CU Native American student group to mark Indigenous People’s Day with campus event

Dr. Kim TallBear, a professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, will keynote an Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration at Cameron University on Monday, Oct. 12.

The event is sponsored by the Native American Intertribal Association (NAIA) - a Cameron University student organization - and the Lawton Indigenous People's Day Committee, and is part of a larger observance in the community planned on Monday.

TallBear will speak on "Claiming Our Land, Claiming Our Dead: Ancestry, DNA and Settler Self-indigenization" at 2:45 p.m. in the Mary Lou and Carey Johnson Auditorium in Cynthia S. Ross Hall. Her appearance is made possible by the Dr. Clodus R. Smith and Mrs. Pauline (Chaat) Smith Endowed Lectureship in American Indian Studies at Cameron.

"For centuries, European settlers and their descendants have perpetuated the 'vanishing Indian' narrative that predicts Native nations' inevitable death in the face of European and American progress," TallBear said ahead of her upcoming lecture. "This narrative justifies colonial resource extraction and violation of Native nation sovereignties. The cherished dead Indian story anchors today's exploding phenomenon of 'self-indigenization,' also called 'pretendianism,' in which settler state citizens claim the dead Indian as a biological ancestor - an essence that redefines them as 'Indigenous."

TallBear's talk draws on her decades of research on genetic science and Indigeneity to discuss several prominent 'pretendian' cases in the U.S. and Canada and how such claims impact employment, artistic, business and leadership opportunities.

TallBear, a Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate citizen, has authored a number of books, including Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. She is a regular media commentator on topics including Indigenous peoples; science and technology; and Indigenous sexualities. In addition to her role at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, TallBear is an adjunct professor on the Native Studies faculty at the University of Alberta.

TallBear's keynote presentation will be preceded with a number of campus events, beginning with a cedar ceremony on the balcony of the McMahon Centennial Complex at 1 p.m. and the posting of the colors in the McCasland Ballroom by a KCA color guard, with introductions by NAIA members.

It will be followed by a roundtable discussion featuring TallBear, Dr. Cornel Pewewardy and Native educators at 1:30 p.m. in the Johnson Auditorium.

Immediately after TallBear's keynote presentation is a talking circle hosted by the Oklahoma and Texas chapters of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People that focuses on "Predators, Pedophiles and Powwows" in the Buddy Green Room of the McMahon Centennial Complex.

Hosts are Jodi Voice Yellowfish, co-founder and chair of the MMIW Texas Rematriate, and Cindy Famero, vice chair of the Oklahoma chapter of MMIP. Famero is a Cameron alumna, past-president of the CU chapter of NAIA and co-founder of the Lawton Indigenous Peoples' Day Committee.

The celebration concludes with a Native food sovereignty dinner in the McCasland Ballroom at 5:30 p.m., exhibition dancing at 6 p.m. and an awards presentation and closing ceremony at 7 p.m. in the McCasland Ballroom.

PR#26-103