Sasha Maria Suarez shares her thoughts and research with us about expanding what Native activism looks like. Suarez is a direct descendant of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe and is the second generation from her family to be born and raised as an urban Ojibwe in Minneapolis. She is an assistant professor of history and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work focuses on Ojibwe gender history, Indigenous social movements, and urban Indigenous history. She is currently working on her first book tentatively titled, "Making a Home in the City: White Earth Ojibwe Women and Community Organizing in Twentieth Century Minneapolis."

Recommended Sources:

Sasha Maria Suarez, “Indigenizing Minneapolis: Building American Indian Community Infrastructure in the Mid-Twentieth Century,” in Indian Cities: Histories of Indigenous Urbanism, eds. Kent Blansett, Cathleen D. Cahill, and Andrew Needham (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2022).

Heartland History podcast episode (of the Midwestern History Association) featuring Dr. Sasha Maria Suarez (2022).

Sasha Maria Suarez, "At The Falls: An Urban Ojibwe Story Of Minneapolis Placemaking," The Metropole (the official blog of the Urban History Association), May 2022.

"Indigenous Activism: Past & Present," Presented by UW-Madison American Indian Studies Faculty including Matt Villeneuve, Jen Rose Smith, Sasha Maria Suarez, and Kasey Keeler (2022).