Join us for the fifth event of Ethics in Place: A Symposium on Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Principled Democracy.

Sacred lands animate Indigenous religious lives. Prayers and offerings are made and anchored in places of reverence. Altars and power sources, they are home to ancestors and deities. Such places demand ritual attention and sacred conduct. This intimate link between Indigenous peoples and their sacred places continues to be ruptured. For example, recent events at Oak Flats and Bears Ears have made clear that many sacred places are not within the recognized jurisdiction of Native nations and are subject to development without meaningful consultation, let alone consent. What hope is there for protecting sacred places going forward? In addition to direct action and protest, what pathways might be available now, especially in the context of the Biden administration? We invite you to join the Walter H. Capps Center as we host Suzan Shown Harjo and Michael McNally to discuss this important topic. 

Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee) is an American Indian rights advocate, poet, writer, and curator; Past Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians; and President of the Morning Star Institute.

Michael McNally is the John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies at Carleton College. He is author of Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom beyond the First Amendment (2020); Honoring Elders: Aging, Authority, and Ojibwe Religion (2009), and Ojibwe Singers: Hymns, Grief, and a Native Culture in Motion (2000), and editor of Art of Tradition: Sacred Story, Song, and Dance among Michigan’s Anishinaabe (2009). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017 for his work on Native religions and law.

Register via Zoom: ucsb.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_trIF8jAQSZ-zFY3wh0MRUg.