Farina King, Ph.D.

 

Farina King 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. Her first book is The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century.

During the Fall 2018 semester, King is teaching a course on public history.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Save the dates for the NSU Center for Indigenous Community Engagement events:

September 28, 2018, Intertribal Discussion about Belonging and Identity, University of Texas, Arlington with Native American Student Association.

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.

October 13, 2018, Session on “Heritages of Survivance: Indigenous Narratives of Continuity and Community,” Conference theme of “Oral History in Our Challenging Times,” Oral History Association annual meeting, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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.

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.

November 2, 2018, Session on “Remembering and Memorializing American Indian Education,” The History of Education Society annual meeting, Hotel Albuquerque, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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.

January 3-6, 2019, Session on “Everything You Wanted to Know about Community Engagement (But Were Afraid to Ask),” American Historical Association annual meeting, Chicago.

January 3, 2019, Session on “Race, Mormonism, History: The Impact of Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Questions,” American Society of Church History, Chicago.

RECENT EVENTS

June 14, 2018, “Returning Home: Intermountain Indian School Stories,” Inaugural BYU Indigenous Studies Learning Group public talk, Provo, Utah. Watch the video recording of the talk on the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies facebook page (click on link).

June 7-10, 2018, “Homelands and Bordered Lands,” Mormon History Association annual meeting, Boise, Idaho. Donate to the MHA International Scholar Fund through GoFundMe and the MHA website.

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.

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.

“Indigenous Oral Histories in Dallas Inspired by #NoDAPL and Water Is Life Coalition Building,” January 4, 2018, American Historical Association, Washington, D.C.

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.

“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 on the Tribal Film Festival Facebook Page.

“Natives and Institutions: Gender and Navigating Wardship,” August 4, 2017, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, California State University, Northridge.