Grace is a registered tribal citizen of the Sicangu Lakota band of the Rosebud Sioux whose reservation is located in south central South Dakota. She earned her baccalaureate degree in English with a minor in Native American Studies in December 2002 and her master's degree in English Literature in May of 2004 from NMU. She continued her education at Northern and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, a terminal master’s degree, with a focus on creative nonfiction graduating with her third degree from NMU in May of 2008. She taught Native American Literature at Ferris State University in the summer of 2004 and began teaching the Native American Experience course at NMU in January of 2005. She wrote curriculum for and taught the History of Indian Boarding School Education course that filled beyond capacity in the winters of 2007 and 2008. Grace worked for three years during her undergraduate schooling as a peer mentor in the Gateway Academic Program; she was a longtime member of the Native American Student Association, volunteered at the former American Indian Coordinating Council, the Native American Student Empowerment Initiative, the Learning to Walk Together Powwow, and as a writer and copy editor for Anishinaabe News. She was the recipient of two Graduate Assistantships – one for the 2005 Sweetgrass Cinema Inaugural Native American Film Festival and one for the 2006 UNITED Diversity Conference both of which were held at NMU and she has attended, presented at, and/ or volunteered at a dozen other conferences across the United States. She is a King*Chavez*Parks Future Faculty Fellow, an American Legion Auxiliary member, and a Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) Teachers for the Dream associate.
Contact Grace:
Email: grachail@nmu.edu
Phone: 906-227-1390
Office: 112G Whitman Hall
Winter 2009 syllabi:
NAS 204 Native American Experience
NAS 295 History of Boarding School