As part of our internal Crafting Democratic Futures communications, we highlight one team’s story every month.
This month, we’re sharing broadly the work of the Concordia College-Moorhead team.
“At Concordia, we believe that the most distinctive contribution we can make to the Crafting Democratic Futures project is to focus on research and restorative action for Native American people in our home community of Fargo, ND, and Moorhead, MN; cities in two different states with a common border along the Red River,” writes James Postema, professor of English and principal investigator of the Concordia College CDF team.
Ricky White is Concordia’s community fellow. Ricky is Anishinaabe (Objiwe) from White Fish Bay First Nations, Ontario, CA, and a community educator and cultural trainer in the Fargo-Moorhead region. The team has additionally recruited a community panel of Native people in the region, comprising educators, social service employees, state legislators, and parents of local school children.
“Native Americans’ situation is different from those of other groups in several ways: each reservation has its own legal status as a dependent but sovereign nation, based on treaties they signed with the United States government…However, each treaty is unique, so the rules and requirements for each reservation are different; and, as is widely known, the United States has not honored a single one of the treaties it has negotiated—though often the government has used the treaties to confine Native people to the reservations.”
Read more about the Concordia Team’s project here.
