Farina King, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is the Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and Associate Professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. at Arizona State University in History. King specializes in twentieth-century Native American Studies, especially Indigenous experiences in boarding schools. She is the author of The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century, and co-author with Michael P. Taylor and James R. Swensen of Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School. She is one of the series editors for the Lyda Conley Series on Trailblazing Indigenous Futures of the University Press of Kansas, and she co-hosts the Native Circles podcast with Sarah Newcomb. She is the past President of the Southwest Oral History Association (2021-2022). Previously, between 2016 and 2022, she was Associate Professor of History and affiliated faculty of Cherokee and Indigenous Studies at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, in the homelands of the Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees. She also directed and founded the NSU Center for Indigenous Community Engagement.
The University of Oklahoma is on the homelands of the Hasinais (Caddo Nation) and Kirikirʔi:s (Wichita & Affiliated Tribes). This land has also been part of the Muscogee and Seminole Nations. Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Osage, and diverse peoples converged in these lands as well for generations. Thirty-nine federally-recognized Native Nations dwell in what is now considered the state of Oklahoma as a result of colonial policies designed to remove, confine, and forcefully assimilate Indigenous peoples.
See the University of Oklahoma Land Acknowledgement Statement.
UPCOMING EVENTS
“The Oral History Interview” (invited speaker), June 1, 2023, 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m MDT, Oral History Summer Institute, Centre for Oral History and Tradition, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (online).
“This Prison . . . of a Crooked, Broken, Scattered, and Imperfect Language” Global Mormon Studies Conference (online), June 2-3, 2023.
2023 Mormon History Association Conference, “Beginnings,” June 8-11, 2023, Rochester, New York.
2023 Diné Studies Conference, June 22-24, 2023, San Juan College, Farmington, New Mexico.
2023 Big Berks, June 28-July 2, 2023, Santa Clara University, California.
Indian Boarding Schools in Oklahoma [Hybrid] Workshop (invited speaker), August 5, 2023, Oklahoma History Center, Oklahoma City. Registration (free) is available.
2023 Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association Annual Conference, August 9-11, 2023, California State University-Northridge.
American Indian Heritage Day in Texas (invited panelist speaker), September 30, 2023, Grand Prairie, Texas.
Book of Mormon Studies Association (keynote talk invitation), October 5-7, 2023, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.
“Oral History As/And Education: Teaching and Learning in the Classroom and Beyond” 2023 Oral History Association Conference, October 18-21, 2023, Baltimore, Maryland.
2023 International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums, October 24-26, 2023, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
“Restorations and Repairs: Lives and Landscapes Across Many Wests” 2023 Western History Association Annual Conference, October 26-29, 2023, Los Angeles, California.
Read more about Farina King’s recent events.
Call for Proposed Chapters to Edited Volume “Written to the Lamanites”
Call for Chapter Proposals to Edited Volume based on workshop theme of “Indigenous Perspectives on the Meanings of ‘Lamanite’” We write to announce a call for chapter proposals for an edited volume tentatively titled, “Written to the Lamanites: Indigenous Perspectives on Lamanite Discourses.’” Chapter proposals are due by September 5, 2023. The Book of Mormon styles itself…
2nd Workshop & Symposium of Indigenous Perspectives on the Meanings of “Lamanite”
Dr. Farina King and Dr. Michael Ing are co-organizing the second rendition that follows the inaugural workshop, Indigenous Perspectives on the Meanings of “Lamanite,” which was first held in August 2022 at the University of Utah. For this second gathering, it will be hosted by the Claremont Mormon Studies Program at Claremont Graduate University (CGU),…
Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (NCAIS) Summer Institute July 5-28, 2023
The McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies invites applications to the Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (NCAIS) Summer Institute for July 5-28, 2023, which focuses on the theme of “Indigenizing Schools: Struggles of Native American and Indigenous Education” that I (Dr. Farina King, University of Oklahoma) and Dr. Kallie Kosc (Oklahoma…
Farina King, Ph.D. 
Thank you so much for speaking to our group last night, the Indian Territory Genealogical and Historical Society. You didn’t just speak to us. You made your Navajo people come alive and allowed us to
“meet” your family and understand a small part of what it meant to be Navajo in earlier times. Thank you again.
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Ahéhee’! Thank you, Diana, for coming and supporting this work and listening to my journey with family history. I appreciate your encouraging and kind words. Best wishes, Farina
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I’m pleased to let you know that the videos of our “Faith is Action, Stewardship and the Climate” symposium are on our YouTube channel. You may have already seen them shared on Facebook or other platforms. Thanks again for your excellent presentations.
We encourage you to share them on your social media and tag our organization @MormonStewards.
Hashtags you could include are:#ActOnClimate #MormonStewards #EverySaintASteward #FaithIsAction
Take care,
Marc Coles-Ritchie
board chair
Mormon Environmental Stewardship
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Thanks for sharing and inviting me to the symposium.
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Excellent meeting on Indigenous peoples of North America. thank you Dr King for your time and in-depth knowledge….alex thompson
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Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Alex!
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I’m Dine as well (Sage Brush Hill) and been Sr SW Engineer at Northrop Grumman for 20 years. Glad you shared info with my colleagues
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