Above photo: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, legendary activist and author of An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, stopped by the podcast to discuss her journey to studying and writing about indigenous history, how COVID-19 is impacting Native American communities, and her experiences with firearms, along with its connections to white supremacy and settler colonialism.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a historian, author, memoirist, and speaker who researches Western Hemisphere history and international human rights.
She grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a tenant farmer and part-Indian mother. She has been active in the international indigenous movement for more than four decades, and she is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. After receiving her Ph.D. in history at the University of California at Los Angeles, she taught in the newly established Native American Studies Program at California State University, Hayward, and helped found the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies.
Her 1977 book The Great Sioux Nation was the fundamental document at the first international conference on Indigenous peoples of the Americas, held at the United Nations’ headquarters in Geneva. She is the author or editor of several other books, including Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico.
Her two most recent works are An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States and Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment.
Read the transcript here: ep_64_transcript