Native Circles

Ernestine Berry shares parts of her journey seeking the history of her people, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, and on becoming the founding Director of the UKB John Hair Cultural Center and Museum (JHCCM). Ernestine was pivotal in the establishment of the JHCCM in 2011, which is dedicated to sharing Keetoowah culture and history with the Keetoowah community and the public. She earned a master’s degree in education administration from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and a master’s degree in museum studies from the University of Oklahoma. Berry focuses on researching and sharing tribal history and culture, growing the tribal archives, and helping revitalize the Keetoowah language.
On this episode we are also joined by guest co-host, Evelyn Castro Cox. Evelyn is CHamoru (also known as Chamorro), born on the beautiful island of Guåhan (Guam – island territory of the United States) and now lives in Oklahoma. You can learn more about her at NativeCirclesPodcast.com.
Additional Resources:
John Hair Cultural Center and Museum - https://www.ukb-nsn.gov/john-hair-cultural-center-museumNative Nations Center at University of Oklahoma - https://www.ou.edu/nativenationscenter

THPO with Sheila Bird (Podcast) - https://www.buzzsprout.com/1922460

Teagan Dreyer shares with us her personal experiences and research of Native identity and self-determination within reclaimed boarding schools.
Teagan is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma in her second year of the History PhD program at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She studies the experiences of Native American students in federal and tribally-run boarding schools post-World War II. In her research Teagan has focused on the experiences of students in Oklahoma but is also concerned with schools around the country. This research has led Teagan to study the implications of changing federal policies on boarding schools and tribal self-determination through education.
Additional Resources:
Chilocco Indian School History Project through Oklahoma State University - https://chilocco.library.okstate.edu/history
Graphic novel on Chilocco Indian School - https://chilocco.library.okstate.edu/graphic-novel
Chilocco Indian School Documentary - https://chilocco.library.okstate.edu/documentary
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition - https://boardingschoolhealing.org/
Carlisle Indian School Project - https://carlisleindianschoolproject.com/
Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School co-authored by Farina King, Michael P. Taylor, and James R. Swensen - https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/returning-home

Dr. Michael Kaulana Ing shares with us Kanaka/Hawaiian philosophy as well as what it means to be Kanaka/Hawaiian living away from Hawai'i. He also shares his experiences and knowledge with Philosophy and Religious studies and the need for Indigenous thinking in Philosophy Departments.
Michael Kaulana Ing was raised by the ʻāina (land) of Mānoa on the island of Oʻahu. He currently resides on the land of the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Shawnee where he is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University. He completed his PhD in 2011 at Harvard University, where he studied Chinese thought. More recently, he has been working on ʻike Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian thought) and bringing it into conversation with other philosophical traditions.Resources:
Information about Dr. Michael Ing and his publications can be found on his faculty page at Indiana University here: https://religiousstudies.indiana.edu/about/faculty/ing-michael.html.
Dr. Michael Ing's article, "Ka Hulikanaka a me Ka Hoʻokūʻonoʻono: Davida Malo and Richard Armstrong on Being Human and Living Well" can be found in the Journal of World Philosophies here: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jwp/article/view/5473.
To learn more about Kanaka/Hawaiian culture, language and stories please visit https://ulukau.org/.

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 of Forced Political Identities: The San Carlos Apache Peoples.” In 2022, he accepted a position at Northern Arizona University as a pre/post-doctoral fellow.

Look for his chapter, “Sacred Space and Identity: The Fight for Chi’chil Biłdagoteel (Oak Flat) and the History of the San Carlos Apachean Peoples,” in The North American West in the Twenty-First Century (November 2022) edited by Brenden W. Rensink.

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 water, environmental history, Indigenous women, and Indigenous people.
She earned her doctoral degree in History at Arizona State University. Her dissertation is titled, "The Changing Tides of Bristol Bay: Salmon, Sovereignty, and Bristol Bay Natives" (2019). In 2022, she started a position as the Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wyoming.
Resources and ways to support:
United Tribes of Bristol Bay - www.utbb.com
Patagonia - www.patagonia.com
Trout Unlimited - www.tu.org