Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous Peoples
The Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community (IPKC) is comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who seek to: 1) increase understanding of, and institutional commitment toward, Indigenous peoples in higher education; 2) advance equity-grounded approaches and socially just practices and policies that support and increase the participation of Indigenous peoples in higher education; 3) produce professional development opportunities, scholarship, and research that complicates and re-imagines the profession; and 4) engage across difference and intersecting identities to further explore trends and interpret issues relative to the experiences of Indigenous peoples on campuses.
Message from the Chair
Siyo nigada (Tsalagi/Cherokee term for “hello everyone”)!
On behalf of the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community leadership team, I welcome you to our community homepage! The IPKC, founded in 2005, is comprised of higher education and non-profit professionals who are deeply committed to advancing Indigenous peoples and knowledges in higher education to decolonize and disrupt westernized educational systems.
Collectively, we hold values of family, community, integrity, reciprocity, relationality, agency for Indigenous peoples, tribal nation-building, humility, and learning, leading and living in a good way. Additionally, we strive to include and highlight Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and NASNTIs (Native American-Serving Non-Tribal Institutions) within the conversation around Indigenous education and look to them as models for holistically serving and supporting Indigenous students.
We hope that our Indigenous and non-Indigenous higher education relatives across the U.S. and globally will join us in these efforts to not only understand and enact intentional and meaningful land acknowledgements, but to reach beyond performative statements to truly emancipatory and reciprocal community-based efforts. Furthermore, we hope to elevate our paradigms and perspectives in the academy spaces to better honor generations of Indigenous scholars that came before us and to better support those coming after us. Wado (thank you)!
Atsilvquodiyu (Respectfully),
Dr. Tiffany D. Smith, Cherokee/Muscogee
IPKC National Chair 2021-2023
Get Involved
Volunteer with the Indigenous Peoples KC
Volunteers are critical to the continued success of the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community. We are constantly on the lookout for new and exciting content from members to contribute to our newsletter, website, and other productions. If you’re interested in taking on a project or would like to indicate your interest in future volunteer opportunities, please contact us at [email protected]
As of May 17, 2022, we have several positions available to join our leadership team. These include: Region I Representative, Region II Representative, Region V Representative, Region VI Representative, Scholarship Activities Coordinator, and Professional Development Co-Chairs (2).
To apply, check out Volunteer Central, search Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community for our open positions, and apply with your resume/CV and a letter of intent. For questions, please email us at [email protected] We hope you will join our dynamic and dedicated team!
Complete Your Profile
Login and update your profile.
Leadership Team
Knowledge Community leaders are NASPA volunteers who have generously devoted their time to their Knowledge Community. Chairs are elected by the Knowledge Community members while Regional representatives are selected from within the Region. Additional roles are selected by the Knowledge Community.
Events
One of the best resources available to you is the wide range of professional development opportunities. This list contains both our “Hosted Events,” workshops and webinars that we plan and manage, and some “Related Events,” hosted by the NASPA Central Office or other NASPA Constituent Groups. To see a full listing of NASPA events, please see the Events page.
Get Connected
Join the Indigenous Peoples KC
The Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community provides numerous ways for NASPA members to stay in touch with one another! One of the best and easiest ways is by joining our Knowledge Community:
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Login to naspa.org by clicking the blue "Login" button in the center of the page.
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Scroll until you see the grey sidebar on the right hand side of the screen and the link to "View My Personal Snapshot."
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Confirm that your membership is still active (there will be a link to join or renew if it is not).
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Click on "Edit My Profile" and scroll down the page until you get to "NASPA Engagement Details."
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You will see the KCs that you are currently a member of; if your membership to the Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community is not listed, please add it.
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Click "Save" at the bottom of the page.
Stay connected with the IPKC via social media. Access all IPKC social media accounts (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter) via: https://linktr.ee/naspa_ipkc
E-mail us for questions or comments at [email protected]
Resources
OF PLACE: RESOURCES THAT GIVE GREATER SALIENCE TO AND UNDERSTANDING OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' RELATIONSHIPS TO LAND AND SEA GEOGRAPHIES
The IPKC asserts that American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Chamorro, Taino, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Zapotec, and other Indigenous relations have pre-colonial genealogical ties to place whether student affairs and higher education theories, practices, and policies recognize it or not. This is to say that dominant foundations of these fields do not often address the historicity of these experiential links and how colonizing learning contexts negate Indigenous peoples relationship to place. This absence, in turn, impacts how Indigenous students, staff, and faculty experience institutional and professional development spaces. Toward that end, the IPKC has compiled a broad set of resources for those who seek to expand their worldview in ways that consider the complexities and dynamics associated with the social agency of Indigenous peoples as they are not only inherent, but integral to the integration of critical place-based practices within settler colonial geographies. As you read the material below, keep in mind that place-based practices, such as land acknowledgements, are context and community specific. What is enacted as a practice in one location and for one community, may sound, look, and feel different when carried out by other Indigenous peoples who are of another location. What is more, these historical understandings inform contemporary political struggles, as well as current educational and epistemological priorities of Indigenous peoples.
ARTICLES (NEWSPAPER)
The Mercury News
June 24, 2019
CBC - Radio Canada
January 20, 2019
ARTICLES (ACADEMIC JOURNALS)
Crazy Bull, C., & White Hat, E.R. (2019). Cangleska Wakan: The ecology of the sacred circle and the role of tribal colleges and universities. International Review of Education, 65(1), 117-141.
Minthorn, R. S. & Nelson, C. A. (2018). Colonized and racist Indigenous campus tour. Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs, 4(1), 73-88.
APPS
BLOGS
BOOKLETS
BOOKS
MAGAZINES
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PLACE-BASED INITIATIVES
PODCASTS
VIDEOS
Awards
Indigenous Peoples Blogs
Recent Blogs
IPKC On Sacred Ground Podcast
Recent Podcast Episode
IPKC Scholarly Journal
The NASPA Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community (IPKC) Scholarly Journal was created to offer a space for artistic and scholarly expression on lived experiences for Indigenous peoples in higher education. We were inspired by the work of our fellow Gender and Sexuality KC colleagues on their respective Lavender Paper, which we encourage you to check out.
The IPKC Scholarly Journal is intentional in framing all contributions and contributors as “scholars,” whether they see themselves in this way or not. As the academy was not created for or by us, we have to take back this language in an effort to complicate this language in our own terms. We have been made to believe our differing ways of knowing and expressions from the Westernized ways are not scholarly, yet we believe they are as they are our truths that need to be shared for further understanding of and to make our experiences visible.
This journal seeks to highlight research and other artistic written expressions of Indigenous knowledge and information about issues related to the status of Indigenous communities in higher education and student affairs, both inside the borders of the U.S. and beyond. Submissions come in various forms, including (but not limited to): research or opinion articles, poems, storytelling essays and narratives, research briefs, and experimental or artistic pieces of expression. We hope to prompt critical discussion, further research, and highlight scholarship being conducted by students (both undergraduate and graduate-level) and professionals in the field to share our experiences within the academy. Higher education and student affairs professionals should consider these experiences and/or results/findings shared when tailoring programmatic and pedagogical efforts on their respective campuses or organizations.
We are particularly seeking insights from the work of practitioners, researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and others that center the experiences of Indigenous communities. We also encourage submissions to offer specific takeaways, recommendations, or strategies to assist individuals and communities navigating unjust systems of oppression that impact Indigenous communities within higher education and student affairs and beyond.
The Indigenous Peoples KC Scholarly Journal will be released on the IPKC website and within our newsletter in both the Spring and Fall.
Submission Guidelines:
- It can be a piece that is currently in progress (i.e. literature review, preliminary findings, etc.)
- It can be based on a conference presentation coming up featuring best practices, etc.
- Your submission must pertain to Indigenous communities, but can be outside of higher education/student affairs (hot topics across Native America, topics can include challenges to tribal sovereignty like how ICWA is being threatened, McGirt decision affecting Oklahoma tribes or other local, place-based challenges, health and health policy, public policy, K-12, etc.).
- We encourage perspectives from Indigenous peoples sharing from their own perspectives and utilizing their own Indigenous knowledges, methodologies, etc., though everyone is eligible to submit. (Membership in NASPA is not required)
Deadline:
Spring Issue (inaugural) Due by March 1, 2023 – please send as Word document to [email protected] Include a two-sentence bio about the author(s) Published by March 31, 2023 on our website
Fall Issue Due by September 1, 2023– please send as Word document to [email protected] Include a two-sentence bio about the author(s) Published by September 30, 2023 on our website
This journal aligns with our original IPKC logo and its intentional meanings.
