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Indian Land Tenure Foundation Speaker Series: Julie Cajune to speak March 30

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First, thank you to everyone who has attended the Indian Land Tenure Foundation “Lessons of our Land,” Speaker Series.

Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in the Cobell v. Salazar lawsuit, packed the lecture hall on the University of Montana campus last week.

Up next as the final speaker in the series is Julie Cajune, executive director of the Center for American Indian Policy and Applied Research at Salish Kootenai College.

Julie Cajune, Indian Land Tenure Foundation Speaker Series

Cajune, who was profiled in Utne magazine in 2009 as one of 50 visionaries who are changing the world, will talk about a statewide Indian land curriculum she developed that aligns with Montana state education standards. The lesson plans were created as specific matches to Montana tribes and can be used with the existing Indian Land Tenure Foundation’s land tenure curriculum titled “Lessons of Our Land.”

Cajune has worked in education for nearly two decades. She earned a master’s degree in bilingual education and served as the curriculum specialist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes before returning to public education and administration. She has developed culturally responsive material for the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Montana Historical Society and numerous other entities. In addition, she completed a three-year tribal history project funded by the Montana Legislature.

Cajune received the Milken National Educator Award in 2002. As a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, she worked at Nkwusm, the Salish Language Revitalization Institute, as director of development and teacher supervisor. She was awarded a $1.4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to continue work on the development and publication of tribal history materials. The grant is based at Salish Kootenai College.

The speaker series is sponsored by the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, a community-based, nonprofit organization focused on the recovery, management and control of American Indian lands by Indian people. For more information, visit http://iltf.org , call Jodi Rave at 406-396-8537 or e-mail jodi.rave@umontana.edu .

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.