Natasha Myhal, 2017

My name is Natasha Myhal and I am a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians. I grew up in Parma Heights, Ohio, and completed my B.A. in American Indian Studies and Environmental Studies from the University of Minnesota, Morris in 2015. I graduated from KU in 2017 where I worked with Dr. Kelly Kindscher, Dr. Stephanie Fitzgerald, and Dr. Jay Johnson.  

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnic Studies with an area of emphasis in Geography, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. My research draws on Indigenous ethnobotany, critical Indigenous studies, and Anishinaabe tribal natural resource management strategies. The working title of my dissertation is “Naaminitignong ndojeba (The Land Beneath the Trees): Ottawa community resiliency and Indigenous land stewardship.” For my doctoral thesis I am working with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians tribal natural resource department. I started working with them in 2018. My primary focus is to interview Little River community members to understand how climate change impacts within their traditional territories.

At CU Boulder, I am a graduate research assistant for the Center of the American West and the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies project, “Indigenous Connections at Rocky Mountain National Park”. This project seeks to improve the educational and interpretive programs at Rocky Mountain National Park in ways that are more inclusive of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute tribal nations' historical and contemporary connections to the Rocky Mountain region.