Hybrid and In-person at 132 Mulford Hall

Indigenous Nations face significant challenges when it comes to the interrelated processes of cultural knowledge revitalization and environmental adaptation. These challenges range from compromised local ecological health brought about by development and climate change, to limited access to land due to legal, social, and/or political barriers, and to obstacles to knowledge transmission caused by educational and economic forces. This talk views these challenges in the context of past and ongoing mutually constitutive structures of settler colonialism and capitalism, as well as through a framework of “relational continuity,” in which Indigenous peoples seek to maintain relational obligations to land and more-than-humans despite spatial and social change. Specifically, I discuss my long-term work with Cherokee people in Oklahoma on tribal environmental policy, land-based education, and comprehensive conservation strategies.