Tribal Historic Preservation Officer to Speak on Embedded Generational Knowledge

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Dyan Youpee (Lakota/Dakota) will be speaking on Thursday, Nov. 2, at 6 p.m. in the Ziegler Reception Room at the Fayetteville Public Library. This lecture and conversation are free and open to the public, and will be livestreamed via YouTube and Facebook. All are welcome to attend.

Youpee represents the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes of northeast Montana in cultural preservation as the Cultural Resource Department director. She also serves as the Tribes' historic preservation officer, museum curator and archivist. Youpee's father created the department for the Tribes in 1995, where she grew up watching her fathers' efforts of cultural preservation. Today she's a practitioner of embedded generational knowledge, as well as exploring new evolving career practices that she balances with her cultural upbringing. She believes her work is most dedicated to acknowledging her ancestors buried and for future lineages.

During this lecture, Youpee will share her experiences growing up in a family where the work of cultural preservation is inseparable from everyday ways of life. She will describe some of the successes and challenges she's faced in repatriation and bringing ancestors home, as well as offer insight into the importance of culture, history, language and place.

Her work has recently been featured in several articles and podcasts. Youpee was was also conferred the Excellence in Tribal Historic Preservation award this past year from the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.

Youpee's lecture is part of the Stigler Lecture Series in Archaeology and is supported by the U of A Department of Anthropology.