ABSTRACT
We begin by locating our relationship. Although we (Michael and Tim) grew up just miles from one another in western Montana, it took us until graduate school at Arizona State University (ASU) to first meet one another in 2010. In that first meeting, our connection was instantaneous since our relationship was rooted in place—the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Mission Mountains, Flathead Lake, and the people we both knew. Our work at ASU brought us even closer together as we worked with James Blasingame, Simon Ortiz, Andrea Box, Kyle Wilson and many others on a project called “Native American Next Steps.” The purpose of this project was to help schools in the Phoenix area create courses that centered Native American histories, peoples, and knowledges. Through that work, we came to realize we were rooted in the same places, families, and communities. Fate had surely united the two of us, and we quickly became cousins, one another’s familial support, and ties to home in academic spaces that, at times, worked to strip that identity from each of us.
