Headshot of Elizabeth BrazeltonElizabeth Brazelton

Elizabeth “Lisa” Brazelton is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of West Florida, completing her master’s degree in Anthropology. Her thesis, entitled The Resilient Warrior: A Lakota Ethnography in Hemp Economics, follows the plight of Oglala Lakota Alex White Plume and examines issues of sovereignty, social injustice, and resilience. Brazelton met White Plume while employed with the National Park Service, where she worked as an Interpretive Park Ranger and NPS Archaeologist from 1989 – 1997. The two have remained friends throughout the years, which Brazelton feels has positioned her to be an advocate for White Plume within the academic community. Brazelton holds bachelor’s degrees in both Anthropology and International Studies, also from the University of West Florida. After completing her masters in Spring/Summer 2019, she will begin her PhD at the University of Alabama in Biocultural Medical Anthropology in Fall 2019. She also enjoys traveling and homeschooling her kids.

Headshot of Joanne NelsonJoanne Nelson

Joanne Nelson is a Ts’msyen woman who grew up in the northwestern BC communities of Port Edward and Prince Rupert where she gained a tremendous appreciation for nature, in particular the ocean environment.  She is from Lax Kw’alaams on her mother’s side and Kitsumkalum on her father’s side.  Her passions include traditional Ts’msyen art forms as well as paddle sports such as dragon boat and outrigger canoe.  She is second year PhD student in Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia and is looking forward to conducting meaningful research with First Nations communities that favour Indigenous Ways of Knowing and traditional knowledge.  Joanne has been an uninvited guest on the unceded land of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwu7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh people on and off for over 30 years.

 

Headshot of Kaitlin ReedKaitlin Reed

Kaitlin Reed (Yurok/Hupa/Oneida) is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe in northwestern California. She obtained her B.A. degree in Geography at Vassar College and her M.A. degree in Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Kaitlin is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Native American Studies at UC Davis. Her dissertation is entitled From Gold Rush to Green Rush: Marijuana Cultivation on Yurok Tribal Lands and examines the ecological and cultural impacts of marijuana cultivation on Yurok tribal lands, with a focus on tribal sovereignty and environmental justice. This dissertation connects the historical and ecological dots between the Gold Rush and the Green Rush, focusing on capitalistic resource extraction and violence against indigenous lands and bodies.

Headshot of Yvonne SherwoodYvonne Sherwood

Yvonne P. Sherwood (Spokane and Coeur d’Alene) is a PhD candidate in sociology and feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the past recipient of the University of California, Santa Cruz’s President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship and has published in: The Fourth World Journal, Intercontinental Cry, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, and Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place & Community. She is currently writing her dissertation on Indigenous womxn’s activism and embodied knowledges on the frontline of environmental protest. Her work has taken her across activist spaces where she did participant observations with water protectors to better understand the enactment of Indigenous Knowledge and alliance building for the preservation of ancestral homelands, along with the analysis of impacts of colonialism, racialization, and intergenerational traumas.