Julie Pelletier, Associate Professor and Chair
of the Indigenous Studies Department, is a descendant of the Wesget Sipu Fish
River Tribe of northern Maine.
She earned her Ph.D. and MA in Cultural Anthropology at Michigan State
University and was the
first graduate student at MSU whose doctoral research was funded by a tribe,
the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
She has conducted fieldwork in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with the Anishinaabeg and in Aotearoa/New Zealand with the Maori. Her research interests include decolonization, identity issues, representation and ritualization. Most recently her research has focused on American Indian casino gaming as site of contestation. She was a founder and coordinator of the American Indian Studies program at the University of Minnesota-Morris, where she was an associate professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies.
