From Land Grab to Native Sovereignty
Indigenous Futures at Land-Grant Universities
Thursday, February 13, 4pm EST
On Zoom
Tristan
Ahtone
Editor at Large, Grist
K. Wayne
Yang
Provost of Muir College and Professor of Ethnic Studies, UC San Diego
Abigail Chabitnoy
Assistant Professor of English, UMass Amherst (moderator)
Tristan Ahtone of Grist magazine and K. Wayne Yang (a.k.a. la paperson) of the University of California San Diego will engage in an expansive dialogue on the historical and present-day relationships of U.S. universities to Indigenous peoples, reflecting on how universities can be accountable to the land and to Indigenous peoples. Ahtone will build on his work in Land-Grab Universities and Misplaced Trust to discuss the connections between universities, Indigenous land, and climate change, with land-grant universities profiting from fossil fuels, mining, and other industries on lands stolen from Indigenous nations. Author of A Third University Is Possible and co-author of “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor,” Yang will explore how universities can recognize and respect Native sovereignty, including through free enrollment for Native students, rematriation of land, and Indigenous community-driven action research. The conversation, including opportunities for audience engagement, will be facilitated by Abigail Chabitnoy, award-winning poet and faculty at the Institute of American Indian Arts and the UMass English Department.
The Presenters
Tristan Ahtone is a member of the Kiowa Tribe and is editor at large at Grist. He previously served as editor in chief at the Texas Observer and Indigenous Affairs editor at High Country News. He has reported for Al Jazeera America, PBS NewsHour, Indian Country Today, and NPR, and many other news outlets. Ahtone’s stories have won multiple honors, including a George Polk Award, a National Magazine Award nomination, and investigative awards from the Gannett Foundation and IRE: Investigative Reporters and Editors. A past president of the Native American Journalists Association, Ahtone is a 2017 Nieman Fellow.
K. Wayne Yang writes about decolonization and everyday epic organizing, often with his collaborator Eve Tuck, and sometimes for an avatar called la paperson. Drs. Tuck and Yang wrote “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor,” and they edit the book series Indigenous and Decolonizing Studies in Education. Writings by la paperson include the book A Third University Is Possible. Currently, he and Eve Tuck are convening the Land Relationships Super Collective with several Indigenous, Black, and people of color-led community organizations engaged in land-based projects. Yang is also provost of Muir College and a professor in ethnic studies at UC San Diego, where he co-founded the Indigenous Futures Institute and Black Like Water.
Abigail Chabitnoy is a Koniag descendant and member of the Tangirnaq Native Village in Kodiak. She is the author of In the Current Where Drowning Is Beautiful (Wesleyan, 2022) and How to Dress a Fish (Wesleyan, 2019), shortlisted for the 2020 International Griffin Prize for Poetry and winner of the 2020 Colorado Book Award, along with the linocut illustrated chapbook Converging Lines of Light (Flower Press, 2021). She was a 2021 Peter Taylor Fellow at Kenyon Writers Workshop and the recipient of the 2020 Witter Bynner Native Poet Residency at Elsewhere Studios in Paonia, CO. Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Boston Review, Tin House, Gulf Coast, LitHub, and Red Ink, among others. She currently teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts and is an assistant professor at UMass Amherst.
The Feinberg Series
The 2024-25 Feinberg Series explores the historical roots of present-day political, economic, and ethical crises in higher education. It is presented by the UMass Amherst Department of History in partnership with numerous co-sponsors. The Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible thanks to the generosity of UMass Amherst history department alumnus Kenneth R. Feinberg ’67 and associates.
Read the history department statement on the sponsorship of events.
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