Photograph of Farina King by Will Wilson (2016)
Farina King, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is Assistant Professor of History and affiliated faculty of Cherokee and Indigenous Studies at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. at Arizona State University in U.S. History. King specializes in twentieth-century Native American Studies. She is the author of The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century.
UPCOMING EVENTS
54th Conference of the Mormon History Association, “Isolation and Integration,” June 6-9, 2019, Salt Lake City, Utah. Donate to the MHA Graduate Student and International Scholar Fund through the MHA website.
2019 Meeting of the American Society for Ethnohistory, State College, Pennsylvania, September 25-29, 2019.
2019 International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries, and Museums, Pechanga Casino & Resort, Temecula, California, October 8-10, 2019.
Oral History Association Annual Conference with the Southwest Oral History Association, “Pathways in the Field: Considerations for those Working In, On, and Around Oral History,” October 16-19, 2019, Salt Lake City, Utah.
2019 History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, October 31-November 3, 2019.
2019 National Council for the Social Studies, Austin, Texas, November 22-24, 2019.
2020 Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., April 2-4, 2020.
2020 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders, and Sexualities, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, May 21-23, 2020.
RECENT EVENTS
“Learning My Heritage Language as a Scholar: Connecting with Community through Diné Bizaad” (invited keynote talk), Saturday, April 13, Visions Conference, Northeastern State University.
47th Annual Symposium on the American Indian, “Celebrating Indigenous Women,” April 8-13, 2019, Center for Tribal Studies, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma:
“Working with the ‘Missing Pieces’ John Hair Cultural Center and Museum Exhibit Design,” Wednesday, April 10, 2-2:50 pm, UC 223, Farina King with Ernestine Berry and NSU Student Presenters Midge Dellinger, Lindsey Chapman, Dillon Morris, and Larry Carney.
“Resisting Conformity: Indigenous Women and the Pursuit of College Education,” Friday, April 12, 1-1:50 pm, UC 222, with Jennifer Talerico-Brown, Alicia Nevaquaya, and Russell Lawson.
“Generations of Women Healers: Reflections from a Life Career in American Indian Health,” Friday, April 12, 1-1:50 pm, UC 224, with Phillip L. Smith.
“Indigenous Women at Texas Christian University: Presence, Absence, and Portrayal,” Friday, April 12, 3-3:50 pm, UC 222, with Scott Langston, Shara Kanerahtiiostha Francis-Herne, Farina King, Theresa Gaul, and Jessica Martinez.
Region 6 Oklahoma National History Day Competition, April 2, 2019, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
“Finding Yourself in Academia: A Diné Historian’s Experience,” Distinguished Guest Speaker Invitation, University of Iowa Graduate History Society, March 29, 2019, Iowa City.
“Exploring Silences of Family History: My Diné and New Mexican Ancestors,” invited talk for the Indian Territory Genealogical and Historical Society, 7 pm, March 25, 2019, John Vaughan Library, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
The Earth Memory Compass Book Talk, March 7, 2019, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond.
Oklahoma Regional Conference of Phi Alpha Theta and Oklahoma Association of Professional Historians, March 8-9, 2019, Cameron University, Lawton.
“Doctrine of Discovery Repudiated- Now What?” Winter Talk 2019 conference sponsored by Yakama Christian Mission, February 25-27, 2019, Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa.
Roundtable on “Learning Indigenous Sovereignty Through Lands and Waters,” 20th Annual American Indian Studies Association Conference, “The Knowledge of Our Ancestors, the Strength of Our Communities,” February 8, 2019, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
February 6, 2019, “Crownpoint Boarding School Through Diné Generations,” People & Places Monthly Lectures, Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
From #NewBooksNetwork #EarthMemoryCompass:
The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century (University Press of Kansas 2018)
January 25, 2019, New Books Network Podcast (click hyperlink to access) with Farina King by Stephen Hausmann
“When the young Diné boy Hopi-Hopi ran away from the Santa Fe Indian Boarding School in the early years of the twentieth century, he carried with him no paper map to guide his way home. Rather, he used knowledge of the region, of the stars, and of the Southwest’s ecology instilled in him from before infancy to help navigate over rivers, through mountains, and across deserts. In The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century (University of Kansas Press, 2018), Farina King argues that education and the creation of ‘thick’ cultural knowledge played, and continues to play, a central role in the survival of Diné culture. King, Assistant Professor of History at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, takes a unique methodological approach in telling the story of Diné education and knowledge. The Earth Memory Compass is, in King’s words, an ‘autoethnography,’ weaving her personal story of cultural discovery and family history into a larger narrative of Indigenous boarding school experiences and deep learning within families and other sites of indigenous education. The book tracks four of the six sacred directions in Diné culture, East, South, West, and North, each connected with a sacred mountain in the Southwest, and in doing so tells a rich and complicated history of how the Diné people resisted and sometimes embraced American education while never losing their own much older forms of knowledge in the process.”
January 6, 2019, Roundtable on “Everything You Wanted to Know about Community Engagement (But Were Afraid to Ask),” American Historical Association annual meeting, Chicago.
January 3, 2019, “Diné dóó Gáamalii (Navajo and Mormon): Exploring Autoethnography,” American Society of Church History, Chicago.
Giduwa Cherokee News December 2018 article about King’s public history class
November 10, 2018, Session on “Institutionalizing Emergency: Boarding Schools and the Crises of Colonialism,” conference theme “States of Emergence,” American Studies Association annual meeting, Atlanta.
November 2, 2018, Session on “Remembering and Memorializing American Indian Education,” The History of Education Society annual meeting, Hotel Albuquerque, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
October 27, 2018, Session on “Understanding Intergenerational Trauma for Indigenous Communities,” 21st Diné Studies Conference theme of “150 Years Later: Acting and Advocating to Empower Our Own Researchers and Healers and Visionaries and Thinkers and Planners and Leaders and Scientists and… Neeznádiin dóo’ąą ashdladiin nááhaigo: Nihidine’é nida’ałkaahígíí, nahałáhí, dahaniihii dóó nitsékeesii dóó naha’áii dóó éé’deitįįhii, doozhóódgóó ba’ahódlí dóó ílį́įgo hiilna’,” Diné College, Tsaile, Arizona.
October 19, 2018, Session on “Indigenizing Cityscapes since the Twentieth Century,” Conference theme of “Re-imagining Race and Ethnicity in the West,” Western History Association annual meeting, San Antonio, Texas.
Honoring Dr. Don Fixico as WHA 2018 President
October 10-12, 2018, Conference theme of “Oral History in Our Challenging Times,” Oral History Association annual meeting, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
October 9, 2018, Breakfast Conversation, Dartmouth College.
October 2, 2018, Session on “Contemporary Topics and Methods of American Indian Boarding School Studies,” The Spirit Survives: A National Movement toward Healing, NABS National Conference, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
September 28, 2018, Intertribal Discussion about Belonging and Identity, University of Texas, Arlington with Native American Student Association.
June 14, 2018, “Returning Home: Intermountain Indian School Stories,” Inaugural BYU Indigenous Studies Learning Group public talk, Provo, Utah.
June 7-10, 2018, “Homelands and Bordered Lands,” Mormon History Association annual meeting, Boise, Idaho. Donate to the MHA International Scholar Fund through the MHA website.
Paul Reeve, Mike Musingi, Farina King, Wanda and Eddie Willis, and Jana Riess at MHA 2018 in Boise
King helped to organize the following accepted MHA 2018 panels:
- Roundtable: “Indigenous/Scholars of Color Speak to the History of the ‘Other’ in Mormon Studies”
- “Before and After the Official Declaration 2”
- “Currents in Indigenous Mormonism: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going?”
- “Beyond a Single Mormon Story: Histories of Culture and Race in International Mormonisms”
- “Entangled Histories of Mormons and Native Americans from the Nineteenth Century to Early Twentieth Century”
May 19, 2018, American Indian Achievement Celebration, Grand Prairie Independent School District, Texas.
Scott Langston, Peggy Larney, and Farina King at the GPISD American Indian Achievement Celebration 2018
Thursday, May 17, 2018, “Native Women Indigenizing Dallas Since the Late Twentieth Century,” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association annual meeting, Los Angeles.
April 27-29, 2018, “Elevating Voices: Oral Histories of Resilience and Unity,” Southwest Oral History Association annual meeting, Fullerton, California.
King served as SOHA 2018 conference program committee co-chair and helped to organize the following sessions:
- Plenary Session: “Developing Indigenous Community and Home-Based Oral Histories”
- Panel: “Un-Erasing Voices of Ethnic Communities in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands”
April 16-21, 2018, “Walking With Our Ancestors: Preserving Culture and Honoring Tradition,” 46th Annual Symposium on the American Indian, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
King participated in the following sessions that she organized for the symposium:
- “Horse and Buffalo People in Native America”
- “Mapping Histories of Indian Education”
View the recording of this HawkTalk (April 2018) by clicking this link: Student Stories of Intermountain Indian School.
Top of Mind with Julie Rose, April 13, 2018:
Native American Perspectives on Land
Guests: Farina King, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Northeastern State University; Nizhone Meza, JD, Attorney; Tommy Rock, PhD, Environmental Scientist and Founder of Rock Environmental Consulting; Aldean Ketchum, Musician, Flute Builder
Mother Earth’s sacred nature is a common thread through the spiritual beliefs of Native American tribes across the country. We saw reverence for the land unite diverse indigenous communities at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and in the effort to preserve Bears Ears in Utah. We explore what it is that so deeply binds America’s original inhabitants to the land.
March 2-3, 2018, Oklahoma Association of Professional Historians and the Oklahoma Regional Conference of Phi Alpha Theta, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, Oklahoma.
Patti Loughlin and Farina King at OAPH and Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference at UCO
“Indigenous Oral Histories in Dallas Inspired by #NoDAPL and Water Is Life Coalition Building,” January 4, 2018, American Historical Association, Washington, D.C.
Mike Lawson, Veronica Tiller, Don Fixico, & Farina King at AHA 2018
Top of Mind with Julie Rose on BYU Radio, December 18, 2017:
The Politics of Monuments and Native American History
Guest: Farina King, PhD, Assistant Professor, History, Northeastern State University and member of the Navajo Nation
“Monuments of all sorts are a focal point for debate in America today: whether it’s Confederate War memorials, statues of conquering explorers like Columbus or natural landscapes like the Bears Ears National Monument President Trump recently scaled back significantly.
A monument is really about us saying ‘this is a place, a memory, a culture, a history we want to preserve.’ But given the diversity of views and complexity of America’s history, is it any wonder we’re having trouble agreeing on our monuments? Let’s have a look at this from the perspective of America’s indigenous communities.”
Indian Mascot Cases panel before showing of Kenn and John Little’s film “More Than a Word,” November 17, 2017, American Indian Heritage Month, Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. See the full listing of NSU American Indian Heritage Month events on the Center for Tribal Studies website.
Gregorio Gonzales, Rayna Green, and Farina King at WHA 2017 Indian Scholars’ Luncheon
Grace Hunt Watkinson, Sasha Suarez, Farina King, Brooke Linsenbardt, and Dina Gilio-Whitaker at WHA 2017
“Connecting the Generations: Indigenous Women Standing for their People and Communities,” November 3, 2017, Western History Association Conference, San Diego.
Please watch and share the “Navajo Voices on Bears Ears” panel recording (click on the highlighted link to the YouTube channel of the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law).
“Learning and Teaching Women’s Historical Experiences at Northeastern State University,” September 28, 2017, International Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
This is a video recording of the September 26th panel on “Why the Indian Mascot Issue Matters”:
See a clip of the “Water is Life” Panel from September 1 through the Tribal Film Festival Facebook Page.
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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