Sarah Deer

March 3

5:00 PM

Sovereignty of the Soul: A Conversation with Sarah Deer

This event, sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Department of History, the CHaSS Anti-Oppression Committee, and the Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research, marks the beginning of Women’s History Month and will feature Dr. Sarah Deer, whose scholarship explores the intersection of federal Indian law and victims' rights. A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, as well as the Chief Justice for the Prairie Island Indian Community Court of Appeals, Dr. Deer has worked to end violence against women for over 25 years, receiving national recognition from the American Bar Association and the Department of Justice for this work. A 2014 MacArthur Fellow and co-author of four textbooks on tribal law, Dr. Deer will join us to discuss her latest book, The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America.

Melissa Tehee

Melissa Tehee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the American Indian Support Project (AISP). She earned dual degrees in Clinical Psychology, Policy, and Law (Ph.D./J.D.) with a certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy at the University of Arizona. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Dr. Tehee’s clinical and research interests are in addressing trauma across the life span including bias/prejudice/racism, health disparities, and domestic violence and other trauma experienced by ethnic and racial minorities, especially American Indians. Her interdisciplinary training allows her to consider the convergence of these topics with law and policy.

Racheal Killgore

Racheal Killgore is a member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. Her maternal clan is Towering House born for the White People Clan. She is from Gallup, NM and grew up in Chinle, Arizona located on the Navajo Nation. She is a graduate student in the Combined Clinical and Counseling Psychology Program at Utah State University. Prior to graduate school, Racheal spent several years working in the anti-violence field in her community advocating for victims/survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. She is very passionate about this work and after graduate school she intends on returning to her community to provide clinical services to those who have experienced violence.

Colleen O'Neill

Colleen O'Neill is an Associate Professor of History at Utah State University and teaches US history, Native American history, and courses on the US West that focus on women, gender, and settler colonialism. She is the author of Working the Navajo Way: Labor and Culture in the Twentieth Century and is coeditor of Native Pathways: American Indian Culture and Economic Development in the Twentieth Century. She recently published an article in Ethnohistory, “The Limits of Colonial Parenting: Navajo Domestic Workers, The Intermountain Indian School, and the Urban Relocation Program.” Her current book-length project, Labor and Sovereignty, examines the changing meaning of wage work for American Indian communities from the 1890s through the 1990s. In a previous life, Colleen worked as an organizer on issues of sexual violence, labor rights, and racism. She continues to work with local Indigenous rights organizations.

Additional Resources

ORGANIZATIONS

National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center is a Native-led nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence against Native women and children. The NIWRC provides national leadership in ending gender-based violence in tribal communities by lifting up the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty.

Barrette Project: Living Memorial, is a program run by the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition. This project is mentioned in Dr. Deer’s book: “The ‘living memorial’ exhibit (and its companion book) is made up of beaded and quilled barrettes, each accompanied by the testimony of a Native woman or girl affected by rape. The exhibit thus contains elements and images of honor, beauty, and strength while simultaneously offering up difficult truths” (10).

Restoring Ancestral Winds is a Utah-based organization whose mission is to support healing in Indigenous communities. The organization advocates for healthy relationships; educates communities on issues surrounding stalking, domestic, sexual, dating and family violence; collaborates with Great Basin community members and stakeholders; and honors and strengthens traditional values of all their relations.

Pandos is a Salt Lake City nonprofit working on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Campaign.

The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women aims to stop violence against Native women and children by advocating for social change.

FILMS AND VIDEOS

Sisters Rising (2020) A documentary about six Native American women reclaiming personal & tribal sovereignty.

A Broken Trust (2019) From the award-winning and Emmy-nominated Newsy Investigation team, this documentary dives deep into sexual assault in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The Search: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (2019) A trip across the western US (Washington, Montana and New Mexico) to investigate why so many Indigenous women go missing in the US and what more could be done to address the problem.

PODCASTS

Speaking Our Truth, a podcast produced by the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.

BOOKS

Recommended Books by Indigenous women authors. This list was created by the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.

OTHER ARTICLES AND REPORTS

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls: A Snapshot of data from 71 urban cities in the United States, Urban Indian Health Center.

Man Camps Fact Sheet: Chasing out the Specter of Man Camps, Honor the Earth.

New Mexico Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force Report

MMIW Resource Guide: Reports, hotlines, toolkits, and information about MMIW, Lakota People’s Law Project.

April Book Club

As a follow-up to this conversation, the CHaSS staff book club will read Louise Erdrich's The Round House in April. Staff members across the university--and on all statewide campuses--are welcome to join. Please contact Jeannie Sur for more information at jeannie.sur@usu.edu.

Watch the Recording of this Event