Mark Freeland Director of the Electa Quinney Institute and Associate Professor of Anthropology

Boozhoo! Makwa indoodem. Bahweting nindonjibaa.

Mark Freeland is Bear Clan and a member of the Bahweting community in Northern Michigan (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe Chippewa). He received a Master of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology and a Ph D in Religious and Theological Studies from the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver joint doctoral program. His research critically identifies the role of Indigenous worldview as an integral component of cultural and linguistic translations. His book, Aazheyaadizi: Worldview, Language and the Logics of Decolonization, provides a theoretical grounding for understanding the problematic role that religion continues to play within Indigenous communities and calls for a deeper involvement of the logics of worldview in the regeneration of Indigenous lifeways and protection of our relationships to our environment.
While receiving his Master and Doctoral degrees in Denver, he worked as a council member of the Four Winds American Indian Council, an urban community center in downtown Denver. There he participated in a range of civic, educational and ceremonial duties.
He is coming most recently from South Dakota State University where he was the Co-coordinator of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, which provided the academic component for the Wokini Initiative, a program to redistribute land grant funding to support Indigenous students.