Robert T. Venables, Ph.D. was professor at Cornell University in the 1980s and 1990s where his course in American Indian studies was notable for attracting hundreds of students. The former curator of American Indian history at the Museum of the American Indian, Dr. Venables’ most recent publication is the two volume set, American Indian History: Five Centuries of Conflict and Coexistence (2004). He is also edited The Six Nations of New York (1995).
Historian, Dr. Robert Venables is a scholar well respected by members of the New York Native community. Dr. Venables' lectures famously discussed the cultural differences between European and Indian concepts of land and land ownership. These differences, coupled with the illegal and unjust taking of Indian land have over the years led to many American Indian land claims against the United States government. In 1946 Congress created the Indian Land Claims Commission to adjudicate the overwhelming number of cases Indians had filed and were continuing to file. By the time the commission expired thirty-three years later more than a half billion dollars had been awarded. Dr. Venables adeptly explained this complicated history and examines both the historical and contemporary issues and the legal relationship between the tribes and US government.
