2026-2027 American Indian & Indigenous Studies PhD Cohort
The Department of American Indian Studies is pleased to announce the second graduate cohort of our American Indian & Indigenous Studies PhD program. Our PhD program is the only one of its kind in the Midwest, housed within the first American Indian Studies department in the country.
The creation of the AIIS PhD Program responds to the landmark TRUTH (Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing) Project report released in April 2023, “a Native-organized, Native-led, community-driven research movement that offers multiple recommendations on how the University of Minnesota community can be in better relation with Indigenous peoples.” Please contact [email protected] for any questions related to our graduate program.
The University of Minnesota is on Daķota land and built with stolen Daķota wealth. This sovereignty, this place, and this water is sacred.
Meet Our Cohort
Lydia Barber Olson is a Black and Anishinaabe scholar from the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe in present-day Wisconsin. Lydia earned her Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, with a minor in Digital Arts and Humanities, from Carleton College. Her art explores themes of identity through a variety of media, including charcoal, sculpture, and ceramics. At Carleton, Lydia served as President of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance, was a Humanities Center Fellow, and worked as a Curatorial Student Worker for the Perlman Teaching Museum.
During her undergraduate studies, Lydia conducted independent research projects focused on supporting her tribal community. These projects included research on the Winter Dam and the guidance of the American Indian Movement in achieving tribal control, as well as an oral history project with her grandfather, funded through the Mellon Indigenous Engagement in Place Initiative. Lydia’s research has also taken place outside the United States, including an independent project on the representation of Indigenous people in Northern Europe through an Off-Campus Studies opportunity. In addition to her independent research experience, Lydia has a background in historical analysis and writing within the museum field. In 2024, she was selected for the Native American Undergraduate Museum Fellowship at the Minnesota Historical Society, where she created documents detailing Indigenous narratives at historic sites to support interpreters.
In the American Indian and Indigenous Studies PhD program, Lydia plans to study the roles that Minnesota’s Indigenous-led galleries play in advancing community learning, self-determination, and economic growth. She believes that these galleries juxtapose the historically extractive interactions between museums and art institutions with Indigenous communities by centering Indigenous leadership and values.
First-year advisors: Dr. Samantha Majhor and Dr. Jean O'Brien
Miigwan Totz (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa; desc. Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) is a PhD student in the 2026 cohort of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. They were born and raised in the Twin Cities. Miigwan’s academic interests include Ojibwe language, global language resurgence, public history, and political histories of Indigenous language defense in the Twin Cities. Their professional background is in Ojibwe language immersion programming and education. They currently work at the University of Minnesota as an instructor in American Indian Studies.
Education
B.A., Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, 2022
B.A., Ojibwe Language with a minor in American Indian Studies, University of Minnesota, 2022
M.HSPH, Heritage Studies and Public History, Public History Focus, University of Minnesota, 2026
Courses Taught
American Indian Language Planning (AMIN 3141/5141)
Indigenous Immersion Methods for the Home, Classroom, and Community (AMIN 3604)
(Formerly) Ojibwe Mastery II (OJIB 5204W)
First-year advisor: Dr. Nick Estes
Lydia Yellow Hawk (Hoc̄okaƞ Wak̇aƞ Maƞi Wiƞ) is Sicangu Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She is currently a PhD student in American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Before the UMN, she attended Miami University (Ohio) as an undergraduate and received her B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Political Science. While at Miami, she was the founder and president of the Native American Student Association on the Hamilton campus. During this time, Lydia created successful large-scale programs that reached across multiple campuses and introduced students to Indigenous cultures and peoples. In her senior year, Lydia received Miami’s highly prestigious President's Distinguished Service Award.
After graduating from Miami University, Lydia joined Teach For America, where she taught middle school social studies and science in Rosebud. Her grandmother and father were regular visitors to her classroom, enriching her students’ learning through storytelling and song. During this time, Lydia also served on the leadership team of the grassroots organization 4 Rosebud, which supports the voices of families and students and advocates for integrating Lakota language, culture, and history into district-wide curricula in Rosebud’s local schools.
Following her teaching experience, Lydia continued her academic journey at UCLA, where she earned her M.A. in American Indian Studies. Her M.A. thesis examines Lakota storytellers, specifically through the work of Dakota anthropologist Ella Cara Deloria, and analyzes the research methods and spaces in which she articulated her communities’ histories through her “kinship methodology.” Lydia’s other research interests include photo-ethnography, Indigenous oral history and storytelling practices, social justice activism, self-determination, sovereignty, and decolonizing methodologies.
Outside of school, Lydia enjoys hiking with her dog, Mila, listening to her favorite podcasts, and spending time with friends and family.
First-year advisor: Dr. Nick Estes
