Video: Jasmine Neosh

While in her 20s, Jasmine Neosh immersed herself in Chicago’s art and music scene, often jamming with friends on her uniquely crafted, fretless banjo. But when protests erupted in the northern Plains over the Dakota Access Pipeline, Neosh knew she had a duty—as a Native woman and an environmentalist. Now, at age 32, she’s studying the Earth-friendly ways of her people on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin.

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Navajo student Triston Black stands behind a livestock fence facing the camera.

Students at Diné College find relevance on the rez

Triston Black had the world at his feet. As a senior at Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, New Mexico, scholarships and enrollment incentives were pouring in from across the country as colleges and universities were hoping to recruit him.

Menominee equips warriors for the fight to save the Earth

Jasmine Neosh had arrived at an inflection point. In the fall of 2016, the Menominee tribal member was waiting tables and tending bar at an upscale Chicago eatery as the protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline grew into a full-blown crisis in the northern Plains.

Lisa Dirks

Alaska-born Native scholar works to reorient research

In the early 2010s, Lisa Dirks was visiting her relatives in Alaska when she noticed an article in the Aleut Corporation newsletter on their dining room table: an item that looked like a research article. As a scholar, researcher, and tribal member, she was curious about its contents, so she picked it up and began reading.