Current:Home > MyDenise Lajimodiere is named North Dakota's first Native American poet laureate -AssetPath
Denise Lajimodiere is named North Dakota's first Native American poet laureate
View
Date:2025-04-24 18:56:32
North Dakota lawmakers have appointed a Chippewa woman as the state's poet laureate, making her the first Native American to hold this position in the state and increasing attention to her expertise on the troubled history of Native American boarding schools.
Denise Lajimodiere, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians in Belcourt, has written several award-winning books of poetry. She's considered a national expert on the history of Native American boarding schools and wrote an academic book called "Stringing Rosaries" in 2019 on the atrocities experienced by boarding school survivors.
"I'm honored and humbled to represent my tribe. They are and always will be my inspiration," Lajimodiere said in an interview, following a bipartisan confirmation of her two-year term as poet laureate on Wednesday.
Poet laureates represent the state in inaugural speeches, commencements, poetry readings and educational events, said Kim Konikow, executive director of the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
Lajimodiere, an educator who earned her doctorate degree from the University of North Dakota, said she plans to leverage her role as poet laureate to hold workshops with Native students around the state. She wants to develop a new book that focuses on them.
Lajimodiere's appointment is impactful and inspirational because "representation counts at all levels," said Nicole Donaghy, executive director of the advocacy group North Dakota Native Vote and a Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.
The more Native Americans can see themselves in positions of honor, the better it is for our communities, Donaghy said.
"I've grown up knowing how amazing she is," said Rep. Jayme Davis, a Democrat of Rolette, who is from the same Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa as Lajimodiere. "In my mind, there's nobody more deserving."
Lajimodiere has helped place attention on the impacts of Native American boarding schools
By spotlighting personal accounts of what boarding school survivors experienced, Lajimodiere's book "Stringing Rosaries" sparked discussions on how to address injustices Native people have experienced, Davis said.
From the 18th century and continuing as late as the 1960s, networks of boarding schools institutionalized the legal kidnapping, abuse, and forced cultural assimilation of Indigenous children in North America. Much of Lajimodiere's work grapples with trauma as it was felt by Native people in the region.
"Sap seeps down a fir tree's trunk like bitter tears.... I brace against the tree and weep for the children, for the parents left behind, for my father who lived, for those who didn't," Lajimodiere wrote in a poem based on interviews with boarding school victims, published in her 2016 book "Bitter Tears."
Davis, the legislator, said Lajimodiere's writing informs ongoing work to grapple with the past like returning ancestral remains — including boarding school victims — and protecting tribal cultures going forward by codifying the federal Indian Child Welfare Act into state law.
The law, enacted in 1978, gives tribes power in foster care and adoption proceedings involving Native children. North Dakota and several other states have considered codifying it this year, as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge to the federal law.
The U.S. Department of the Interior released a report last year that identified more than 400 Native American boarding schools that sought to assimilate Native children into white society. The federal study found that more than 500 students died at the boarding schools, but officials expect that figure to grow exponentially as research continues.
veryGood! (14)
Related
- The Daily Money: Spending more on holiday travel?
- DNA from fork leads to arrest of Florida man 15 years after uncle killed in NYC
- Former NBA Player Drew Gordon Dead at 33 After Car Crash
- BLM buys about 3,700 acres of land adjacent to Río Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico
- Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
- Notorious B.I.G.’s Mom Voletta Wallace Says She Wants to “Slap the Daylights” Out of Sean “Diddy” Combs
- Here's Johnny! Buzzy slasher movie 'In a Violent Nature' unleashes a gory kill to die for
- Jimmy Hayes’ Widow Kristen Remarries, Expecting Baby With Husband Evan Crosby
- Retirement planning: 3 crucial moves everyone should make before 2025
- Ambulance services for some in New Mexico will rise after state regulators approve rate increase
Ranking
- John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
- How many points did Caitlin Clark score last night? Fever routed at home by Storm
- Judge to consider recalling death sentence of man who killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas
- U.S.-made bomb used in Israeli strike on Rafah that killed dozens, munitions experts say
- FACT FOCUS: Inspector general’s Jan. 6 report misrepresented as proof of FBI setup
- Running for U.S. president from prison? Eugene V. Debs did it, a century ago
- BLM buys about 3,700 acres of land adjacent to Río Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico
- Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin wins Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship
Recommendation
Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
Mandy Moore Is Pregnant, Expecting Baby No. 3 With Husband Taylor Goldsmith
'Hot Mess' podcast host Alix Earle lands first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit digital cover
Nicole Brown Simpson’s sisters want you to remember how she lived, not how she died
Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
The Ultimate Lord of the Rings Gift Guide for Everyone in Middle-Earth
Elon Musk sees another big advisory firm come out against his multibillion dollar pay package
South Carolina man pleads guilty to first-degree murder in Virginia police officer’s shooting death
Like
- US wholesale inflation accelerated in November in sign that some price pressures remain elevated
- Prosecutors unveil cache of Menendez texts in bribery trial: It is extremely important that we keep Nadine happy
- Nashville to launch investigation into complaint alleging police lobbied to gut oversight panel