Roberta Hill Whiteman facts for kids

Roberta Hill Whiteman is a well-known poet from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She was born in 1947. She is famous for her poetry books, including Star Quilt (published in 1984) and Philadelphia Flowers (published in 1996). In 1991, she won the Wisconsin Idea Foundation's Excellence Award for her amazing work.

Early Life and Learning

Roberta Hill was born in 1947. She is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She grew up living both on the Oneida reservation and in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Her father was a musician. She went to local schools as a child.

Roberta always loved languages and stories. She studied "creative communication" at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, earning her first degree. Later, she earned a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Montana. She then went on to get a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota.

For her PhD, Roberta wrote about her grandmother, Lillie Rosa Minoka Hill. Her grandmother was a Mohawk woman. She was also the second Native American woman in the United States to become a doctor! In 1905, her grandmother moved from Philadelphia to the Oneida reservation in Wisconsin. There, she helped many people by running a "kitchen clinic" from her home for decades.

Family Life

Roberta Hill married Ernest Whiteman, who is an artist. They have three children together. Ernest even helped illustrate Roberta's first poetry book, Star Quilt.

Her Career as a Poet and Teacher

Roberta Hill Whiteman has taught at many colleges. She has shared her poetry and written essays about her work.

She has also been an instructor for the "Poets-in-the-Schools Program." This program helps bring poetry to students in different places, like Minnesota, Arizona, and Oklahoma. Today, she is an Associate Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Her Books and Writings

Roberta Hill Whiteman has written several important books and contributed to other collections:

• Star Quilt (first published in 1984, reprinted in 1999)
• Philadelphia Flowers (published in 1996)
• Her poems were also included in other books, such as Carriers of the Dream Wheel: Contemporary Native American Poetry (1975), The Third Woman: Minority Women Writers of the United States (1980), and Harper's Anthology of Twentieth Century Native American Poetry (1988).
• Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill: Mohawk Woman Physician (1998) – This is a biography she wrote about her amazing grandmother.

See also

In Spanish: Roberta Hill Whiteman para niños