American Indian Veterans in Transition: Honoring Family, Land, Culture & People

About this Episode:

In this episode, John Little talks about the research he gathered for his dissertation which focused on Native American Vietnam Veterans. Listen to find out more about

• • How the Native Americans who enlist in the military do so because of protecting their land, protecting their people
  • That there are a lot of different narratives
  • Culture as a protective factor – “Who made me serve?”
  • When the Native is out of the Service, they can’t separate family- land-culture-people
  • 90% of Natives volunteer for Service to their Country
  • How have Natives been innovative?

Guest Bio:

John Little is Dakota and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He is the Director of the Indian University of North America, a university program designed to help Native students succeed in higher education.

He received his PhD in history from the University of Minnesota in May of 2020. His dissertation focused on Native American Vietnam Veterans. He is also the co-director of the film More Than A Word, a 2017 award winning film that analyzed the use of Native American themed mascots, in particular challenging the Washington R*dskins.

Host: 

Jennifer Garbow has been an educator and associate professor in Family  Resiliency for eleven years with the University of Minnesota’s Extension Center for Family Development. Her primary role is to provide financial literacy education to families and communities, with special expertise in working with American Indian clients. Jennifer trains service providers to provide personal finance education to diverse audiences, focusing on understanding culture and values and how those influence financial decision-making. Before joining Extension, Jennifer worked for Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake, MN as dean of students and director of community and continuing education. She is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. Jennifer earned a Master of Education degree from the College of Education and Human Service Professions at University of Minnesota — Duluth.

Resources Mentioned in Podcast:

Podcast, A Mother’s Conversation With Her Military Son

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Military Family readiness Policy, U.S. Department of Defense under Award numbers 2015-48770-24368 and 2019-4877030366.