About the Panelists
Čhaŋtémaza (Neil McKay) is Bdewaḳaƞṭuŋwaŋ Daḳota and a citizen of the Spirit Lake Nation. He is a senior teaching specialist in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, teaching classes in Daḳota culture and history, advanced Daḳota language, Daḳota linguistics and language for teachers. He also teaches several community language tables and consults with schools and tribal communities on language education and teacher training. His work focuses on creating new speakers and teachers of Daḳota. He holds an MA in Second Language Education and is currently in the Linguistics PhD Program at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Roxanne Biidabinokwe Gould is Kitchwikwendong Anishinaabe from the Grand Traverse Band of Michigan. She is an associate professor of Education in the Department of Education-Ruth A. Meyers Center for Indigenous Education, and also teaches in the Environmental Education graduate program. Roxanne’s work has extended throughout the Indigenous world with a focus on critical Indigenous education, land and water pedagogy and restorative justice. Her research includes 12 peer reviewed articles with the most recent being Gould, R. B. (2023). From Smallpox Blankets to Reparative Practice. Educational Studies, 1-10, an invited piece for a special edition on CoVid and White Supremacy. As a founder of the Bdote Learning Center, Roxanne developed the model for the place-based Dakota and Ojibwe language immersion school. She presently serves on the governing council of Makočé Ikikčupí, a Dakota land recovery project, as elder emeritus for Dream of Wild Health, a Native gardening project; on the Indigenous Roundtable for the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Indigenous Women's Water Sisterhood. In her personal life she is a mother and grandmother with life long relationships through marriage and deep friendships with the Dakota community. As an Indigenous person living on Dakota homeland she is committed to reparative justice for Dakota peoples and homelands as she would want from anyone living in her Anishinaabe homeland of Kitchwikwendog.
Maggie Lorenz (Pabaksawiŋ) is Dakota and Anishinaabe. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe and descends from Spirit Lake Dakota Nation. She has spent her career in the fields of education, cultural resiliency and healing, and environmental justice. Maggie serves on the board of directors for Friends of the Falls, F. R. Bigelow Foundation, and Tiwahe Foundation. She is the executive director of Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyankapi.
Waziyatawin is a Dakota writer, teacher, and justice advocate from the Pezihutazizi Otunwe (Yellow Medicine Village) in southwestern Minnesota. She earned her PhD in American History from Cornell University and has held tenured positions at Arizona State University and the University of Victoria. Currently, she is executive director of the Dakota nonprofit Makoce Ikikcupi, a reparative justice project supporting Dakota reclamation of homeland. Waziyatawin is the author or co/editor of seven volumes, including What Does Justice Look Like? The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland (Living Justice Press, 2008), and Pezihutazizi Oyate Kin: The People of Yellow Medicine (Living Justice Press, 2019).
