"Portals to Power: Plains Indian Spiritual Belief and Philosophy Regarding Inter-relationships Among Beings"

Monday, Oct. 9, 2006 @ 7:30 p.m.
Gallery Theater

Kathryn W. Shanley
University of Montana at Missoula

Kathryn W. Shanley’s work emphasizes a non-sentimental view of American Indian perspectives on nature, and related issues of social justice, while recognizing the continued vitality and relevance of her native Plains Indian traditions to relations between beings in a postmodern world. Such traditions of story-telling adapted to contemporary life helped to keep her engaged with modern Native American literature, as her career took her from a childhood on a Montana reservation to a faculty position at Cornell University, and then on to head the Native American Studies Department at the University of Montana. She is recognized as one of the leading scholars and teachers in the field of American Indian literature today.