Radcliffe Institute Conference: Native Peoples, Native Politics

About the Event:

Politics requires more than voting and electoral mobilization. It requires knowledge of law, organization, identity, history, and culture. This reality is very much evident in Native American life today, where Native communities are sovereign nations within the United States yet must still negotiate politically within a federal democratic system that, at times, inconsistently honors their rights, their land and water, and their ways of life.

This one-day symposium will explore a range of mechanisms for political expression with leading members of Native communities, academics, policymakers, journalists, students, artists, and writers.

Panel Participants:

• KEYNOTE ADDRESS by Murray Sinclair (Peguis First Nations), chair, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

• Irene Bedard (Inupiaq/Yupik/Cree), actor
• Daniel Carpenter, director of the social sciences program, Radcliffe Institute; member, Provost’s Advisory Council on Native and Indigenous Issues; Allie S. Freed Professor of Government; at Harvard University
• Karen Diver, special assistant to the president for Native American Affairs, Domestic Policy Counsel, Executive Office of the President, and former chairwoman, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• John Dossett, general counsel, National Congress of American Indians
• Richard A. Guest, attorney, Tribal Supreme Court Project, Native American Rights Fund
• Diane J. Humetewa (Hopi), district judge, United States District Court, District of Arizona
• Kristiana Kahakauwila (Native Hawaiian), writer; 2015–2016 Lisa Goldberg Fellow, Radcliffe Institute
• Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), blogger, Native Appropriations; assistant professor in American studies, Brown University
• Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo), executive director, Harvard University Native American Program; board member, National Council on the Humanities
• Maggie McKinley (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe), Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law, Harvard Law School
• Sylvia McAdam (nêhiyaw Nations), cofounder, Idle No More
• Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca/Ojibwe), member, 1491s
• Joseph William Singer, Bussey Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
• Loris A. Taylor (Hopi Nation), president and chief executive officer, Native Public Media, Inc.
• Frank Waln (Sicangu Lakota), hip-hop artist
• Matika Wilbur (Swinomish/Tulalip), photographer, and creator, Project 562

Register online and view the full schedule