As a young, petite, Native American woman, Dr. Majel Boxer stands out among her mostly male, mostly White colleagues in Fort Lewis College’s Native American and Indigenous Studies department. But don’t let her stature fool you — this faculty member is highly accomplished and has helped affect change in tribal communities.
Not only has she re-energized the Native American and Indigenous Studies department at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., but she also is changing how Native American history is portrayed in museums across the country.
“Western institutions, including higher education and museums, have historically been complicit in describing indigenous peoples in racialized ways,” Boxer says. “They categorize and present these groups with anthropological terms.”
The goal of her scholarship, she says, is to help native populations reclaim the way their cultural identities are often portrayed.
