Kim TallBear facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kim TallBear
TallBear in 2017
Born	1968 (age 56–57) Pipestone, Minnesota, Minnesota, U.S.
Nationality	Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
Alma mater	University of Massachusetts at Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Title	Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Alberta
Doctoral advisor	Donna Haraway

Kim TallBear, born in 1968, is a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada. She is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe. Her work focuses on how science and technology relate to Indigenous peoples and their identities.

Professor TallBear holds a special position called the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment. She writes about topics like DNA testing, how people define Indigenous identities, and different ways of thinking about relationships.

Early Life and Family

Kim TallBear was born in 1968 in Pipestone, Minnesota. She spent her childhood moving between the Sisseton and Flandreau reservations in South Dakota. Her grandmother and great-grandmother mostly raised her until she was 14. Then, she moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, to live with her mother.

TallBear is a citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribe in South Dakota. She also has family ties to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma through her mother's side. She has some Cree and Métis ancestors from Canada as well. Her father was white and was only part of her life for a short time.

Growing up, Kim TallBear's home was very active in politics. Her mother taught her that some research and academic ideas were part of a colonial way of thinking. However, her mother also stressed that education was important for a better future.

Education and Career Path

Kim TallBear went to college at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She earned a degree in community planning. After that, she completed her master’s degree in environmental planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Working as an Environmental Planner

After finishing her studies, TallBear worked for 10 years as an environmental planner. She worked for different groups, including the U.S. government, tribal governments, and national tribal organizations. Later, she worked for an Indigenous environmental research group in Denver.

This group held workshops about the human genome and genetic research. These workshops explored how genetic studies might affect Indigenous peoples. Through this work, TallBear decided to continue her education. She earned her PhD in 2005 from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Academic Roles and Recognition

From 2010 to 2013, TallBear was a member of the Council of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). In late 2016, she became the first person to hold the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Environment.

As an anthropologist, she studies the connections between science, technology, and culture. Professor TallBear often shares her ideas with the media. She talks about topics like tribal membership, genetics, and identity. She has taught in the Native Studies department at the University of Alberta since 2014. She became a full professor there in 2020.

Key Areas of Study

DNA and Indigenous Identity

In 2013, Kim TallBear published her first book, Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. This book looks at how genetic science is used to define Indigenous identities.

TallBear argues that DNA tests can sometimes make it seem like being Indigenous is only about genetics. She explains that this idea can be harmful. It can ignore the rich cultural traditions and relationships that truly define Indigenous communities. Her research shows how this can be similar to scientific racism from the past.

TallBear believes that Indigenous communities know their own history best. She points out that scientists should be very careful when studying Indigenous identity. They should build strong relationships with the communities they work with. This is because cultural practices and relationships are very important to Indigenous identity.

Discussing Ancestry Claims

In 2018, Senator Elizabeth Warren shared the results of a DNA test. She said it proved her claim to Cherokee Native American ancestry. This event led to many discussions about how people claim Indigenous ancestry. It also raised questions about who decides if these claims are true.

Kim TallBear's book explains that genetic testing is not a reliable way to prove Indigenous ancestry. She wrote a statement on Twitter in 2018 about Elizabeth Warren's DNA test. TallBear stated that using DNA tests to define who is Indigenous comes from a settler-colonial way of thinking.

TallBear and citizens of the Cherokee Nation explained that tribal governments do not use genetic ancestry tests. Instead, they use family connections and political relationships to define their citizens. Even though the Cherokee Nation and TallBear challenged her claims, Elizabeth Warren initially defended them. She later apologized.

Decolonizing Relationships

In her more recent work, TallBear explores different kinds of relationships. She discusses how some traditional ideas about relationships might be connected to colonial ways of thinking. She has written about this topic on a blog.

TallBear suggests that moving beyond current environmental problems means expanding our understanding of kinship. She argues that Indigenous ideas of kin can help with this. Her work encourages looking beyond only human relationships. It also includes connecting with places and other parts of nature. This focus on kin aims to rethink relationships outside of what she describes as settler-colonial structures.

Selected Works

Books

• Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science, published in 2013 by University of Minnesota Press.
• "Beyond the Life/Not Life Binary: A Feminist-Indigenous Reading of Cryopreservation, Interspecies Thinking and the New Materialisms." in Joanna Radin and Emma Kowal's edited Cryopolitics, published 2017 by MIT Press.
• "Dear Indigenous Studies, It's Not Me, It's You. Why I Left and What Needs to Change." in Aileen Moreton-Robinson's edited Critical Indigenous Studies: Engagements in First World Locations, published 2016 by Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016: 69–82.
• “DNA, Blood and Racializing the Tribe,” in Jayne O. Ifekwunige's ‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader, published 2003 in Wicazo Sá Review Vol. 18(1) (2003): 81–107, then in 2004 by London and New York: Routledge.

Articles

• "Dossier: Theorizing Queer Inhumanisms: An Indigenous Reflection on Working Beyond the Human/Not Human" in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Vol. 21(2-3), 2015: 230–235.
• "The Emergence, Politics, and Marketplace of Native American DNA" in The Routledge Handbook of Science, Technology, and Society, eds. Daniel Lee Kleinman and Kelly Moore. London: Routledge, 2014: 21–37.
• "Tribal Housing, Co-Design & Cultural Sovereignty" in Edmunds, David S., Ryan Shelby, Angela James, Lenora Steele, Michelle Baker, Yael Valerie Perez, and Kim TallBear Science, Technology, & Human Values 38 (6) (2013): 801–828.
• "Genomic Articulations of Indigeneity" in Social Studies of Science 43(4) (August 2013): 509–534.
• "Your DNA is Our History." Genomics, Anthropology, and the Construction of Whiteness as Property," co-authored with Jenny Reardon in Current Anthropology 53(S12) (April 2012): S233–S245.
• "The Illusive Gold Standard in Genetic Ancestry Testing," co-authored with Lee, S. S-J., D. Bolnick, T. Duster, P. Ossorio in Science 325 (5943) (July 3, 2009): 38–39.
• "Commentary" (on Decoding Implications of the Genographic Project for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage)" in International Journal of Cultural Property 16 (2009): 189–192.
• "The Science and Business of Genetic Ancestry," co-authored with Bolnick, Deborah A., Duana Fullwiley, Troy Duster, Richard S. Cooper, Joan H. Fujimura, Jonathan Kahn, Jay Kaufman, Jonathan Marks, Ann Morning, Alondra Nelson, Pilar Ossorio, Jenny Reardon, and Susan M. Reverby in Science, 318(5849) (October 19, 2007): 399–400.
• "Narratives of Race and Indigeneity in the Genographic Project" in Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 35(3) (Fall 2007): 412–424.