Tsianina Lomawaima (Fall 2011)

Prof. Lomawaima's research on the experiences of American Indian alumni of a federal off-reservation boarding school is rooted in the experiences of her father Curtis Thorpe Carr, who survived, from age 9 to 16, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma. Interviews with her father and sixty of his contemporaries, plus information from federal policy and archives, appear in They Called it Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School, winner of the 1993 North American Indian Prose Award, and the American Educational Association's 1995 Critics' Choice Award. Dr. Lomawaima's interdisciplinary work straddles Native Studies, anthropology, education, ethnohistory, and history. She focuses on the early 20th century, examining the "footprint" of federal Indian policy and practice in Indian country (especially through institutions such as schools), and the creative, persistent ways Native peoples have asserted sovereignty, protected language and culture, and resisted and co-opted federal agendas. At Dartmouth in fall 2011, she is teaching NAS 30.01 Educating Native Americans; and NAS 30.02 Indigenous Science through Material Culture. She is a proud founder and President Elect of the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association/NAISA, see NAISA.org!