Institute for Indigenous Knowledge

Join the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge for a hybrid presentation by Joel Barnes, Director of the Shawnee Language Immersion Program for the Shawnee Tribe.

🗓️ March 27, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
📍 In-person at the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge or Online

Joel will discuss the history of Shawnee language revitalization, the shift to immersion-based learning, and how community leadership and academic partnerships are sustaining the language for future generations.

Free and open to all! Lunch provided for in-person attendees.

👉 Register to attend:

The Evolution of the Shawnee Language Immersion Program (SLIP) Community-Based Revitalization and Academic Partnership Please join us at the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge or online for this special presentation by Joel Barnes, Chief of Shawnee Tribe& #1...

IndigenousMatters@IU presents the ninth presentation in the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge Inquiry & Impact: Bridging Knowledge & Community Colloquium Series.

In this talk, Dr. Mitchell Berg, Clinical Assistant Professor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, explores the frameworks and pathways for successful collaboration between Tribal nations, municipalities, and counties.

Abstract : Tribal and local governments often face barriers, which are rooted in historical mistrust and cultural racism, in being able to promote cooperation and achieve intergovernmental agreement. While it is a challenge, tribal nations, municipalities, and counties in the United States are finding that cooperation and agreement can lead to the delivery of service and programs in a more equitable and inclusive way. Using Culturally Responsive Evaluation (CRE), this study consists of a mixed method approach; surveys and interviews are conducted with tribal and local government leaders in Minnesota, United States. The results from the study affirm that trust, respect, and interpersonal ties (social capital) is essential in promoting intergovernmental cooperation and achieving intergovernmental agreement.

See the talk here,

Achieving Tribal, Municipal, and County Cooperation in the United States IndigenousMatters@IU presents the ninth presentation in the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge Inquiry & Impact: Bridging Knowledge & Community Colloquium Se...

Nakota communities reclaim audio recordings housed at Indiana University
The University is working with communities to use recordings for language learning.

Nakota communities reclaim audio recordings housed at Indiana University | CBC News Indiana University is working with Nakota communities to digitize old audio recordings and put them online to use for language learning.

Change of Date! October 2-3, 2026
Two-Eyed Ways of Knowing:
Conceiving of Wellness in Indigenous Science and Medicine
1
Fall 2026 — Indiana University
Hosted by: IU College of Arts and Humanities Futures Program
Location: Indiana University, Bloomington IN
Dates: October 2-3, 2026
Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2026

We invite submissions for a two-day gathering dedicated to the sharing of Indigenous
knowledge across communities, generations, and disciplines — that centers how
Indigenous communities conceive of wellness as part of their practices of science and
medicine.
This event expands the conversation into the living sciences that have sustained
Indigenous peoples since time immemorial—such as medicine, engineering, agriculture,
and astronomy.
It is a space for reciprocal learning, where wellness is understood as balance and
thrivance — among people, lands, waters, and the cosmos. Through story, practice, and
theory, we seek to explore how Indigenous sciences generate, and continue to guide—
healing, cultivation, design, and renewal in our shared world.
We welcome contributions from Elders, Knowledge Holders, community philosophers
(broadly construed), and scholars — with a special invitation to emerging, junior scholars .

Possible Topics May Include (but are not limited to)
• Indigenous conceptions of health, healing, and flourishing
• Star knowledge, timekeeping, and cosmological teachings
• Agricultural and ecological knowledge as medicine for the land
• Relationships between science, spirituality, and ceremony
• Women’s and Two-Spirit knowledge traditions in healing and ecology
• Language, story, and art as vessels of scientific knowledge
• Indigenous ethics of care, responsibility, and relation
• Revitalizing medicine, agriculture, and astronomy through Indigenous languages
and worldviews
• Collaborations and tensions between Indigenous and Western sciences
Change of Date! October 2-3, 2026
Two-Eyed Ways of Knowing:
Conceiving of Wellness in Indigenous Science and Medicine
2

Gathering Details

This gathering is grounded in relationality, respect, and care. It will serve as the foundation
for an edited volume or special issue publication. The review process is guided by
attentiveness to fit, reciprocity, and collective flourishing rather than competition.
However, all accepted contributions will be considered regardless of attendance. The
anticipated publication timeline will begin shortly after the workshop, with completed
formats solicited within six months of notification of acceptance.
Indigenous Futures at Indiana University will sponsor a limited number of travel and
accommodation reimbursements. Questions about the gathering or submissions may be
directed to Andrea Sullivan-Clarke at [email protected]
Gathering Submission Guidelines
We welcome a range of contribution formats. Please follow the guidance below:
• Individual Paper Abstracts (250–300 words)
• Posters, Artwork, and Fine Arts (250–350 words)
To help us thoughtfully curate the workshop space, artists are asked to submit a
brief description of their work. This is not a competitive review, but a way to
understand the work’s form, intent, and relationship to the gathering’s themes.
• Workshops, Storytelling Sessions, and Alternative Formats (300–400 words)
Contributors should submit a brief description of their proposed contribution.
Descriptions should outline the format, intent, and relevance to the gathering’s
themes, as well as how participants will be engaged.
• Panel Submissions
Panels should include 3–4 presenters, along with a panel title and a shared
description (250–350 words).
Please include:
• Name(s), affiliation or community (if any), and brief bio (50–100 words)
• Indication of any A/V needs or accessibility considerations
Send proposals to: [email protected]

Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance by: May 15, 2026

LAKOTA LINGUISTIC TEXT CORPORA

Ella C. Deloria (1889-1971), a member of the Yankton Sioux tribe, was brought up in South Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation. A native speaker of Lakota, she received her Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia Teachers' College in 1915. While in New York she met the anthropologist Franz Boas and served as a consultant on the Lakota language in Boas's class on field linguistics. After graduating she worked in the field of American Indian education. In 1927 she began linguistic and ethnological work on Lakota under Boas's supervision. From 1928 through 1938 Deloria devoted most of her time to documenting Lakota language and culture. One outcome of that work was Dakota Grammar (Boas and Deloria 1941), now a classic in American Indian linguistics. Another important product was a collection of some 117 Lakota language texts that Deloria wrote down, with word-for-word and free translations. She published 63 of them (Dakota Texts, 1932); the remainder, more than half of the collection, remain unpublished and are archived with the Boas Collection in the Library of the American Philosophical Society (APS), Philadelphia.

From 1999 to 2002 the National Endowment for the Humanities funded the "Lakota Texts" project with a grant to Raymond J. DeMallie and colleagues at the American Indian Studies Research Institute (now Institute for Indigenous Knowledge), Indiana University (Collaborative Research grant number RZ-20438-99). The project sought to transcribe, translate, and annotate historical Lakota texts. Dr. Douglas R. Parks provided overall linguistic direction to the project. Dr. Paul Kroeber worked on linguistic annotation. Dr. Wallace Hooper provided the software applications and oversaw computer work.

The unpublished texts of Ella Deloria were the major focus of the grant. The entire collection was transcribed in ATP (Annotated Text Processor), a utility designed by Dr. Hooper. Dr. Kroeber provided word and morpheme glosses. This body of texts makes available to scholars at large a vast store of linguistic, historical, and cultural information. A representative sample of these texts, including each of the major textual genres, is presented on this website. They amount to approximately 350 pages.

Learn more about Lakota Linguistic Text Corpora, at

Texts: Resources: Institute for Indigenous Knowledge (formerly American Indian Studies Research Institute): Indiana University Bloomington Texts

Achieving Tribal, Municipal, and County Cooperation in the United States Please join us at the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge or online for this special presentation by Mitchell Berg, Ph.D, Clinical Assistant P...

Dear IIK Community,
You are cordially invited to the presentation in the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge's "Inquiry & Impact: Bridging Knowledge & Community" Colloquium Series, an official IndigenousMatters@IU event.
Please join us at the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge or online for this special presentation by Mitchell Berg, Ph.D, Clinical Assistant Professor, Paul H O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University.

Date & Time: Tuesday, February 20th, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Location:
In-Person: Institute for Indigenous Knowledge (422 N. Indiana Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405)
Online: Via Zoom
Registration:
Please register at the link below to receive the online access or to confirm your in-person attendance.
Register Here
https://events.iu.edu/indigenous-institute/event/2176857-achieving-tribal-municipal-and-county-cooperation
We look forward to seeing you there.
Sincerely,
The Institute for Indigenous Knowledge

Achieving Tribal, Municipal, and County Cooperation in the United States Please join us at the Institute for Indigenous Knowledge or online for this special presentation by Mitchell Berg, Ph.D, Clinical Assistant P...

Great Plains Ethnohistory: New Interdisciplinary Approaches. Edited by Rani-Henrik Andersson, Thierry Veyrié, and Logan Sutton. 2024.

This volume is edited by a team of former students of Raymond DeMallie and Douglas Parks who worked on AISRI projects during their graduate school days. The editing team includes two current IIK Research Associates, Thierry Veyrié and Logan Sutton. The chapters are written by former DeMallie and Parks graduate student advisees whose life and work were deeply impacted by their mentors. The book is intended to honor DeMallie and Parks and their vast contributions to the fields of ethnohistory and American Indian Studies, showcasing new interdisciplinary approaches inspired by their legacy. Drawing on methodologies that blend historical, linguistic, and ethnographic analysis, the chapters delve into the cultural and historical experiences of Great Plains Indigenous peoples. The essays emphasize the importance of collaboration with Native communities, echoing DeMallie’s and Parks’s commitments to culturally respectful scholarship. This work not only celebrates his profound influence but also advances the field by offering innovative perspectives rooted in his principles.

Great Plains Ethnohistory - Nebraska Press Great Plains Ethnohistory offers a collection of state-of-the-field work in Great Plains ethnohistory, both contemporary and historical, covering the traditi...

IIK completed book project.

The Dakota Way of Life. Ella C. Deloria. Edited by Raymond J. DeMallie and Thierry Veyrié. 2022.

This book is the outcome of current IIK Research Associate Thierry Veyrié’s work on Dakota culture and society with the late AISRI founder Raymond DeMallie. It makes accessible for the first time to a wide audience primary source material produced in the twentieth century by the preeminent Dakota scholar Ella C. Deloria. The main strengths of the book are that: (1) it presents a Native female perspective on her own culture and society, which she grew up in, a viewpoint that is exceedingly rare in Native American scholarship where the perspectives of white men are dominant; (2) Deloria conducted her work at a time when generations of her people who lived a traditional life prior to being forced onto reservations, enabling her to present the Dakota way of life as it was before extensive influence from white America, though she also engages with the challenges that resulted from contact; and (3) Deloria was a trained anthropologist and linguist, which resulted in detailed insight into the inner workings of her culture, society, and language.
Particularly, The Dakota Way of Life offers an intricate portrayal of the Dakota people’s cultural values, social structures, and spiritual practices. It highlights the moral and communal principles underpinning Dakota life, such as generosity, respect, and harmony. It explores key aspects of their society, including kinship obligations, storytelling traditions, and ceremonies that reflect their worldview. Deloria provides a vivid account of how these practices sustained the Dakota’s collective identity amid historical challenges. DeMallie and Veyrié contextualize her insights, enriching the text with annotations and historical commentary. This work stands as both a tribute to Dakota heritage and a scholarly resource, bridging Indigenous knowledge and Western anthropology to illuminate the Dakota way of life with clarity and respect. It underscores the enduring significance of cultural continuity.

The Dakota Way of Life - Nebraska Press Winner of the 2023 Dwight L. Smith (ABC-CLIO) Award Bronze Medal for the 2023 Will Rogers Medallion Award Ella Cara Deloria devoted much of her life to the s...

History of IIK

The Institute for Indigenous Knowledge (IIK) emanated from the former American Indian Studies Research Institute (AISRI) at Indiana University. The indigenist research paradigm (summarized here the work of Chief Benjamin J. Barnes and Stephen Warren on “community-engaged scholarship” and Adam Gaudry on “insurgent research.”) for IIK is one that actively, centers Indigenous methodologies, honors relational accountability, and works toward the empowerment of Indigenous communities. It is a transformative, emancipating, and liberating approach envisions a future in which Indigenous knowledge systems are respected and sustained, and Indigenous peoples can thrive on their own terms, especially within Western institutions of higher education.
This paradigm might involve the development of educational resources, the creation of leadership programs, or the application of Indigenous knowledge systems to confront emerging contemporary challenges.
Research at IIK will be guided by the needs and priorities of Indigenous communities. This will involve ongoing consultation and collaboration with community leaders and members to ensure that the research is relevant, respectful, and beneficial.
This means that Indigenous collectives will have meaningful input in setting research topics, determining methodologies, authoring and co-authoring publications and deciding how the knowledge generated and archived will be stewarded, applied, and publicly represented.