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Dr. John R. Legg

@legg.bsky.social
4.8K followers 796 following 265 posts

Historian and college professor. Really interested in Native American history and Digital Public History. Trying to learn trumpet. Photog. www.johnlegg.org

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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A great conversation at Metairie Park Country Day School! We spoke about the Indigenous place, Bulbancha, and its transformation into New Orleans. Students asked so many thoughtful questions. I enjoyed methodical questions about Indigenous history & community engaged research.
A speaker at a wooden podium presents a slide titled "Native-Land Map: What is Bulbancha?" in a dark auditorium.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Tomorrow, after class, I head to Metairie Park Country Day School for my talk, “Bulbancha: An Indigenous Place.” The course premise: to understand the world, you must understand New Orleans. I'll add: you can't truly understand either without first centering the Indigenous histories of Bulbancha.

"Louisiana Indians Walking Along a Bayou," an 1847 oil painting by Alfred L. Boisseau. A Choctaw family walks in profile through a dark, mossy Louisiana wetland, carrying a rifle, a stick, and traditional woven burden baskets.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My new order at the coffeeshop — after I’ve already had coffee and I’m camped out for hours — is a Diet Coke with a little bit of lemon syrup. So good.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The disdain with which the barista responded “car-a-mel” when I ordered an iced “car-mel” macchiato. #MississippiThings
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I’m grateful, but it’s another day where I spend more time in the car than I do in the classroom (Hattiesburg to New Orleans and back). Ready to talk about the Kansas-Nebraska Act in one class and Jamestown in the other.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I found several typos in my lecture slides yesterday (it's been one of those first weeks of the semester!) but at least my students know that I am not using AI to create lecture materials!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I am very excited and thankful that Metairie Park Country Day School invited me to speak this September. I will be talking about New Orleans’ Indigenous history and the various intersections with colonialism. I am really looking forward to it!
Image: a Zine depicting the Choctaw name Bulbancha/Bvlbancha and a headless Andrew Jackson in Jackson Square.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
"Are Military Historians Insular?" by Nick Lloyd. A great read.
nlloyd.substack.com
Are Military Historians Insular?
Military history has not always had the best reputation.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Hey Digital Humanities friends: There's a DH postdoc that's opened up at Southern Miss's Mississippi Digital Humanities Hub (+ Center for Digital Humanities) for the next year. If you have any questions about living in Hattiesburg, let me know and I can try to answer. usm.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
usm.csod.com
Postdoctoral Digital Humanities Scholar
Special Instructions to ApplicantsPlease note: The Postdoctoral Digital Humanities Scholar is a one-year grant funded position.Applicants must be curr...
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Really disliked the finale of Hacks.
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David Silkenat @davidsilkenat.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
New article by @hngreen.bsky.social, Adam Domby, Katherine Burns, and me in @anchistjournal.bsky.social on writing Black biography www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Challenges and opportunities in writing Black biography: a roundtable discussion
This roundtable is an outgrowth of a panel held at the BrANCH annual conference in Cardiff in September 2025. While the BrANCH panel focused on the particulars of the research findings of the panel...
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I’m looking for visual examples of student unessays—not just project descriptions—to share with my class. Many examples online have broken image links or blog posts do not include photos. If you have creative projects you’re comfortable sharing here or by DM, I’d love to see them. Thank you!
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Kevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
I really enjoyed reading both her Grimke and Trotter books. Damn. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/b...
nytimes.com
Historian Kerri K. Greenidge and Her Book ‘The Grimkes’ Come Under Fire
Kerri K. Greenidge appeared to lose her professorship at Tufts University after scholars began scrutinizing her 2022 book, “The Grimkes,” which is no longer listed on its publisher’s website.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I am revising a chapter post-review and realized I used the word “duality.” I immediately thought of Full Metal Jacket.
static.klipy.com
Full Metal Jacket: Duality of Man Quote
Alt: Full Metal Jacket: Duality of Man Quote
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Very excited to see my Western Historical Quarterly article published online!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
There's a prof. on TikTok that decided he's going to input student work into AI for grading. He's going to let AI grade AI. What's the freaking point anymore? First of all, this seems like a FERPA issue. Second...just do the work yourself, man.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
I had some free time to watch All Quiet on the Western Front (the 2022 iteration). I’ve never read the book, but all I have to say is that war is hell (surely the point of the film(s) and book).
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Very excited to see my Western Historical Quarterly article published online!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Very happy to send off my chapter for the Handbook on Digital Activism. Inspired by my work on Indigenous authority at Dickson Mounds, I explore digitization + Indigenous data sovereignty. It took me in unexpected directions, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Let's hope the editor likes it!
A white screen with black text, there are some URLs in blue.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Love this Vine Deloria, Jr. line from Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.
White page, black text, and red brackets highlight a passage on the book page.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
RIP Gordon Wood, famed historian of the American Revolution era, who was struck by a car and killed yesterday at the age of 92. www.golocalprov.com/news/pulitze...
golocalprov.com
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author and Historian Gordon Wood Hit and…
On Sunday, one of Rhode Island’s most accomplished writers and historians, Gordon Wood, was hit and killed by a motorist.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Do any of my Native history/studies, museum/public history friends have connections with a THPO? I'm hoping to speak with someone who has experience or interest in digital repatriation, particularly questions surrounding the digitization, stewardship, + access of Native American cultural materials.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Received interesting feedback from a fellowship rejection! Historians, do you agree/disagree with R2’s comment that one should be able to revise a dissertation into a book in one year?
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Jason Heppler @jasonheppler.org · 21/05/2026
I'm excited to soft launch my next digital history project, Governing Ground: A kind of companion website to my in-progress book on the politics of the grasslands and public lands in the twentieth century American West. 🗃️
governingground.org
Governing Ground
A history of the sagebrush rebellions---recurring fights over land, power, and federal authority in the American West from the 1930s through 2016.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Loyola University New Orleans shared my Indigenous America digital class project on LOYNO's website and socials. Very grateful that our collaborative work stood out to university administration. More here: cas.loyno.edu/news/may-15-...
cas.loyno.edu
Dr. Legg Guides Freshman/Sophomore Research Projects | Loyola University New Orleans
Indigenous America is a WordPress-based digital exhibit that highlights mostly team-based research projects created by first- and second-year students in Dr. John Legg's Indigenous America course. Stu...
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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Recently, FamilySearch digitized and uploaded tons of microfilmed records, including many from 18th-century Massachsuetts. They're using some sort of AI to transcribe/summarize the handwritten documents. I've noticed that the AI strips out references to race and enslavement in 18thc documents.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
As a reminder, if you have grad/UG students collaborate on a digital project, please make sure that those students receive credit for their intellectual labor. I helped on two major digital projects that do not list me as a collaborator. There's no real "proof" that I even helped in any way.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Any #NAGPRA experts here? How would you classify these items? Funerary object, etc. "Trappings" taken from a "unidentified Chief" who fought/died on the Union side during the Battle of Honey Springs. His "trappings" were taken and sent to Jeff Davis, later preserved in the Museum of the Confederacy
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Dr. Jen Andrella @jenandrella.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Suggestions needed! We’re looking to convert a classroom into a digital innovation lab (for class instruction and to host a digital gallery for project launches). I’d greatly appreciate any photos, links, or articles of DH labs, centers, studios, etc. or if you have a space like this on your campus!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Oh darn. Canvas is down.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Be nice to your IT folks whenever possible. Sometimes freak things happen and they need to rush into action to get many (I mean, MANY) people back online and connected. We're grateful for all that you do!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
When you haven't started the 2-hour drive to campus + you get notified your classroom building is shut down due to a water leak. Nothing's worse than driving an hour or more to have campus shut down (It's happened twice this semester already). Today was a work day in both classes, anyways.
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit and tie is smiling and saying `` yeeeaahh ... that 's what im talkin bout '' .
ALT: a man in a suit and tie is smiling and saying `` yeeeaahh ... that 's what im talkin bout '' .
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Just submitted my copyedits back to Western Historical Quarterly for my article due out this summer! It's been quite a journey with this one (started in Spring 2022). It engages with the trials & executions of two Dakota chiefs who British agents kidnapped in Rupert's Land after the US-Dakota War.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
A new research topic down the road? I grew up with GI Joes. Not only does this Navajo Code Talker speak, it comes with a Navajo language code book. I've got WW2 on the mind lately (taught the topic to my Native history course yesterday).
Boxed G.I. Joe action figure labeled “Navajo Code Talker,” depicting a World War II U.S. Marine in uniform with helmet, radio pack, and field gear. The packaging includes illustrations of soldiers in combat and a note that the figure “talks” with phrases in Navajo code and English. To the right of the box is a printed chart titled “The Navajo Code,” showing English words with corresponding Navajo terms, along with a circular “Junior Navajo Code Talker” emblem.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Prepping for tomorrow's class on Native American military service. Not surprising, but still striking, how non-Native ppl stereotyped Native cultures: during the Vietnam War, US soldiers called the Viet Cong “Apaches” + referred to the jungle as “Indian Country” b/c they saw it as dangerous & wild
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Book news! I’m pleased to share that I’ve signed a contract with the University of Nebraska Press to publish my book, tentatively titled A Line Worth Crossing: Dakota Mobility in Mni Sota Makoce after the US-Dakota War. Thank you to everyone who helped me reach this point. Now it’s time to write!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
A beautiful day in New Orleans. Time to teach the Indian Citizenship Act and, later, Augmented/Virtual Reality.
A blue sky, green grass, and historic Jesuit Catholic college building.
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Anne Sarah Rubin @annesarah.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Just taught the Lieber Code and emerged to this nonsense. To equate Trump's threats with Sherman's actions is to fundamentally misunderstand what Sherman did and did not do. He did not destroy a civilization, he was not a war criminal, no matter what the Lost Cause would have you believe.
foxnews.com
MORNING GLORY: Will President Trump go full Sherman in the war on Iran?
From Sherman's march to Trump's Iran deadline, a historical argument emerges for why ruthless wartime measures can ultimately deliver lasting peace.
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Hayden L. Nelson 🌲🐺🦫🔥🪵 @haydenlnelson.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The Lac du Flambeau Band announced that it’s restricting musky and walleye fishing for non-tribal members on tribal lands as a conservation measure and hoo, boy, white Wisconsinites are up in arms (figuratively, at least, on social media) about it like it’s the late-1980s again.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
It's finally happened. I knew the day would come. I received an email from a publisher about writing a follow up series to the book, _To Face a Savage Trail" by novelist John Legg. www.leggbooks.com Naw, I'm good, and not the right Legg you're looking for!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Received good news today! The Public Historian formally accepted our roundtable, "Indigenous Cultural Preservation in Public and Digital Spaces." See attached pic for additional context. Can't wait to see it printed in 2027!
A black box with white text, with a few tagged names in blue text, describing a scholarly collaborative project.
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Robyn Maynard @policingblack.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
declassified RCMP files confirm Canada's domestic intelligence agency infiltrated and sought to disrupt legitimate political Indigenous organizations in the 1970s, in an extensive program of covert surveillance, informants and countersubversion www.cbc.ca/news/indigen...
cbc.ca
How RCMP spies infiltrated the 1970s Indigenous rights movement | CBC News
A CBC Indigenous investigation has found the Cold War-era RCMP Security Service had a widespread and intrusive surveillance operation targeting at least 30 legitimate Indigenous political organization...
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Interesting data point from my commute between Hattiesburg and New Orleans three times a week for teaching: back in January, I was filling up every other day for about $16–18. Now, at the highest price per gallon I’ve seen, that same fill-up (roughly three-quarters of a tank) costs me $27.12.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Thanks to @dhowlett1692.bsky.social for Zooming into my Digital History class to talk about Reddit, AskHistorians, and the ethics of discussing history in open, but moderated spaces. My class really enjoyed the presentation! @loyolanola.bsky.social #AskHistorians
A classroom full of students with yellow chairs and brown wood desks. Tan wall with a green chalkboard. A project screen shows a historian talking.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
RIP Country Joe McDonald. His lyrics still resonate today.
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Jack El-Hai @jackelhai.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
"Violence erupted." Today's article pick from Damn History, a free newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @legg.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe clioandthecontemporary.com/2026/02/09/a...
clioandthecontemporary.com
A Continuum of Federal Violence: A History of Indigenous-US relations in Minnesota in the Wake of the Murders of Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti
Federal immigration violence against Minnesotans in January 2026 echoes the historic federal violence committed against Minnesota’s Indigenous peoples in the nineteenth century.
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Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Celebrating Presidents in 2026? Fraught as hell, but what’s not is celebrating all the great public scholarship in my 263rd #ScholarSunday thread of writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ + blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
blackwhiteandread.com
#ScholarSunday Thread 263 (2/15/26) – Black and White and Read All Over
Celebrating Presidents in 2026? Fraught as hell, but what’s not is celebrating all the great public scholarship in my 263rd #ScholarSunday thread of writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books. Add mor...
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
We didn’t bake a cake for #DouglassDay, but with it being so close to Mardi Gras here in New Orleans, I had to bring in some King Cake for Douglass Day celebrations! Living in Hattiesburg, I’m introducing my Loyola students to Loblolly’s King Cakes! We can’t wait for a great day of transcribing!
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
If you're teaching Digital Humanities, encourage students to participate in the Dear Data project. It's v. engaging for students to keep track of data in visually interesting ways. Doing it along side your students! Here's my visualization which traces my commute/weather from Hattiesburg to NOLA.
A white paper with colorful lines and shapes that represent travels from Hattiesburg, MS to New Orleans, LA (and other places throughout one week's time). The shapes (see key on the left side) represent the weather I experienced while traveling in MS and LA. The color over the lines represent what day of the week I traveled.
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Dr. John R. Legg @legg.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
This ought to be an interesting lecture today. I only assign readings once a week which leaves some gaps in the schedule for open sessions. I decided I’d introduce my students to Last of the Mohicans (novel and movie adaptations) in history, myth, and memory. We’ll see how they like this one.
A open computer on a brown desk. The image on the screen two Native men, in artistic colors with a blue sky behind them and mountains.
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