Brenda Child facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Brenda J. Child
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Child in 2016
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| Born | 1959 |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation | Historian, Author, Educator |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Minnesota |
| Thesis | A bitter lesson : Native Americans and the government boarding school experience, 1890–1940 (1993) |
| Academic advisors | Linda K. Kerber |
| Doctoral students | Patricia Marroquin Norby |
Brenda J. Child (born 1959) is an Ojibwe historian and author. She is known for her work on American Indian history and education.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Brenda J. Child was born in 1959. Her birthplace was the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. She is a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.
She studied history at college. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Arts, from Bemidji State University. Later, she received her Master of Arts (1983) and her PhD (1993) from the University of Iowa.
About Brenda J. Child
Brenda Child is a professor at the University of Minnesota. She teaches and studies American Indian history. Her research looks at important topics. These include the history of American Indian boarding schools in the United States. She also studies the role of Ojibwe women in keeping their culture strong. She has explored Indigenous education and the history of the jingle dress.
Child wrote an award-winning children's book. It is called Bowwow Powwow: Bagosenjige-niimi’idim. From 2017 to 2018, she was the president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. This group focuses on Native American and Indigenous studies.
She has worked with many museums and heritage groups. She was a trustee (like a board member) at the National Museum of the American Indian. This museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution. She helped with committees there from 2013 to 2019. She also helped the Heard Museum create an exhibit. It was called Remembering our Indian School Days. In 2022, Brenda Child received a special award. It was a Guggenheim Fellowship for her work.
Brenda Child also helped her own tribe. She served on a committee for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. This committee worked to write a new constitution for the tribe.
Her Research and Work
Brenda Child's research mainly focuses on Ojibwe history. She has also helped create museum exhibits. She worked on public history projects too. For example, she helped start the Ojibwe People's Dictionary. She created this with John Nichols.
In 2019, she put together an exhibit. It was about the history of the jingle dress. The exhibit was called Ziibaask'iganagooday: The Jingle Dress at 100. Dr. Child is currently writing a new book. It is titled The Marriage Blanket: Love, Violence and the Law in Indian Country.
Selected Works
Brenda Child has written many books and articles. Here are a few of them:
- Bowwow Powwow: Bagosenjige-niimi’idim (2018) – This is her children's book.
- My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation (2014)
- Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (2012)
- Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879–2000 (2000) – She co-edited this book.
- Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900–1940 (1998)
Awards and Honors
Brenda Child has received several awards for her important work:
- Guggenheim Fellowship Award (2022-23)
- American Indian Youth Literature Award, Best Picture Book (2020) – for Bowwow Powwow
- AASLH Award of Merit for Leadership in History (2016)
- American Indian Book Award (2014)
- Best Book in Midwestern History (2014)
- North American Indian Prose Award (1995)
