Kaja Anderson

Kaja Anderson

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Fall 2024

From: Fort Peck, MT; Sioux and Assiniboine Nations

Research interests: Native American military service in WWI

Wesley Cawood

Wes Cawood

 

From: Lancaster, PA

Education: B.S. in Conservation Biology

Research Interest: Decolonizing food systems, food sovereignty, companion ways of knowing

Vance Crooked Arm

Douglas Vance Crooked Arm

 
From: I am from the Crow Indian Reservation and live in Pryor, MT
 
Tribal Affiliation: Apsáalooke
 
Education: I Graduated from Little Big Horn College with an Associate of Arts in 1999; University of Montana-Western with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. I'm currently a college instructor at the Little Big Horn College, mainly teaching the Crow Language, Music, and Dance of the Crow Indians.
 
Research Interests: My area of interest is Apsáalooke Language Revitalization and Indigenous Revitalization.
Dawn Delaney-Aimsback

Dawn Delaney-Aimsback

 

From: I am an enrolled member and from the Amskapi Pikuni Nation. 

Education: Bachelor of Art - Environmental Studies

Research Interests: Native American Policy and current Native American topics that are of concern of one's culture; the representation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, the representation of Contemporary Native American issues, and Climate Change adaptation.

Videography and GIS will allow me to highlight language and its relationship to the land, through an interactive educational story map, which I plan to give to the local Tribal College Library. Showcasing the rich and long history within the given landscape, will help guide and educate the next generation and pass on Indigenous ways of knowing, within the Amskapi Pikuni community.

Laura Fairbanks

Laura Fairbanks

 

From: Obaashiing! Ponemah, Minnesota

Origin: Dakota/Ojibwe, descendant of The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, and enrolled member of the Red Lake Nation

Education: Indigenous Studies degree, double minor international relations, political science

Interests: Language revitalization, Boys and Girls Clubs and student organizations, building international relationships with other Indigenous and Tribal Nations, Native American history. 

Taylor Pajunen

Taylor Pajunen

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Fall 2024

From: Iowa City, Iowa

Non-Native white settler

Education: My community - family, chosen family, organizers, and comrades. Bachelor of Arts in both Anti-Racism Studies and Spanish from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Associates of Arts in Native American Studies at Central Wyoming College. 

Research Interests: Taylor spent the past three years in Lander, WY, which is a bordertown to the Wind River Reservation, where she worked with Wind River Pride (a multi-generational, mutli-racial 2SLGBTQIA+ community group) and Wyoming 4 Palestine. Taylor spends their summers in Tuscon, AZ working with a humanitarian aid group at the border called No More Deaths/No Más Muertes and she has spent time in the West Bank, Palestine engaging in international solidarity efforts with Palestinian agriculture workers. Taylor centers Black and Indigenous liberation as a means for collective liberation and hopes to do their research in settler cognitive dissonance in the various bordertowns she has lived and worked in. 

China Soriano

Sinai (China) Soriano

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Fall 2024

From: ancestral home of the Chumash, Awha'y (Ojai)

Tribal Affiliation: Chichimec and Tlahuica

Education: Bachelors in Ethnic Studies and Political Science from California State University Channel Islands, Spring 2022 graduate.

Research: radically fueled by ancestors and community, she pursues higher education with research interests relating to the significant impact Indigenous ancestral traditions, knowledge, and ceremony contribute to survival and resilience of Native people.

 

Rebecca Warner

Rebecca Warner

 

From: Boulder, MT

Research Interests: Preservation and revitalization of Indigenous languages; and combining conventional medical knowledge with plant knowledge for community wellness and food sovereignty.

Lisa Wright Lamkins

Lisa Wright Lamkins

 
From: Bozeman, MT (originally from Minneapolis, MN)
 
Education: B.S. in International Business from University of Minnesota
 
Research Interests: Indigenous entrepreneurship, economic development on Montana's reservations and non-profit organizations. 
 
Caleb Williams

Caleb Williams

 
From: Billings, MT
 
Tribal Affiliation: Enrolled Sokaogon Chippewa from Mole Lake, WI. Descendent of Assiniboine-Sioux in Fort Peck, MT and Chippewa-Cree in Rocky Boy, MT.
 
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Amherst College, MA.
 
Research Interests: My interests are food availability, food accessibility, and general indigenous food sovereignty initiatives. 
Levi Yellowmule

Levi Yellowmule

 
From: Crow Agency, the Mighty Few District

Tribal Affiliation: Crow Nation
 
Education: Instructor at Little Big Horn College
 
Research Interest: Crow language, Crow history, and Crow oral history