���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������

Director’s Note

Dear Friends and Supporters,

I’m writing to you as Director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies to update you on what’s been happening over the last year. Due to COVID and the extra burdens that put on all of us, we didn’t do a Fall Update last year, so this newsletter covers a little more than just the past year. There has been lots of progress in the state of Colorado, at the CU system, and on the CU-Boulder campus around Indigenous issues, with CNAIS very much involved on all those levels. Indeed, the past 12 months have been one of the most exciting times of progress in this area for many years or even decades in Colorado. See below for details on the various events.

At the same time, CNAIS has been carrying on its various normal activities. We have increased the number of students in both our undergraduate and graduate Certificate programs in Native and Indigenous Studies, and conducted our Native Graduation ceremony virtually last Spring with Rick Williams as our distinguished speaker. During 2020-21 we were one of four CU co-hosting units on campus of the prestigious Sawyer Seminar series, funded by the Mellon Foundation, on “Environmental Futures.” We had several distinguished Native American and Indigenous speakers who participated in that event, including Kyle Powys White, Craig Santos Perez, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Kim Tallbear, as well as art from Edgar Heap-of-Birds. All of the talks were recorded and are available here.��

We were also able to award scholarship support to multiple undergrad Native students thanks to donor generosity. We are working closely with the Latin American Studies Center, the Center for Asian Studies, and the new Center for African and African-American Studies to develop new models for building stronger communities among under-represented student groups generally on campus. Other research and outreach collaborations continue with a variety of groups on campus, focused on issues ranging from better presentation of Native American history and use of Rocky Mountain National Park to developing new Tribal Climate Leaders to work in preparation for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-32).

Many exciting events are always going on – Fall talks included Dr. Phil Deloria of Harvard University and Dr. Laura Harjo of the University of Oklahoma. Please check our website or make sure and sign up for email alerts. Thanks for your interest and support! We hope you’ll consider making a donation to either our scholarship or program funds to��help build on the exciting developments over the past year.

��

Andrew Cowell, Director

Land Acknowledgements and In-state Tuition in Colorado

The University of Colorado System for the first time has created a . This statement recognizes the original Native American occupants of Colorado, as well as the historical injustices and the resulting continuing inequities. CNAIS faculty and staff worked with the CU President’s Office to help craft and implement this statement.

We also worked with the CU Regents, especially Regent Irene Griego, to help craft and pass two Regents Resolutions, which direct the CU President to consult regularly with the Native American community, and which, in response to the Land Acknowledgement statement, urged that tribally-enrolled Native American students from tribes historically associated with Colorado be given in-state tuition at CU.

These Resolutions then led to , a bill in the State Legislature, to approve this in-state tuition for all public colleges and universities in Colorado. CNAIS Director Andy Cowell as well as External Advisory Board member Benny Shendo (Jemez Pueblo, CU alum) testified on multiple occasions in the legislature on behalf of CU, and we are happy to report that the bill was successful!��CNAIS is now working with the Boulder campus to help implement and publicize this wonderful new opportunity for Native students.

Finally, CNAIS is now working with the CU-Boulder campus specifically to create and implement a Boulder-specific Land Acknowledgement statement, which will also include concrete campus commitments to increased support for Indigenous Studies as well as Community.

CU Welcomes New Faculty and Staff in Native Studies

We are pleased to welcome Assistant Professor Ambrocio Gutierrez Lorenzo to the CU campus this Fall. He has been hired by the Department of Linguistics as a specialist in Indigenous languages. He is himself a Zapotec speaker from the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.��Also joining us this Fall as a Visiting Assistant Professor in both Linguistic and Ethnic Studies,��Joseph Dupris (Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin tribes) his work focuses on language and cultural revitalization, including ecological practices such as traditional fisheries. New to the CNAIS Board is Assistant Professor Anna Tsouhlarakis (Navajo, Creek & Greek)��in the Department of Art and Art History, who arrived at CU last year. Also new to the Board and to CU is Cassie Sando (Jemez, Navajo & Spokane Heritages)��who is the new Director of the CU Upward Bound program for potential Native college students.

Outreach for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2021

CNAIS partnered with Right Relationships Boulder to host several webinar talks for Indigenous Peoples Day. We also joined with the Boulder Watershed Collective for another webinar titled "Centering Indigenous Perspectives on Environmental Stewardship".��

International Decade of��Indigenous Languages 2022-32

Professors (Law School) and Andrew Cowell and Alexis Palmer (Linguistics) partnered to receive a $50,000 Innovative Seed Grant to develop proposals for the UN’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages. CU faculty are involved in the US working group for the decade. In addition, CNAIS and the Department of Linguistics will be hosting the Algonquian Languages Conference in October, 2022. This conference draws both scholars and indigenous language activists from dozens of different language groups around the US and Canada.

Also of note related to this topic are the Quechua language courses being offered at CU for the first time, through the Latin American Studies Center��. A key goal of CNAIS is to cooperate more fully with LASC around indigenous issues.

Giving to CNAIS

Discover opportunities to and��and please share CNAIS donation links on your social networks weekly to help support Native American students at ���Ҵ�ý�ƽ������. Donating to Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies program fund��ensure's opportunities to explore the larger context of Native American and Indigenous Studies.��

��