Director of Healing Initiatives
Jamie, a Portland Native and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is one of less than 100 Indigenous American anthropologists in the history of the discipline. She grew up in the foster care system in Multnomah county, during which time there was a concerted effort to disconnect her from her Indigenous culture and community. She gives thanks to her Grandmother for working hard to combat that disconnection. Today she is quite connected to her culture, and is working on learning Tsalagi (the Cherokee language) so that she can one day live her dream of contributing to language retention and revitalization. Jamie has been an activist in Portland for 7 years, helping to organize direct action in protest of systemic racism; she has worked as an organizer on #NoDAPL, the Inauguration Day Protest of 2017, and #OccupyICE. This work is deeply intertwined in her social science work, as she strives for praxis in all she does—to Jamie, no part of her life is disconnected to another, and she purposefully combines her lived experiences with her work. Her knowledge specialties center around the racial worldview, racial justice, praxis in activism and Cherokee culture. Her previous work, outside of activism, includes mixed methods research which addressed food insecurity amongst college students and demonstrated a need to use an equity lens in providing resources to BIPOC students and immigrants, Cherokee cultural learning initiatives such as this project on basket weaving, gender and colonization, and nonprofit evaluation.
Jamie, a Portland Native and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is one of less than 100 Indigenous American anthropologists in the history of the discipline. She grew up in the foster care system in Multnomah county, during which time there was a concerted effort to disconnect her from her Indigenous culture and community. She gives thanks to her Grandmother for working hard to combat that disconnection. Today she is quite connected to her culture, and is working on learning Tsalagi (the Cherokee language) so that she can one day live her dream of contributing to language retention and revitalization. Jamie has been an activist in Portland for 7 years, helping to organize direct action in protest of systemic racism; she has worked as an organizer on #NoDAPL, the Inauguration Day Protest of 2017, and #OccupyICE. This work is deeply intertwined in her social science work, as she strives for praxis in all she does—to Jamie, no part of her life is disconnected to another, and she purposefully combines her lived experiences with her work. Her knowledge specialties center around the racial worldview, racial justice, praxis in activism and Cherokee culture. Her previous work, outside of activism, includes mixed methods research which addressed food insecurity amongst college students and demonstrated a need to use an equity lens in providing resources to BIPOC students and immigrants, Cherokee cultural learning initiatives such as this project on basket weaving, gender and colonization, and nonprofit evaluation.