I was lucky to be able to access the Viola Cordova Papers at the University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections with my friends Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner (behind the camera) and Joseph Miller in February, 2024.

My current research is focused on wahkootowin, the Métis/Cree concept of kinship. I think that wahkootowin can form the basis of a unified theory of ethics that includes humans, nonhuman beings, and the land itself.

My research draws on varied sources, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to develop my novel interpretation of wahkootowin ethics and explain how a concept of kinship can serve as a guide to our actions in many domains.

My dissertation is on wahkootowin in ethics, but I also think about wahkootowin as a principle of governance and conflict resolution. Conceptualizing nation-to-nation negotiation, treaty negotiations, and plans for sustainable development along kinship lines can lead to fruitful insight.

Aside from my doctoral work, my recent research has focused on kincentric urban development and Indigenous arguments for vegetarianism and veganism. The latter project is in collaboration with Joseph Len Miller (Mvskoke) of West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

I am also a founding member of the Philosophy of Indigenous Education (PINE) project. PINE is a group of Indigenous philosophers and scholars that runs an annual workshop on the educational legacy of residential schools and two annual reading groups on Indigenous education and fiction.