Board of Directors

The members of the Board of Directors of the Oceti Sakowin Writers Society are chosen from among the writers of the Society and elected by a majority of the Board. The first board members were chosen by the larger group of writers of the Society early in our reorganizing as a non-profit. We are a 100% Native-led and Native-run 501(c)3 non-profit organization, incorporated in the State of South Dakota.

Kim TallBear, Ph.D.

Member of board of directors, 2022-Current

Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) (she/her) is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience, and Society, Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta. She is the author of Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. In addition to studying genome science disruptions to Indigenous self-definitions, Dr. TallBear studies colonial disruptions to Indigenous sexual relations. She is a regular panelist on the weekly podcast, Media Indigena. You can follow her research group at https://indigenoussts.com/. She tweets @KimTallBear. You can also follow her monthly posts on her Substack newsletter, Unsettle: Indigenous affairs, cultural politics & (de)colonization. She is also the co-editor of This Stretch of the River Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Responses to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Bicentennial, a Oceti Sakowin Writers Society anthology re-released in 2022, originally published in 2004.

Christopher G. Bordeaux

Board Chair, 2022-current

Christopher G Bordeaux (Sicangu Lakota) is the executive director of the Oceti Sakowin Education Commission and an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. A retired educator with 30 years of experience as a teacher and administrator, most of which was spent guiding gifted and talented students, he lives with his wife and family in Pine Ridge.

PRevious

Mabel Howe

Youth and education officer, executive committee of the OLWS board of director, 2020-2023

Mabel (Picotte) Howe is a dual citizen of the Yankton Sioux Tribe and the United States of America. She was educated in the South Dakota public school system till 9th grade when she transferred to Marty Indian School, became a residential dorm student, and graduated in 1994. Mabel received a B.A. Degree in English, with a minor in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota, Morris in 2003 and a Master of Education in School Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2013.

Mabel taught at Four Directions Charter School, Chamberlain Academy and Tiospa Zina Tribal School. Her teaching licensure is for English Language Arts, and she leaned heavily on American Indian authors, language and culture in designing her class curriculums. She has also taught Introduction to Lakota Language, Oceti Sakowin Studies, Dakota and Lakota Studies and led a Native Writer’s group. She worked with the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies and Generations Indigenous Ways helping educators, businesses and youth understand Oceti Sakowin history and development. She was the High School Principal for Tiospa Zina Tribal School and led teachers in curriculum development from an Oceti Sakowin and Dakota perspective.

Currently, Mabel is an integral part of the Center for American Indian Research and Studies (CAIRNS) in Martin, SD.

Edward Valandra, Ph.D.

Publishing Officer, Executive Committee of the OLWS Board of Directors 2020-2022
 

Edward C. Valandra, Ph.D., is Sicangu Titunwan, born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. He received his B.A. in chemistry from Mankato State University, his M.A. in political science (public policy) from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and his Ph.D. in American Studies (Native Studies concentration) from SUNY-Buffalo.

Dr. Valandra has served his nation, the Sicangu Titunwan Oyate, in various capacities. He served a four-year term on the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council (1985–89) and was a representative on the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) board of directors (1996– 2000). He also served on his nation's seven-member Constitutional Task Force (2004–2006).

Professor Valandra has taught at both Native and non-Native colleges and universities: Oglala Lakota College, Sinte Gleska University, Metropolitan State University (St. Paul, Minnesota), the University of California at Davis, and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. His research focuses on the national revitalization of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (People of the Seven Fires, commonly called the D/L/Nakota people) and the development of Native Studies.

Dr. Valandra is the founder and Research Fellow for the Community for the Advancement of Native Studies (CANS), a Native-government-chartered, research-based, reservation-rooted organization. CANS supports the advancement of Native Studies as both an intellectual and applied discipline. It serves Native Peoples by conducting research that promotes the liberation of Native Country, which involves revitalizing nationhood. Dr. Valandra’s work for CANS ranges from consulting Native colleges and Native governments to forming networks and providing guidance on Native-based community projects to building undergraduate and graduate curricula in Native Studies.

Since 2003, Dr. Valandra has served as an advisor to Living Justice Press on Native understandings of justice and on how to apply restorative justice to repairing longstanding, historical, and current harms between peoples. He has helped LJP most generously at every stage of the publishing process, from acquiring manuscripts to editing them to promoting them, helping us get LJP books into the hands of target-audience readers. We are most grateful to have him on board officially as LJP’s Senior Editor—a service he has performed almost from the start.

Click here to view the Call for Contributors for Dr. Valandra's project Colorizing Restorative Justice.
Click here to access Dr. Valandra's writings at academia.edu
Click here to view Dr. Valandra's profile on LinkedIn.
Convention Style Sheet for Native Subject Matters

Gabrielle Tateyuskanskan

Member, OLWS Board of Directors, 2020-2022

Gabrielle Tateyuskaskan (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota) is an educator, poet, and artist. She is an art instructor at the Sisseton Wahpeton College and a certified K-12 teacher of Dakota Studies. A member of the OSWS since 1995, she studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She has also served as a school board of Tiospa Zina Tribal School in Agency Village in the Lake Traverse Reservation and served her community in various other capacities. She is currently working on several manuscripts, including one on her relative, Charles Eastman’s unpublished work. Her poetry and historical storytelling has been featured in several anthologies, including the Society’s books and in 2021 the anthology, Voices Rising: Native Women Writers.