In this episode, Dr. Amanda Cheromiah offers an unfiltered reflection on her first eight months living and working in Carlisle, Pennsylvania—the former site of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Through 20 personal and communal observations, she traces what it means to carry out Indigenous-centered work in a place shaped by historical trauma and ongoing presence. From healing ceremonies, student support, and repatriation to microaggressions, humor, and ceremony, these truths reveal the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual labor of staying rooted in a place of both harm and possibility. She invites listeners to witness the power of intertribal connection, the significance of Grandma’s House as a space of care, and the national momentum building around truth-telling and accountability. This episode is a call to action, a moment of gratitude, and a testament to the living presence of Native Peoples in a place too often spoken about only in the past tense.

This episode was recorded in December 2024.

In this special episode, Dr. Amanda Cheromiah sits with two of the inaugural Student Advisory Fellows for the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples. Kanoa Hunter (Native Hawaiian), a graduating senior majoring in History, and Alex Kluge (German), an international student studying English-Speaking Cultures, reflect on their time at Dickinson College, their experiences with CFNP, and what it means to engage with Indigenous narratives across cultures. From Kanoa’s deep ties to land and community to Alex’s fresh perspective as a visitor on Indigenous homelands, this conversation bridges oceans, languages, and lived experiences. Together, they share what it means to listen, learn, and help shape a Center that honors Native voices and futures.

John Truden earned his PhD inUS History from the University of Oklahoma. His first book- currently under review at the University of Nebraska Press - explores Indigenous-settler relationships in Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas between Reconstruction and the Red Power era. His second book will examine Native America during the 1970s. He has published in both academic journals - notably the Western Historical Quarterly - and in more accessible forums such as Oklahoma Humanities magazine, the Osage News, and the Metro Library Podcast. John Truden worked on extensive projects with the Absentee Shawnee Tribe Cultural Preservation Office, the Seminole Nation Historic Preservation Office, and Greetham Law, the Chickasaw Nation's principal legal counsel. Among other projects at Dickinson College, he coordinated the Indigenous Consortium, a campus wide (and beyond) monthly discussion group for faculty interested in Indigenous issues. Outside of academia, John Truden and his wife Emily enjoy traveling, trying new foods, reading together, and playing with their dog Ruffles.

Dr. Truden's Recommended Reading List:

Indigenous History in the (continental) United States

• John Stands In Timber, Cheyenne Memories (1967)
• Adrienne Keene, Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present (2021)
• Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (2023)
• Nick Estes, Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (2019)
• Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory (2021)

Indigenous Children Literature

• Carole Lindstrom, We Are Water Protectors (2020)
• Ashley Fairbanks, This Land (2024)
• Dawn Quigley, Jo Jo Makoons (chapter book series)
• Angeline Boulley, The Firekeeper's Daughter & Warrior Girl Unearthed (YA literature)
• Chag Lowry, Soldiers Unknown (2019)

Indigenous Fiction

• A three way tie: N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn, James Welch, Winter in the Blood (1974), Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977)
• Louise Erdrich (all of her stuff, because she is the most prolific Indigenous writer working today)
• Robert Dale Parker, editor, The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (2008)
• Gerald Vizenor, Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point (2006)
• Tommy Orange, There, There & Wandering Stars (2019, 2024)

Boarding School-related books

• Brenda Child, Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (2000)
• Celia Haig-Brown, Tsqelmucwílc: The Kamloops Indian Residential School―Resistance and a Reckoning (1987, 2022)
• David Maraniss, Path Lit By Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe (2022)
• Julie Pearson-Little Thunder, Chilocco Indian School: A Generational Story (2022)
• Abigail Chabitnoy, How to Dress a Fish (2019)

Law and Policy

• Vine Deloria Jr., Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (1969)
• Walter Echo-Hawk, In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided (2010)
• Thomas J. Biolsi, Deadliest Enemies: Law and Race Relations On and Off Rosebud Reservation (2007)
• Sarah Deer, The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America (2015)
• David E. Wilkins, Dismembered: Native Disenrollment and the Battle for Human Rights (2017)

International Indigenous books

• Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaii (1999)
• Ailton Krenak, Life is Not Useful (2021)
• Ursula Pike, An Indian Among Los Indigenas: A Native Travel Memoir (Heyday, 2021)
• Darren Byler, In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony (2021)
• Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (2021)