First Person Radio Aug 31: BRENDA CHILD, PhD, MIGUEL VARGAS: UofM Indian Studies and Boarding School Author-AUDIO Below

Laura Waterman Wittstock (with Andy Driscoll) talks with Professor Brenda Child, Chair of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and the Department’s Community Outreach Coordinator, Miguel Vargas. 

At the University of Minnesota, Child was recipient of the President’s Award for Outstanding Community Service. She was born on and remains a citizen of the Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota.

Dr. Child received her PhD in History at the University of Iowa and was a Katrin Lamon Fellow at the School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her book, Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (University of Nebraska, 1998), won the North American Indian Prose Award.

Child was a consultant to the exhibit, “Remembering Our Indian School Days” at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona and co-author of the book that accompanied the exhibit, Away From Home (Heard, 2000). She is a board member of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Division of Indian Works, and The Circle newspaper in Minnesota, and chairs the American Indian advisory board to the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis.

Miguel Vargas has been Outreach Coordinator since Fall 2007. He coordinates the Ojibwemodaa Eta! Language Programs and Scholarships, outreaching to K-12 Schools/Youth Programs for visiting opportunities, and moderating the Minnesota Indian Affairs Listserv (MINN-IND).