The Mellon Foundation has awarded a $616,670 grant to the University of Virginia to create a research institute for interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching and cultural projects related to the intersection of feminist Black and Indigenous Studies. Tiffany King, an incoming associate professor in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Kasey Jernigan, assistant professor of American Studies and Anthropology; and anthropology professor Sonia Alconini will direct programming for the new Black & Indigenous Feminist Futures Institute (BFFI). The BIFFI also will serve as an institutional hub for cultivating new relationships and strengthening existing ones among scholars, artists and organizers working at the intersection of Black and Indigenous life. Read more here.

In the 2022-2023 academic year, NIRC members will organize a working group in Indigenous Studies, housed in UVA’s Democracy Initiative. Programs will include public lectures and teach-ins on urgent topics in Indian Country, such as the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIW); listening sessions with Tribal leaders on ways to enact the recommendations shared through Tribal consultation on the George Rogers Clark statue and the Tribal consultation report produced for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and a study of best practices for research, teaching, and administration (including admissions) in the interdisciplinary field of Native American and Indigenous Studies.

This collaboration between the Fralin Museum of Art and Coleção BEĨ in São Paulo, Brazil created a virtual exhibit showcasing 118 contemporary benches drawn from the collection of Coleção BEĨ, and featuring the work of artists from thirty-four Indigenous groups across different regions of Brazil. In order to center and amplify Indigenous perspectives and put them in conversation with one another, the curators created a geospatial map locating each artwork in the place of its creation.

One of the core recommendations to emerge from Tribal consultation about the George Rogers Clark statue (see below) was programs to promote mutual exchanges of knowledge. Beginning in the 2022-2023 academic year, UVA’s Democracy Initiative will host an annual lecture in Indigenous Political and Social Thought. A committee of NIRC faculty, NASU representatives, UVA’s Tribal Fellow in residence, consultants from 1-2 Native Nations, and Democracy Initiative staff will select the speakers, who will rotate among the state- and federally-recognized Tribes in Virginia based on language group (Siouan, Algonquian, Iroquois) and availability.

In December 2020, The Mellon Foundation granted UVA $5 million to support academic initiatives that address place-based issues of race and inequity. Among its many programs over the 5 year period, the Race, Place, and Equity (RPE) grant will support the UVA Tribal Fellow (see below), Postdoctoral Fellowships open to Indigenous scholars and/or scholars working on Indigenous topics, and a tenure-track hire in Indigenous Studies. Representatives from the Monacan Nation serve on advisory committees for RPE-funded courses and for educational short films supported by the grant.

Nis’to, Inc. a Dakota-led non-profit in Sisseton, South Dakota has worked with a variety of programs and departments at the University of Virginia on youth initiatives. At the core of this work is a study of the impacts of buffalo grazing on important native plants, supported by the Environmental Studies program, and an associated Bundle Carriers youth camp that teaches Dakota youth how to approach environmental issues through Dakota social and cultural protocols, with support from the Global Development Studies program. Related projects include the co-design of a language and cultural center, supported by Global Environments and Sustainability and the Architecture School, trauma-informed counseling, supported by OAAA and now the Education School, and maternal health education, supported by Global Development Studies.

The Multepal Project is a transnational research network dedicated to digital Mesoamerican studies. Our three primary teams operate in Antigua, Guatemala; Valladolid, Yucatán, México; and Charlottesville, Virginia, with researchers from K’iche’, Q’eqchi’, Tz’utujil, and Yukatek Maya communities. Our current focus is the Maya K’iche’ narrative Popol Wuj and how it can support contemporary language documentation and preservation efforts in Mayan-speaking communities and educational programs. Our repositories and code are available here. Our workspace, which includes a database of 1,800 linked Mesoamerican cultural topics, critical annotations, and bibliography for further reading, is here. For a user-friendly version of one of our editions, please click here. Anyone who would like to contribute to Multepal’s efforts is welcome to contact PIs Allison Bigelow or Rafael Alvarado.

Convened by Jim Ryan in Spring 2021, the Presidential Committee on the George Rogers Clark statue consists of faculty, students, and community members in NIRC, as well as administrators and staff from the Office of Diversity Equity, and Inclusion, Office of the Architect, and VP for Academic Outreach. Based on the committee’s research and recommendations, the statue was removed from public view in July 2021 and followed by a four-month process of consultation with affected Native Nations. UVA is now working to implement the recommendations of Tribal consultants, including remaking the park into a contemplative space, promoting two-way exchanges of knowledge with Indigenous communities, and expanding scholarships for Native students in Virginia.

In 2021-22, the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) supported an Inclusive Excellence Faculty Fellow (IEFF) to work on improving UVA-Indigenous relations. Tanya Denckla Cobb, advised by a steering committee of NIRC members, was tasked with consulting with the Chiefs and appointed officials of the seven Virginia federally recognized Tribes to hear their thoughts on UVA-Tribal relations. The result was a 41-page report approved by the Tribal representatives, and a supporting comparative study of peer institutions researched and written by 4 Indigenous undergraduate students at UVA who worked with Denckla Cobb. Both reports were submitted to ODEI and to the UVA President and Provost in spring 2022. The reports will serve as the foundation for future communication and reciprocal partnerships, and for initiative-building at UVA.

Members of NIRC in partnership with faculty in the School of Architecture are working with the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe (UMIT) to draw up options for stewardship and sensitive development of a land parcel recently re-acquired by the Tribe. This partnership, which began in fall 2021 and is ongoing, evolved out of consultations with the seven federally recognized Tribes in Virginia conducted by Tanya Denckla Cobb as Inclusive Excellence Faculty Fellow (see above). The UVA team has conducted listening sessions, site visits, and has developed a preliminary report outlining land-use scenarios to help aid the internal deliberations of the Tribe. The UVA team will conduct further listening sessions and formalize Tribal input into a final land-use study to aid UMIT in its next steps.

Each year, UVA will host a Tribal Fellow from one of the seven federally recognized Tribes in Virginia. The Tribal Fellow will participate in various educational opportunities, support Indigenous students, and help build relations between the UVA community and the Fellow’s tribal community, according to the Fellow’s particular areas of interest and expertise. 2022 is the inaugural year of this Fellowship program, and we are thrilled to host Rufus Elliott, representing the Monacan Indian Nation. For information about the Tribal Fellow program, please contact Catherine Walden, cew9f@virginia.edu.

In the 2021-2022 academic year, a NIRC subcommittee developed a pilot program for youth mentoring in the Monacan Nation. We paired 10 students in grades 7-10 with mentors from the Native American Student Union for year-long relationship building and support. We also organized a series of online informational sessions about college admissions and financial aid, open to citizens from the 11 state- and federally-recognized Tribes in Virginia. The pilot program culminated with a day-long visit to campus and a report, authored by the committee, on how to institutionalize these important outreach efforts.