Edward C Valandra, Ph.D., is Sicangu Titunwan, born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. He received his B.A. in chemistry from Mankato State University, his M.A. in political science (public policy) from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and his Ph.D. in American Studies (Native Studies concentration) from SUNY-Buffalo.
Dr. Valandra has served his nation, the Sicangu Titunwan Oyate, in various capacities. He served a four-year term on the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council (1985–89) and was a representative on the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) board of directors (1996– 2000). He also served on his nation’s seven-member Constitutional Task Force (2004–2006).
Professor Valandra has taught at both Native and non-Native colleges and universities: Oglala Lakota College, Sinte Gleska University, Metropolitan State University (St. Paul, Minnesota), the University of California at Davis, and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. His research focuses on the national revitalization of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (People of the Seven Fires, commonly called the D/L/Nakota people) and the development of Native Studies. In February, 2010, he was elected President of the American Indian Studies Association, the signature association for the discipline of Native Studies.
His numerous articles have been published both in professional journals and in edited volumes. In 2006, the University of Illinois Press published his book on the “Termination Era” in the U.S. and South Dakota, Not Without Our Consent: Lakota Resistance to Termination, 1950–1959, with a Foreword by the late great Hunkpapa Titunwan scholar Vine Deloria, Jr. The book documents Oceti Sakowin Oyate opposition to attempts at applying in South Dakota federal legislation to terminate Native nations coast to coast (Public Law 83-280). The book follows the struggle of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate through the 1950s when, against all odds, their resistance succeeded—a powerful and inspiring story.
Dr. Valandra is the founder and Research Fellow for the Community for the Advancement of Native Studies (CANS), a Native-government-chartered, research-based, reservation-rooted organization. CANS supports the advancement of Native Studies as both an intellectual and applied discipline. It serves Native Peoples by conducting research that promotes the liberation of Native Country, which involves revitalizing nationhood. Dr. Valandra’s work for CANS ranges from consulting Native colleges and Native governments to forming networks and providing guidance on Native-based community projects to building undergraduate and graduate curricula in Native Studies.
Since 2003, Dr. Valandra has served as an advisor to Living Justice Press on Native understandings of justice and on how to apply restorative justice to repairing longstanding, historical, and current harms between peoples. He has helped LJP most generously at every stage of the publishing process, from acquiring manuscripts to editing them to promoting them, helping us get LJP books into the hands of target-audience readers. We are most grateful to have him on board officially as LJP’s Senior Editor—a service he has performed almost from the start.
Click here to access Dr. Valandra’s writings at academia.edu
Click here to view Dr. Valandra’s profile on LinkedIn.
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