(https://apps.carleton.edu/news/news/?story_id=904862)

Our 2013 invited guest is Leslie Harper (Leech Lake Band Ojibwe). We will post a biography soon, but in the meantime, please see the coverage on the Ojibwe immersion programs, including a video interview with Leslie Harper, featured on Our Mother Tongues.

Dr. Ofelia Zepeda is a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation of southern Arizona, born and raised in Stanfield, Arizona. Ofelia Zepeda has three books of poetry, Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert, Jewed I-hoi/Earth Movements, and Where Clouds are Formed, and is the co-editor of Home Places, a celebration of twenty years of publication of the Sun Tracks series. Ofelia is one of the few Native American writers who writes and published poetry in her language.

She is a Regents' Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship for her work in American Indian language education, maintenance and recovery. She is director of the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI).

Marjorie Linne Tungwenuk Tahbone or Kunaq is 23 years-old and was raised in Nome, Alaska by her parents Sandra and Carleton Tahbone. Her grandparents are Lillian and Linne Rose and has three sisters Toh-cyah-day-man, Dana, and Vanessa. Marjorie is half Inupiaq on her mother’s side and half Kiowa on her father’s side.

Marjorie graduated from Nome Beltz High School in 2007 and is currently attending the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). She is working towards a double major in Biological Sciences and Alaska Native Studies with a minor in Inupiaq language. Last year Marjorie participated in a study abroad program in Iqaluit, Nunavut where she learned how to sew traditional clothing such as mukluks and parkas and sing Inuktitut songs as well as throat singing. This experience has helped Marjorie learn more about the Inuit culture in different areas of the circumpolar north.

During summers Marjorie is a fisheries technician, restoring fisheries in Nome’s rivers. She loves her job because she gets to spend all day outside along the rivers.

Growing up in Nome Marjorie lead a subsistence lifestyle; picking berries and edible plants, fishing and hunting, and preparing ugruk (bearded seal), aiviq (walrus), and tuttuvak (moose) to store for winter. Marjorie also participates in the Native Games and competes at the annual World Eskimo Indian Olympics (WEIO) during the month of July and is a member of the UAF Inu-Yupiaq Traditional Dance group.