhawk, Ned. The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2023.

Darby, Jaye T., Courtney Elkin Mohler, and Christy Stanlake. Critical Companion to Native American and First Nations Theatre and Performance: Indigenous Spaces. London: Methuen, 2020.

Grier, Miles P. "Staging the Cherokee Othello: An Imperial Economy of Indian Watching." The William and Mary Quarterly 73, no. 1 (2016): 73–106.

Hughes, Bethany. "The Indispensable Indian: Edwin Forrest, Pushmataha, and Metamora," Theatre Survey 59, no. 1 (January 2018): 23-44.

Hughes, Bethany. Redface: Race, Performance, and Indigeneity. New York: NYU Press, 2024.

Nesteroff, Kliph. We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy. Simon & Schuster, 2021.

HowlRound articles

Hayton, Allan. "Healing Stories from Naa Kahidi Theatre.” HowlRound Theatre Commons. 21 August 2018.

Hubbard, Robert. “The Ills We Do, Their Ills Instruct us So’' Indigenous Futurism and the South Dakota Shakespeare Festival." HowlRound Theatre Commons. 25 July 2022.

Hughes, Bethany. “Off the Rails: Look at Shakespeare, See a Native Play.” HowlRound Theatre Commons. 22 January 2018.

Nagle, Mary Kathryn. “Native Voices on the American Stage: A Constitutional Crisis.” HowlRound Theatre Commons. 22 February 2015.

Starbard, Vera. “Alaska Native Theatre Comes of Age.” HowlRound Theatre Commons. 18 August 2018.

Sayet, Madeline. “Interrogating the Shakespeare System.” HowlRound Theatre Commons. 21 August 2020.  

Plays and creative works that could be read with or instead of Shakespeare

Pigeon by Dillon Chitto

Pueblo Revolt by Dillon Chitto

Wings of a Night Sky/Wings of Morning Light by Joy Harjo

Hamlet: El Principe de Denmark by Tara Moses  

Othello by Tara Moses

Death of a Chief by Yvette Nolan  

Off the Rails by Randy Reinholz

Whale Song by Cathy Tagnak Rexford

Where We Belong by Madeline Sayet  

Devilfish by Vera Starbard

Coming Soon: Methuen Anthology of Native American Drama (Estimated 2026).  

Download reading list

Further learning

Video

Indigenizing Shakespeare Movement

Many Native artists have found ways to reimagine Shakespeare, bridging communities to illustrate the importance of Indigenous language revitalization, Native art, and storytelling.

Madeline Sayet
Video

A brief history of Indian policy

A bit of the history leading up to the start of the contemporary Native theater movement. While not a comprehensive history, this is a small ideological dip into some of the major cultural shifts and moments in policy.

Madeline Sayet
Essay

Shakespeare and the history of Indian policy in the United States

It is important when teaching Shakespeare in America to acknowledge the colonial legacy that brought his texts to this land.

Madeline Sayet

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Close reading opportunities to engage students in discussions of sovereignty and self-determination in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

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The cliché of race

Probing the cliché of race is a necessary moral objective and pedagogic requirement that begins by making race visible in Shakespeare’s texts to disrupt the prevalence of a destructive, convenient untruth.

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