Born and raised in the White Shield community on the Fort Berthold Reservation—the ancestral heartland of the Arikara people and home to the Three Affiliated Tribes—I carry the quiet rhythms of our land and heritage.
My career began in 2001 teaching Computer Information Systems at Fort Berthold Community College (now Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College) in New Town, North Dakota. In 2007, drawn to reclaim the Arikara language, I earned a Master’s in Anthropology from Indiana University. Today, as Director of the Arikara Cultural Center in White Shield, I open doors to our language, culture, and history through immersive curricula that spark revival and community connection.
Key achievements include founding the Arikara Cultural Center—a hub for preserving and promoting our traditions, with accessible academic and historical resources shaped by community vision. I also developed an immersion-based curriculum that ignited the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation’s revitalization programs.
Raised traditionally in White Shield, immersed in our language, dances, and ceremonies, I bring an intimate understanding of Arikara identity, past and present, to bridge heritage with modern preservation.
My education off the reservation, including my Master’s, offers a unique insider-outsider perspective, using tools like insider ethnography to create resonant community programs.
Looking ahead, I aim to share Arikara musical heritage—songs from ancient accounts to today—with over 30 years of personal singing fueling this passion.
At my core, I’m a regular Arikara man rooted in our ancestral ways, committed to passing on our culture and language for generations to come.
