Indian Land Tenure Foundation Speaker Series: Julie Cajune to speak March 30

Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in the Cobell v. Salazar lawsuit, packed the lecture hall on the University of Montana campus last week.

Up next as the final speaker in the series is Julie Cajune, executive director of the Center for American Indian Policy and Applied Research at Salish Kootenai College.

Cajune, who was profiled in Utne magazine in 2009 as one of 50 visionaries who are changing the world, will talk about a statewide Indian land curriculum she developed that aligns with Montana state education standards. The lesson plans were created as specific matches to Montana tribes and can be used with the existing Indian Land Tenure Foundation’s land tenure curriculum titled “Lessons of Our Land.”

Cajune has worked in education for nearly two decades. She earned a master’s degree in bilingual education and served as the curriculum specialist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes before returning to public education and administration. She has developed culturally responsive material for the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Montana Historical Society and numerous other entities. In addition, she completed a three-year tribal history project funded by the Montana Legislature.

Cajune received the Milken National Educator Award in 2002. As a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, she worked at Nkwusm, the Salish Language Revitalization Institute, as director of development and teacher supervisor. She was awarded a $1.4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to continue work on the development and publication of tribal history materials. The grant is based at Salish Kootenai College.

The speaker series is sponsored by the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, a community-based, nonprofit organization focused on the recovery, management and control of American Indian lands by Indian people. For more information, visit https://iltf.org , call Jodi Rave at 406-396-8537 or e-mail jodi.rave@umontana.edu .