23 Guest 3 – Meet Laura, RCTC Student and Human Library Volunteer
Meet Laura
Laura Oakgrove speaks regularly to the COMM 2100 class. As an RCTC student, she has assisted as a Teaching Assistant in the class, having taken the class. After attending the Human Library as a student for her “Intercultural Communication Conversations/Site Visits,” she immediately signed up as Human Library Volunteer and is a leader in the community in this effort. Laura shares her life stories of, “Walking in Darkness,” as she explains what it is like to lose her sight. Laura offers “readers” the choice of stories concerning her lived experience as a woman who grew up on the Red Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota, “Native.” Additionally, she opens the door to a frank discussion about living in poverty, raising her 3 children as a single mother going to school to better her own life through her “book” called, “Fixed Income.”
As an RCTC student, Laura offers practical advice for students to adopt a more inclusive communication style right here, right now in your own backyard and school. Please reach out to Lori if you’d like to participate in an Intercultural Conversation Showcase with Laura.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dRGjdeZJq6M%3Frel%3D0%26wmode%3Dopaque
https://kttc.com/2019/12/03/rochester-community-celebrates-all-abilities/
NewsReport; https://kttc.com/2019/12/03/rochester-community-celebrates-all-abilities/
Additional Resources Laura Suggests reading:
Red Lake Nation Information:
https://www.redlakenation.org/
Warrior Nation: A History of the Red Lake Ojibwe, Anton Treuer
“The Red Lake Nation has a unique and deeply important history. Unlike every other reservation in Minnesota, Red Lake holds its land in common—and, consequently, the tribe retains its entire reservation land base. The people of Red Lake developed the first modern indigenous democratic governance system in the United States, decades before any other tribe, but they also maintained their system of hereditary chiefs. The tribe never surrendered to state jurisdiction over crimes committed on its reservation. The reservation is also home to the highest number of Ojibwe-speaking people in the state.
Warrior Nation covers four centuries of the Red Lake Nation’s forceful and assertive tenure on its land. Ojibwe historian and linguist Anton Treuer conducted oral histories with elders across the Red Lake reservation, learning the stories carried by the people. And the Red Lake band has, for the first time, made available its archival collections, including the personal papers of Peter Graves, the brilliant political strategist and tribal leader of the first half of the twentieth century, which tell a startling story about the negotiations over reservation boundaries.
This fascinating history offers not only a chronicle of the Red Lake Nation but also a compelling perspective on a difficult piece of U.S. history” (from Book Bio).
Also, See:
Summary of the Book and a highlighting article by Anton Treuer opens in new window
