She:kon akwe:kon! My name is Karen Capuder and I am Kanienkeha:ka (Mohawk) and French through my mother, and Irish through my father. I received my B. A. in Native American and World Indigenous Peoples Studies from the Evergreen State College in 2004, and my M. A. in American Indian Studies, with a concentration in federal Indian law, from the University of Arizona in 2006. I am currently a doctoral student in UW's Sociocultural Anthropology program, wherein I earned my second M.A. in 2008. I have spent the past seven years actively engaged in the efforts of Indigenous peoples in Puget Sound to protect lands and waters of cultural, historical, and spiritual significance. My doctoral research will center on the collaborative ethnographic and archival documentation of the life-history of a Squalli-absch (Nisqually) Elder and Hereditary Chief, focusing largely on his knowledge and experiences concerning the destruction of an ancient village site by military and corporate interests. Some of my other areas of interest include the protection of Indigenous intellectual, cultural, and biological property rights, and the practice of Indigenous medical botany. I currently serve on the UW’s House of Knowledge Planning Committee (HOKPAC) and House of Knowledge Working Group (HOKWG) as the graduate student representative. I have also begun to learn Kanienke:ha (Mohawk language), and have a great deal of hope for healing and decolonization through the transformation of Indigenous consciousnesses through a return to our ancestral languages and to traditional forms of Indigenous governance. Skennen:hatie. |
