UMD Department of American Indian Studies

Congratulations 🎉 to all of our Class of 2026 AIS, TAG, MTAG, and MTRES students who received recognition of their hard work at Commencement this afternoon! It was great seeing you!

Best to all of you in your endeavors!

Congratulations 🎉 to our AIS, TAG, MTAG, and MTRES students who are graduating tomorrow! We had our 2026 Department Graduation Reception today and got to have many of our students and faculty all together in the same room!

For those of you who won't be attending the 2026 Commencement activities tomorrow, come celebrate at the 2nd Annual Honor the Youth Powwow at Lincoln Park Middle School! The Dept. of American Indian Studies will be tabling, so stop by and visit with Drs. Jill Doerfler and Jonnelle Walker while you're there! ✨

Signal boosting!

The Indigenous students at Lincoln Park Middle School have helped put together the 2nd Annual Honor the Youth Powwow. Saturday, May 9th, all are welcome! See the poster for full details!

Boozhoo! 👋

On Wednesday, Feb. 18, David O'Connor, one of our awesome adjunct faculty members, will be a guest on the Maadagindan monthly book club to discuss Anton Trueur's Where Wolves Don't Die.

David taught for us this past Fall semester in our Master of Tribal Administration & Governance program, where he taught human resources for Tribal nations. David's expertise was greatly appreciated by our MTAG students and by his fellow program faculty.

So if you can, check out David on Maadagindan this Wednesday!

https://waterlibrary.aqua.wisc.edu/maadagindan/where-wolves-dont-die/

Join us for a fun and important conversation with Bad River tribal member, David O'Connor to discuss Anton Treuer's book, Where Wolves Don’t Die. O’Connors work at the Department of Public Instruction is critical to our collective mission in discussing the health of the Great Lakes and exercising treaty rights.

One question we get a lot is how can I support if I can’t attend? More than any other answer is buy the books and support the publishers. You can also request the titles at your library, or give books a review where you can. Looking forward to kicking this season off with DAVID O'CONNOR, educators, librarians, community leaders and caregivers. Registration is free and open now! https://waterlibrary.aqua.wisc.edu/maadagindan/

Boozhoo!👋

We are excited to announce that our very own Dr. Jonnelle Walker will be presenting a special seminar next week in collaboration with UMN Duluth Earth and Environmental Sciences!

Her seminar, "Misaabekong: The Hillside That Oozed Out of a Rift System," explores the very geography we inhabit here in Misaabekong/Duluth.

🗓 When: Friday, Feb. 20th @ 4:00 PM
📍 Where: 070 Montague Hall

We hope to see you there!

For anyone who missed it, here's today's Native America Calling with Prof. Doerfler and other panelists discussing blood quantum alternatives.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025 – Tribes ponder blood quantum alternative » Native America Calling Crow leadership are working toward revamping their tribal citizenship requirements. If their proposal goes through, any currently enrolled tribal citizens would be designated as having 100% Crow blood. The St. Croix Ojibwe Tribe in Wisconsin Tribe is seeing their first tribal enrollment gains in yea...

Boozhoo! Our amazing department head, Professor Jill Doerfler is going to be a guest today on the Native America Calling today at Noon Central Time. You can catch it live or listen later!

Native America Calling - Your National Electronic Talking Circle A call-in radio show about contemporary Native American life

Boozhoo!

The Native Governance Center is hiring an Executive Administrator down in the Twin Cities area! This would be an excellent opportunity for some of our alumni!

Details below.

We’re hiring an Executive Administrator! Join our team to support the Executive Director, senior leadership, and Board of Directors. This hybrid position is based in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. If you’re detail-oriented, a strong communicator, and passionate about advancing Native governance, we’d love to hear from you—apply now!

https://nativegov.org/about/careers/executive-administrator/