Local News - Mar. 7, 2017

Press release

The Little River Institute at Montana State University-Northern has announced Julie Cajune will be on campus Wednesday as part of the Indigenous Education Lecture Series.

Cajune will present “Native Knowledge in Higher Education” at 11 a.m. in Brockman Center 211 and 4 p.m. in Cowan Hall 314 for area faculty and teachers.

She will then present “Native Knowledge in the 21st Century,” open to the community, at 7 p.m. in Hensler Auditorium in Northern’s Applied Technology Center.

Cajune, a Salish educator and citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, has served in the public school system as both a teacher and an administrator. She transitioned from her work in public education to a position for the CSKT Tribal Education Department as a curriculum specialist.

Much of Cajune’s career has been devoted to the development of culturally responsive instructional materials. She has produced books, films, plays and curricula with a focus on American Indian history.

Her commitment to the inclusion of Native history in mainstream classrooms has brought her local and national recognition. She is the recipient of the Milken National Educator Award, the Walt Brown Montana Human Rights Award, the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award, and both the Distinguished Alumni and the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the University of Montana Western.

People can call Erica McKeon-Hanson at 265-3713 with any questions regarding the lecture.