Current Native American Studies MA Program Students

From: Bellingham, WA

Occupation: Semi-retired working part time with a Christian organization in Western Canada and Baja CA, Mexico

Research Interests: Unhealthy co-dependent dynamics of Christian missions and Native communities, both on the res and in urban centers

Leisure Activities: Travel, Hiking, Kayaking, Sea Hawks football

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

Tribe: Apsáalooke (Crow)

Research Interest: Language Preservation, with emphasis on Crow Hymns

Gender (my cape teeth point up ^^^)

Research interests: 

Tribal Coagulation, Tribal Cohesion, Reflective Witnessing and Community Art as Pre-Contact Medicine 

Using native cohesive arts practice as a means of finding emotional temperatures of the land;

Understanding conducive indigenous internal mechanisms rejected and disassembled by initial and derivative colonization strategies with current residual impact on: sovereignty, native parenting norms, native gender roles, sexuality, humor, grief, community decision making, accumulation of resources, captivity, cruelty standards of use.

“You can’t unfall a baby. Some things can’t be undone. Cheek to the land girl; dirt, seawaters, storms know the way. On this dirt we dance, cry, sleep on broken bones. Can’t unfall, cheek to the land girl.”  -Wewa No. 9

Current Location: Big Fork, MT

Research Interest: Researching and resolving the high cancer rates on Indian Reservations and among Native populations

From: Belgrade, MT

Research Interest: The cultural and political implications of international borders dividing Indigenous homelands

"You can't know a place, if you don't know her people." -Alexander Newby

From: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Research Interests: Education, Institutional Trauma & Betrayal, Student/Community Mental Health and Psychology, Intergenerational Trauma, Educational Isolationism

Hobbies: Reading, Drawing, Cooking, Touring beautiful Montana, Makeup Artistry, and Traveling 

Amaskpipikuni

Tribes: Blackfeet, Lummi, Haida, and Tlingit

From: Michiana (Southwestern Michigan, Northern Indiana)

Occupation: Montana State University Architectural Records Manager/Archivist and Massage Therapist

Research Interest: Pueblo history; landscape ethnohistory; history of anthropology/archaeology; heritage management and education

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over.  Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center.” -Kurt Vonnegut 

From: Many different states in America and currently resides in Afghanistan and teaches pre-school.  Previously has taught in Kurdistan and at an Athabascan school in Alaska.

Research Interests: Heirloom gardening and homeopathy 

Leisure Activities: Learning languages (currently studying Dari, Turkish, French, Norwegian, German, and Russian), knitting, crocheting, cross-stitching, and reading books relating to a future MA in Scandinavian Studies.  

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that the prisoner was you.” -Lewis B. Smedes