Native Circles

This episode features a conversation about San Carlos Apache history with Dr. Marcus Macktima, a San Carlos Apache scholar. He received a BA in History with a minor in Native American Studies in 2015; and his MA in Native American Studies in 2018 at the University of Oklahoma. Marcus received his doctoral degree in History at the University of Oklahoma in 2023. His dissertation is titled, “Issues...

At the time of this conversation, Dr. Bridget Groat was an assistant professor in the Native American and Indigenous Studies and history departments at Fort Lewis College. She is originally from Naknek, Alaska, which is a village located in the Bristol Bay region. She is Inupiaq, Alutiiq, Yup'ik, and Dena'ina. Her research focuses on salmon, Alaska Natives, food sovereignty, land and wat...

Dr. Candessa Tehee is a Cherokee Nation citizen from the Locust, Tehee, Pumpkin, and McLemore families who earned her Ph. D. in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma. She is also an accomplished artist who was recognized as a Cherokee National Treasure for fingerweaving in 2019.  She previously served as the Executive Director of the Cherokee Heritage Center and the Manager of the Cherokee...

Samuel Villarreal Catanach is from and grew up in P'osuwaegeh Owingeh (the Pueblo of Pojoaque). He serves as the director of the Pueblo of Pojoaque's Tewa Language Department . Samuel's goal is to give back to his community while continually defining and strengthening his identity and role as a Pueblo person.  In this episode he shares his passion and personal experiences with langu...

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Davina Two Bears, a  Diné (Navajo) scholar from Diné Bikéyah (Navajo land) of Northern Arizona. Two Bears is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Postdoctoral Fellow at Swarthmore College. She shares with us her knowledge and research of the Old Leupp Boarding school, a federal American Indian boarding school on the Navajo reservation. She emphasize...

In this episode, we feature the book Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School .  We speak with the authors Dr. Farina King, Dr. Michael P. Taylor, and Dr. James Swensen, who share their thoughts and experiences from working on the book and with the Diné (Navajo) people. Returning Home works to recover the lived experiences of Native American boarding school students...

Historian Midge Dellinger is a Muscogee citizen and oral historian for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. At the core of her work as an Indigenous historian, Midge advocates for an authentic remembrance of Indigenous ancestors.  Her work focuses on the need for a revised and expanded rendering of America’s long-standing hegemonic narrative concerning Indigenous and U.S. histories. Midge is currently eng...

Alaina E. Roberts discusses the intersection of Black and Native American life from the Civil War to the modern day. She talks about her personal family history, Black and Native history in the West, slavery in the Five Tribes (the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Nations), and her book - I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land. Alaina E. Roberts is an award-win...

Samantha Benn-Duke, PhD, has been a public educator for more than 30 years, serving 17 of those years in public classrooms and 7 years as an administrator. She was named the 2017 Oklahoma Indian Educator of the Year by the Oklahoma Council for Indian Education. She also served as the president of the Oklahoma Council for Indian Education and was the first Gaylord-McCasland Teacher Fellow for the O...

Join us for our conversation with oral historian and ethnographer Dr. Ryan Morini as we discuss the importance of oral history and what drew him to it. Dr. Morini received his BA and MA in Comparative Literature from Penn State University, and his PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Florida. His main research focus is on heritage politics and social memory among Newene (Western Sho...

Join us for our conversation with guest Marsha Small, who is Tsististas (Northern Cheyenne), as she speaks to us about the unmarked graves of children at boarding schools across the nation. She discusses her work in identifying the graves with ground-penetrating radar, current projects, and answers questions about how to help Indigenous communities heal.  She earned her M.A. from Montana State Uni...

Dr. Farina King (Diné) and Sarah Newcomb (Tsimshian) introduce their new podcast Native Circles and discuss Indigenous perspectives and experiences of boarding schools from Native Americans and First Nations' communities.