Indigenous Peoples' Day Summit 2025
Join in!
Again this year, the American Indian Success (AIS) program is hosting a morning of programming focused on celebration and learning to honor Indigenous Peoples' Day.
Please note: Smudging will occur throughout this event. Campus offices will be closed for employees to attend.
Agenda:
- 9–9:15 a.m. Welcome | Opening Activity | T Plaza
- 9:20–9:50 a.m. Keynote: Beyond the Land Acknowledgment: Land, Higher Education, and Accountability to Native Nations, Keynote Speaker Megan Red Shirt-Shaw (bio below) | T Plaza
- 9:50–10 a.m. Transition to breakout sessions
Note: There are three breakout topics available, and two breakout sessions — choose one topic for each session.
- 10–10:50 a.m. Breakout Session 1
- 11 a.m.–noon Breakout Session 2
- Noon Event wraps up and ends
Breakout Topics
Topic 1 | T.1400
Finding Your Way: Belonging, Community, and Thriving in College
College is more than a classroom experience—it’s a journey of connection, growth, and discovering where you belong. In this encouraging and insightful session, Megan Red Shirt-Shaw shares strategies for students to navigate campus life with purpose, especially when facing unfamiliar environments or identity-based challenges.
Drawing from her experience as an educator, student services professional, and community-builder, Megan highlights the importance of inclusive culture, relationship-centered spaces, and trusted conversations that help students feel seen, supported, and empowered.
Whether you are just getting started or finding your footing mid-journey, this session offers tools for building connection, deepening understanding, and showing up for yourself and others throughout your college experience. This session will also be tailored to educators and student services professionals.
Topic 2 | T.2901
Indigenizing Work in Higher Education
Dr. Little shares strategies for building more inclusive campuses, through recruitment, retention, mentorship, and curriculum change, that center Native worldviews and foster genuine belonging. He also addresses barriers that Native students face in higher education and how to overcome some of those obstacles.
Topic 3 | L.3100
From Awareness to Action: Supporting Native Student Success at Minneapolis College
This breakout session offers Minneapolis College faculty and staff an opportunity to deepen their understanding of how to support Native/Indigenous students—specifically within the context of our institution. Led by the American Indian Success Program Coordinator Aubrey Hendrixson, the session will explore the unique role this position plays in advocating for Native/Indigenous learners and fostering culturally grounded support systems. Through open dialogue, shared experiences, and practical strategies, participants will be invited to ask questions, reflect on current practices, and leave with actionable insights to better serve Native students in their classrooms, offices, and campus communities.
Speaker Bios
Megan Red Shirt-Shaw
Dr. Megan Red Shirt-Shaw (Oglala and Sicangu Lakota) is a powerful voice in education, known for her heartfelt leadership, visionary thinking, and unwavering commitment to Native students and communities. A scholar, speaker, and advocate, she brings deep insight and cultural grounding to every stage—whether she’s calling for institutional accountability, uplifting Indigenous leadership, or guiding young people toward purpose and belonging.
Megan currently serves as the Director of Native Student Services at the University of South Dakota. She earned her Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development with a focus on Higher Education and a minor in American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota. In 2021, she was elected to a seven-year term on Harvard University’s Board of Overseers, helping shape the direction of one of the world’s most influential academic institutions.
Her widely circulated piece, Beyond the Land Acknowledgement: College 'LAND BACK' or Free Tuition for Native Students, exemplifies her approach—bold, principled, and community-rooted. Megan’s work spans college counseling, admissions, student affairs, and teaching, all driven by a core belief: that education must be a space where Native students and all students are seen, supported, and empowered to thrive.
With deep relational wisdom and a gift for storytelling, Megan brings a people-first approach to leadership, grounded in kinship, justice, and hope. Her mother once taught her a phrase in Lakota that she carries into every room: Weksuye, Ciksuye, Miksuye—“I remember, I remember you, Remember me.”
John Little
John Little, PhD (Standing Rock Dakota), is a scholar, historian, filmmaker, and mentor. His presentations and research focus on Native student retention and success in higher education, decolonizing work in the university, cultural appropriation and Native American-themed mascots, Lakota and Dakota music, and Native American Vietnam veterans, looking at the fact that Native Americans serve in the military at a higher per-capita rate than any other ethnic group in the United States.
Dr. Little received his PhD in History from the University of Minnesota and is passionate about changing the way history is written about Native peoples. He is currently the Director of Native Recruitment and Alumni Engagement at the University of South Dakota. Previously, he was the Director of the Indian University of North America, a Native American college readiness program for high school graduates at the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Little is the co-director, alongside his brother Kenn, of the 2017 award-winning film, “More Than A Word.” The documentary goes inside the movement to change the name of the Washington R*dskins football team as well as what’s at stake in contemporary debates about cultural appropriation and Native American-themed mascots.