Indigenous Peoples' Day 2024
On Indigenous Peoples' Day, we
- Honor our Indigenous students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community partners.
- Celebrate the important teaching, research, creative work, and collaboration that involves and studies Native cultures, history, languages, and issues.
- Recognize that our University and society have work to do to continue to move toward reconciliation and healing with Tribal Nations.
Land Acknowledgement
Hau mitákuyepi! (Hello, our fellow creation!)
Boozhoo indinawemaaganag! (Hello, my relatives!)
We call upon our neighbors in the University community and the good people of the state of Minnesota to acknowledge and reflect upon the fact that the University of Minnesota stands on Miní Sóta Makhóčhe, the homelands of the Dakhóta Oyáte. We call upon our neighbors to acknowledge that the river that winds through campus links us to the sacred site of the Dakhóta people’s origin at Bdote, where the Minnesota River joins the Mississippi. Our Dakhóta hosts invite us to say “Bdote,” to say “Miní Sóta Makhóčhe,” to acknowledge the Dakhóta Oyate’s sovereignty and their spiritual ownership of this homeland, their place of origin. This sovereignty, this place, and this water is sacred, and the Department of American Indian Studies wants to share this fact with those who may have forgotten that.
opening lines to the Department of American Indian Studies' "On Purpose" statement, 2018
The TRUTH Report
The Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing—TRUTH—project is 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.
The Department of American Indian Studies fully endorses the TRUTH Report and calls upon the University community and the public to join us in demanding that the Board of Regents and upper administration take immediate action to stop and repair the University of Minnesota’s historic and ongoing harm that continues to be perpetrated against Dakota, Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk, and other American Indian and Indigenous peoples of this area.
Recent investments in American Indian studies

Join the Department of American Indian Studies as they celebrate moving to Pattee Hall.
Pattee Hall Opening
Wednesday, October 30
4:00 - 6:00 PM

The new PhD program is the seventh in the nation. PhD candidate An Garagiola (American studies) and Regents Professor Jean O’Brien (history) are quoted in this Star Tribune story.

Launched in fall '23, the new Dakota language major connects both heritage and non-heritage students with the Dakota language and traditions. At the end of their first year, three of the first students—in the world—to major in the Dakota language reflect on what the program means for their personal language journeys and for the future.

In this MPR story, co-curator Northrop Professor Brenda J. Child gives a tour of the George Morrison Center for Indigenous Arts' inaugural exhibition in early 2024.

Established in 2024, the George Morrison Center for Indigenous Arts is an interdepartmental study center that supports the creation, presentation, and interpretation of Indigenous art in all its forms.
Named in honor of Grand Portage Ojibwe artist and UMN faculty member George Morrison (1919–2000), the center is a collaboration between the Department of American Indian Studies and the Department of Art, with initial funding from the College of Liberal Arts. Taking a broad definition of the arts, we act as an incubator for scholarship, advocacy, and engagement, working across disciplines and departments to develop a wide range of programming.
Meet a few of CLA's Indigenous students, alumni & faculty

Patricia Marroquin Norby (PhD ‘13, American studies) curates Native American art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Professor Elizabeth Sumida Huaman specializes in land-based Indigenous education, Indigenous and Quechua research design, and Indigenous rights education.

PhD candidate Demiliza Saramosing (American studies) spent the summer conducting fieldwork that will illuminate social injustices and explore the everyday lives and cultures of young adults in occupied Hawaiʻi.

Indigenous archaeologist and PhD candidate Selena Bernier (anthropology) includes Indigenous perspectives in the narratives about Minnesota’s geology and mining history.

Regents Professor Jean O’Brien (history) is a citizen of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation, and has supported many scholars engaged in Indigenous history and studies.
Language revitalization
Learn about our Dakota & Ojibwe language programs.
A Living Language Resource
The Ojibwe People's Dictionary is a searchable, talking Ojibwe-English dictionary that features the voices of Ojibwe speakers. Established by faculty and students in the Department of American Indian Studies, the dictionary supports language education and encourages new speakers among the present generation. Learn more about the Ojibwe People's Dictionary.

Michelle Goose (BA '10, American Indian studies and psychology) is working to revitalize Ojibwe language and culture to build confidence and connection for new generations and break the cycle of intergenerational trauma.

A recipient of the Emerging Alumni award, Vanessa Goodthunder (BA ‘16, American Indian studies and history) teaches the next generation of Dakota language speakers as a Director of The Lower Sioux Children are Sacred School, a Dakota immersion school.

Jaeden King carries on the language and memories of her family and culture after getting her degree in American Indian studies and the Ojibwe language.

An Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) version of Star Wars: A New Hope has been released in a groundbreaking project that bridges pop culture with Indigenous heritage. The film features alum Aandeg Muldrew (MA ‘22, linguistics) and current linguistics PhD candidate Dustin Morrow (BA ‘21, MA ‘23, linguistics, Ojibwe language teaching certificate) as the voices of renowned characters Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, respectively.

Star Wars in Ojibwe film showing
The University of Minnesota premiere of Anangong Miigaading will be at the Coffman Theater on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 6:00 PM. This event will be free and open to the public. Registration is requested.
Support these languages
You can help ensure that these languages are passed down to future generations.
Make a gift to the Dakota Language Program
Learn with us in spring ‘25
Did you know that you do not need to be an enrolled student to take our courses? Learn more about getting started with the Ojibwe & Dakota Language Courses Guide and by reviewing the resources below.
Registration begins on November 12 for students admitted to degree or certificate programs and on December 6 for visiting and non-degree-seeking students.
1000-level
3000-level
4000-level
5000-level
1000-level
- AMIN 1001: Introduction to American Indian & Indigenous Peoples
- AMIN 1003: American Indians in Minnesota
- ARTS 1001: Introduction to Contemporary Art and Theory
- ARTS 1001H: Honors Introduction to Contemporary Art and Theory
3000-level
- AMIN 3201W: American Indian Literature
- AMIN 3402: American Indians and the Cinema
- AMIN 3409: American Indian Women: Ethnographic and Ethnohistorical Perspectives
- GWSS 3515: Comparative Indigenous Feminisms
- WRIT 3315: Writing on Issues of Land and the Environment
4000-level
- AMIN 4525W: Federal Indian Policy
- AMIN 4821W: Capstone Seminar
- AMIN 4994: Directed Research
- AMIN 4996: Field Study
5000-level
Department of American Indian Studies
Learn about the country's oldest American Indian studies department.
Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Learn about how the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies brings together faculty and students to pursue lines of inquiry that challenge systems of power and inequality, assert human dignity, and imagine social transformation.
Circle of Indigenous Nations
Part of the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence, the Circle of Indigenous Nations is a student services office that works to recruit, retain, and graduate American Indian/First Nations/Alaska Native students.