Edward Valandra is Si?á??u Thit?u?wa?, born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. He received a BA in chemistry from Mankato State University, an MA in political science (public policy) from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and a PhD in American Studies (Native Studies concentration) from SUNY-Buffalo. Both Vine Deloria, Jr., Hú?kpap?a Thit?u?wa?, and John Mohawk, Seneca, were his committee chairs, respectively. Edward has served his nation, the Si?á??u Thit?u?wa? Oyáte, in various capacities. He served on the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council (1985-89) and as a representative on the Inter-Tribal Bison Cooperative (ITBC) Board of Directors (1996-2000). He also served on his nation's seven-member Constitutional Task Force (2004-2006). Dr. Valandra has taught at both Native and non-Native colleges and universities: Oglála Lak?óta College, Si?té Gle?ká University, Metropolitan State University (St. Paul, Minnesota), the University of California at Davis, and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. His research focuses on the national revitalization of the O?héthi ?akówi? Oyáte (People of the Seven Fires, commonly called the D/L/Nak?óta People) and the development of Native Studies. In February, 2010, he was elected president of the American Indian Studies Association. He has had numerous articles published. In 2006, the University of Illinois Press published his book on the "Termination Era" in the US and South Dakota, Not Without Our Consent: Lakota Resistance to Termination, 1950-59. Edward is the founder and research fellow for the Community for the Advancement of Native Studies (CANS), a Native government-chartered, research-based, reservation-rooted organization. Since 2003, he has served as an advisor to Living Justice Press on Native understandings of justice and on how to apply restorative justice to repairing longstanding, historical, and current harms between Peoples.
