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Dina Gilio-Whitaker

Dina Gilio-Whitaker

Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is Policy Director and Senior Research Associate at the Center for World Indigenous Studies, and is an award-winning journalist at Indian Country Media Network.  With a bachelor’s in Native American Studies and a master’s in American Studies, Dina’s research interests focuses on Indigenous nationalism, self-determination, environmental justice, and education. For the past several years has been involved with Indigenous peoples’ participation in the United Nations arena.  She also works within the field of critical sports studies, examining the intersections of indigineity and the sport of surfing.  She is coauthor with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz of the book “'All the Real Indians Died Off' and 20 Other Myths About Native Americans," and is currently under contract with Beacon Press for a new book on environmental justice in Indian country.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker
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Hawaiians Surfing in the 19th Century (large)
Founded on a history of indigenous erasure, critical surf studies unravel the conventional narratives of surf culture in Hawaii, California, and beyond.
Native activists demonstrate for Oak Flat at the U.S. Capitol. | Photo: Wendy Kanin, some rights reserved
Native peoples in the U.S. are often citizens of both the United States and of autonomous Native nations. That makes Native environmental justice issues more complex.
Iron Eyes Cody, born the Sicilian Actor TK, provides a convenient example of the Ecological Indian stereotype.
To call Native peoples the "original environmentalists" is to mischaracterize their actual relationship to the land.
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