Discussion with Dakota Liberation Activist/Scholar Waziyatawin at St. Kate's

A Wahpetunwan Dakota from the Pezihutazizi Otunwe (Yellow Medicine Village) in southwestern Minnesota, she is an historian who studies how settler societies have impacted Indigenous societies and how Indigenous nations can recover their traditional values.

She currently holds the Canadian Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples in the University of Victoria’s Indigenous Governance Program in British Columbia, Canada.

Her books include:

• What Does Justice Look Like? The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland (2008);
• In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors (2006) which won the 2007 Independent Publisher’s Silver Book Award for Adult Multicultural Non-fiction;
• Remember This!: Dakota Decolonization and the Eli Taylor Narratives;
• Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming Scholarship and Empowering Communities; and
• For Indigenous Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook.

She received her Ph.D. in American history from Cornell University in 2000 and was on faculty in the Arizona State University’s history department in Phoenix for seven years.

There will be a reception from 5-6 p.m. prior to her presentation and a book-signing will follow the question and answer period at 7:30 p.m.

The event is sponsored by the College of St. Catherine’s Multicultural and International Programs and Services (MIPS) office and Centers of Excellence. For more information contact the MIPS office at 651-690-6784.