On February 16, 1863, the United States Congress unilaterally abrogated and annulled all treaties with the four bands of Indigenous people known as the Dakota Oyate (nation)…

This project asks: how can “transindigenous” decolonizing TEK partnerships enhance capacity for a changing world and foster just and equitable societies? How can these partnerships build resilient communities, redress debilitating social effects of settler colonialism, and stimulate and model new forms of academic knowledge and research practice?…

Going with the Flow: Transindigenous Cultural Revitalization with Shared Traditional Knowledge of Water, Land, and Skyways Among Dakota and Pacific Islanders (hereafter, Flow)…

Participatory Design for Indigenous Futures in the Age of Mixed Reality, hereafter, STE(A)M. Stream Two re-envisions the design of science, technology, and the built environment as a practice that is rooted and routed through empathy and community, an approach that changes the way we teach, practice, and research and, importantly, the communities who participate in these processes…

Design can be a powerful catalyst for rural communities in envisioning towns, buildings, landscapes and as an innovation process for identifying and meeting their emerging building and cultural needs…

This workshop took a deep dive into the material culture of three communities from Western Minnesota through examination and engagement with boat making and culture of the Micronesian context (outrigger canoes) and the Dakota context (birchbark canoes and dugout canoes) and the Norwegian/Scandinavian context through the examination of a Viking Ship…

On July 26, 2019, the Back to Indigenous Futures team and Upper Sioux and Lower Sioux community members were hosted in Milan. Traditional knowledge and plans for next steps on the research project were discussed and we were welcomed and fed by visiting Micronesian canoe-builders.

Navigating Indigenous Futures on the Mississippi River brought together the work of UMN researchers and their Indigenous ( Dakota, Ojibwe, And Pacific Islander) community partners involved in two separate UMN Grand Challenge Grant Projects (1) Back to Indigenous Futures and (2) KAWE GIDAA-NAANAAGADAWENDAAMIN MANOOMIN – First We Must Consider Manoomin / Psiη (Wild Rice) as part of the Inauguration events for the 17th President of UMN, President Joan T. A. Gabel.

On November 4, 2019 the “Back to Indigenous Futures” team presented a poster at the UMN Office for Equity and Diversity’s Gallery of Excellence(GOE). Deans from all collegiate units on the Twin Cities campus and the Offices of the Chancellor on system campuses to highlight their faculty’s equity and diversity research.

Our symposium included a public lecture by Dr. Debra Harry to learn more about data sovereignty, responsible and reciprocal research in Indigenous communities. It additionally provided space for our research teams and tribal partners to dialogue about histories and tensions, assert their/our rights to data ownership and inform their/our participation in collaborative research, and inform policies and curriculum at institutions of higher education.

Star Stories

On Feb 8, 2020 the Upper Sioux, Lower Sioux and Milan communities gathered for a day of learning and sharing focused on directional and instructional star knowledge and practices.

On August 14, 2020, the Back to Indigenous Futures team, in collaboration with Makoce Ikikcupi, hosted a Dakota plant & medicine walk with renowned ethnobotanist Linda Black Elk.