Join us at the 5th annual Thinking Spatially symposium as we explore the topic of Indigenous mapping and cultural connection to place. Maps are most often seen as documents of truth that describe where and what geographic features are by ways of symbolization and textual labels. We make assumptions that maps are wholly factual documents, but they too are a subjective creation. What is the map not telling us and to whom does this concern? Join us as we confront historical truths and explore the use of maps to better understand the dispossession of Indigenous communities as a result of the University land-grab that took place following the Morrill Act and how the simple impact of labeled geographic locations impacts entire communities.

Presented by the Institute for Advanced Study, U-Spatial, University of Minnesota Libraries, and DASH. In partnership with the Center for Premodern Studies; Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and the Resilient Communities Project; Department of Geography, Environment and Society; Department of History; the Mellon Environmental Stewardship, Place, and Community Initiative; and the East Side Freedom Library.

This year’s Symposium will also be live streamed at the North American Cartographic Information Society’s (NACIS) annual conference, taking place in Minneapolis, October 19–22, 2022.
 

Program

• 8:30 a.m. Refreshments (coffee, tea)
• 9:00 a.m.  Welcome  •  Bianet Castellanos, Director, Institute for Advanced Study
• 9:15 a.m. Marlena Myles, presenting Dakhóta Thákhočhe (Dakota Land Maps), which illustrate the story of the past, present and future of Dakota people and our language in our traditional homelands
• 9:50 a.m. Kyle Malone, presenting the storymap “Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing (TRUTH),” A strategic analysis of the Morrill land grab in Minnesota
• 10:20 a.m. BREAK
• 10: 40 a.m. Panel Discussion: An Garagiola, Audrianna Goodwin (TRUTH Project) and Kyle Malone in conversation with cartographer Margaret Pearce about the Land-Grab Universities project and the ongoing work of the TRUTH Project
• 12:00 p.m. END

Related Links (all open in new tabs)

• Dakhóta Thamákhočhe (Dakota Land Maps) by Marlena Myles
• “Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing (TRUTH)” storymap
• Land-Grab Universities: A High Country News Investigation

Event Image Citation: Map by Margaret Pearce for High Country News. landgrabu.org.
 

About the Presenters

AN GARAGIOLA is a mother of three and descendant of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. She holds an associate degree from Century College, bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Hamline University, a Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. Her poetry, research, and activism are reflections of her lived experiences as a mixed-race Anishinaabekwe. Trained in creative writing and policy analysis, An’s work is interdisciplinary, rooted in Indigenous Feminisms and in the belief that healing happens in relationality with ourselves, others, and the land. Broadly, she uses Indigenous research methods/analyses and modes of communication via cultural literary production to interrogate how colonial policies and ideologies attempt to control, through suppression and ethnic cleansing, Indigenous histories, voices, and knowledges.
 

AUDRIANNA GOODWIN has two sons and is from the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe Indians. She is a third-generation college student and holds an associate degree from the Leech Lake Tribal College where she was named Student of the Year 2014–2015. She has a bachelor’s degree from Bemidji State University in Liberal Arts with minors in Political Science and Indigenous Studies. This year, Audrianna graduates from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, earning a Master of Public Policy with a concentration in Human Rights. Before her acceptance at the Humphrey School, she worked for the Red Lake Nation, and was crucial in the passing of the resolution that changed the blood quantum of the 1958 Base Roll to 4/4. In her capacity with the tribe she also worked diligently to establish various COVID-19 safety protocols for the Red Lake Community, along with multiple other projects.
 

KYLE MALONE is a program evaluation specialist with the Office of the Legislative Auditor for the State of Minnesota. He received a Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota with a focus on housing and community development. He spent nearly two years as a research specialist at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs where he specialized in providing data analysis and digital mapping assistance to government agencies and nonprofit organizations. He is proud of his work on the TRUTH Project and other initiatives designed to meaningfully improve the quality of life for Minnesotans and advance racial justice across the state.
 

MARLENA MYLES is a self-taught Native American (Spirit Lake Dakota/Mohegan/Muscogee) artist located in St Paul, Minnesota. Her art brings modernity to Indigenous history, languages and oral traditions while using the land as a teacher. Growing up on her traditional Dakota homelands here in the Twin Cities, she enjoys using her artwork to teach Minnesotans of all backgrounds the Indigenous history of this place we call home. Her professional work includes children’s books, augmented reality, murals, fabrics, animations and has shown her work in fine art galleries such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Museum of Russian Art, Red Cloud Heritage Center and the Minnesota Museum of American Art to name a few. Her first permanent site-specific augmented reality public art installation known as the Dakota Spirit Walk is available on the Revelo AR app. In 2021, she opened her own Dakota publishing company called Wíyouŋkihipi (We Are Capable) Productions to create a platform that educates and honors the culture, language and history of Dakota people. marlenamyl.es
 

MARGARET PEARCE is a Citizen Potawatomi tribal member and cartographer living on Penobscot homelands in Maine. She sees cartography as a form of writing whose secrets and possibilities she devotes her life to learning. She recently collaborated with Ho-Chunk Nation and Miami Tribe to map their Removals for the Field Museum, and with the Land-Grab Universities team at High Country News to map land-grant university Morrill parcel responsibilities, for which they received a George Polk award, among others. She holds a PhD in geography and was a geography professor for 15 years, teaching courses in cartographic history, theory, and practice. www.studio1to1.net