People
Faculty & Staff
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Edward Charles Valandra is Sicangu Lakota, born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation. He received his B.A. from Minnesota State University in Mankato, followed by a M.A. in Political Science from the University of Colorado in Boulder and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the State University of New York in Buffalo.
He has taught at the University of California in Davis and Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Valandra's current research interests focus on the national revitalization of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (People of Seven Fires). His book, Not Without Our Consent: Lakota Resistance to Termination, 1950-1959 was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2006. He is currently working on a follow-up book, entitled The 1964 Plebiscite: A Nation Is Coming. He is a member of the Native Research and Advocacy Collaborative.
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Elizabeth Castle
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In addition to her position at USD, Elizabeth Castle is an Academic Affiliate at the Regional Oral History Office at the University of California, Berkeley, where she previously held a position as academic specialist. She was the recipient of University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship where she worked under the mentorship of Professors Bettina Aptheker and Angela Y. Davis at UC Santa Cruz. Her book Women Were the Backbone, Men Were the Jawbone: American Indian Women's Activism in the Red Power Movement will be published by Oxford University Press.
While completing her Ph.D. in History at the University of Cambridge, she worked for President Clinton's Initiative on Race as a policy associate. In 2001 she served as delegate for the Indigenous World Association at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. The heart of her work concerns communicating the priorities of indigenous communities to public institutions and creating transformative social change in response to colonization.
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Jerome Kills Small
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Jerome Kills Small is an Oglala Lakota from Porcupine, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He graduated from the University of South Dakota with an M.A. in Selected Studies and has stayed on to teach Lakota language, American Indian Oratory and Argumentation, Siouan Tribal Culture, and Early American Indian History and Culture. Mr. Kills Small is also a storyteller and teacher of the Lakota language for the Head Start Program in Vermillion, SD.
Jerome is featured in books and videos, including: Wounded Warriors: A Time for Healing; Silver Anniversary Anthology; Sucker Punched; Nagi Kicopi (Calling Back the Spirit); Lost Landscapes; Bones of Contention (Repatriation and Reburial, BBC); Wisdom of the Elders; Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires); and Wacipi (Powwow) for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Jerome is a storyteller for museums, rendezvous, public schools and colleges. He sings, translates, and explains Lakota ceremonial, sweatlodge, vision quest (crying for a dream), rabbit dance, round dance, veteran (warrior), and powwow songs. Jerome is the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award in the Humanities for 2004, and the George Mickelson Reconciliation Award for 1994. Jerome also has a CD of Sweatlodge songs entitled: Inikagapi: Celebration of Life.
Auxiliary Faculty
- Michael Card
- Leroy Meyer
- Laura Szanto