Science and Whiteness- DNA and Indigeneity Symposium

During the 19th century, the American School of Anthropology enfolded Native peoples into their histories, claiming knowledge about and artifacts of these cultures as their rightful inheritance and property. Highlighting several cases, this talk describes how similar enfoldments continue today—despite most contemporary scientists’ explicit rejection of hierarchical ideas of race. This talk highlights extra-legal strategies that can address tensions between indigenous peoples and genome scientists and their facilitators—ethicists, lawyers, and policy makers. Dr. Kimberly TallBear is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Native Studies. She is an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota, descended from the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, and raised on the Flandreau Santee Sioux reservation in South Dakota and in St. Paul.