Tana Fitzpatrick (Lakota/Crow/Ponca/Chickasaw) joined the University of Oklahoma in March 2022 as the Associate Vice President of Tribal Relations. Prior to joining the university, Tana served the U.S. Congress as a policy analyst in the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service. While at CRS, Tana advised members of Congress and their staff as the expert on matters involving tribal lands and natural resources.
Tana’s career also includes four years in the federal executive branch, beginning with the U.S. Department of the Interior as a Senior Counselor to the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, with later roles in the White House Office of Management and Budget and the National Indian Gaming Commission. In addition to federal service, Tana worked as an attorney for two tribal communities in Arizona. She served the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community as a tribal prosecutor and worked as in-house counsel for the Gila River Indian Community.
Tana earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Spanish from Oklahoma City University and a Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Tana is a member of the Crow Tribe of Montana and a descendent of the Lakota Sioux, Ponca, and Chickasaw nations.
Evelyn Castro Cox is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oklahoma where she obtained her MLIS as well as her Graduate Certificate in Archival Studies in 2018. She obtained her undergraduate degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles. Evelyn is CHamoru, born on beautiful island of Guåhan (Guam – island territory of the United States) and now living in the equally beautiful state of Oklahoma. She is a wife and proud mother of two boys, Tyler and Zach as well as a retired English teacher and coach who continues to work in education at multiple levels and in various capacities. Evelyn’s work and research centers around promoting and supporting equitable representation, inclusion, and access for underrepresented and Indigenous voices and vantage points while also working to bridge the divides that exists in society and within institutional organizations. Her areas of interest are related to information access and representation, particularly around the use of technology for social, generational, and cultural preservation and transference.
Quanah Yazzie is the Office Manager for the Native Nations Center at the University of Oklahoma. He is Diné (Navajo) from Rock Point, Arizona. He is of the Coyote Pass People Clan, born for the Zuni People Clan. Quanah grew up most of his life in the state of Arizona while studying in various areas including Graphic Design at Arizona State University / Mesa Community College, and Navajo Cultural Arts with an emphasis in Weaving and Silversmithing at Diné College. Before his position at OU, he worked as an Office Technician / Graphic Designer for the Judicial Branch of the Navajo Nation, and as a Professional Tutor at Diné College. Quanah also founded Coyote Pass Designs, a graphic design and web development company based in Arizona. He currently resides in Norman, Oklahoma with his partner, 2 Pomeranians, and cat.
Dr. Burkhart is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and has taught at OU since 2018. Before that he was Director and Associate Professor of American Indian Studies at California State University, Northridge. His research specialization is in Native American and Indigenous philosophy, specifically Indigenous land-based conceptions of well-being and environmental ethics. His 2019 book, Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land: A Trickster Methodology for Decolonizing Environmental Ethics and Indigenous Futures, claims that land is key to both the operations of coloniality as well the anti-colonial power that grounds Indigenous liberation. Land as a material, conceptual, and ontological foundation for Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and valuing provides a framework for Indigenous environmental ethics that can also function as an anti-colonial force for sovereign Indigenous futures. His current book project, As Strong as the Land that Made You: Native American and Indigenous Philosophies of Well-Being through the Land extends the land-based methodologies into reflections on both environmental and individual health for Native people and Native Nations. Burkhart is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma with roots in the Jaybird Creek community of Northeastern Oklahoma as well as the Indian Wells community of the Navajo Nation in Arizona. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Indiana University. “I am honored to take a role in the all-important work of creating, growing, and continuing respectful and supportive relationships between academics and Native Nations,” Burkhart said. “Native people have often been viewed as objectives of study rather than as living people with existing frameworks of knowledge, governance, and kinship that shape their understanding of themselves as sovereign nations with sovereign futures. Part of the goal of my work in the Native Nations Center will be to help researchers frame their work with and in relation to Native Nations through this lens,” Burkhart adds.
Since receiving my Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1997, I have held several tenured academic appointments, including faculty positions at the University of New Mexico and Oklahoma State University.
From 2007 to 2012, I had the opportunity of serving my tribe, the Chickasaw Nation, as the Administrator of the Division of History and Culture. During my time there, I had the honor of overseeing the curation and launch of the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, OK and directing the museums, archives, language programs, as well as the Chickasaw Press, the first tribal publishing house of its kind.
My research falls within two primary areas: (1) Tribal history and culture in Indian Territory and Oklahoma; and (2) issues of Native American representation and cultural production. I have published book chapters and articles on these topics in such peer-reviewed journals as American Quarterly, American Studies, Studies in American Indian Literature, and American Indian Quarterly.
My first book, which received the American Book Award, focused specifically on Chickasaw history. Listening to Our Grandmothers’ Stories: The Bloomfield Academy for Chickasaw Females, 1852-1949 (2000; 2007) was published by the University of Nebraska Press. Bloomfield represents one of the rare instances in the 19th century of a Native community seizing control of its children’s formal education. My second book, a collection of essays co-edited with Amy Lonetree titled, The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations (2008), focuses on issues of representation and cultural production and provides the first comprehensive look at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). My current research examines the state of Oklahoma’s American Indian identity as it is manifested in popular culture, including commemorations, sculpture, performances, and museums beginning with the famous “marriage” of Miss Indian Territory to Mr. Cowboy Oklahoma on the steps of the Capitol at the time of statehood.
Serving as the Chair of the Native American Studies Department at OU is one of the highlights of my career—I have loved OU all of my life. Working with our students, with our faculty, and with the Native nations and communities of Oklahoma is truly a privilege.
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860 Van Vleet Oval
Norman, OK 73019
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