Creighton University

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Fr. Raymond Bucko, S.J. ( bucko@creighton.edu )
Department of Sociology and Anthropology: Fr. Bucko, S.J. has worked with Native people since 1975 in the capacties of Jesuit, scholar, and friend. He taught both high school and college on the Pine Ridge Reservation, worked at the Buechel Museum on the Rosebud Reservation, worked with Urban First Nation peoples in Toronto, and also worked with people on reservations in Arizona and Montana. His Ph D dissertation is on the Lakota sweat lodge. He came to Creighton in 2000 precisely because of the University's ourtreach both the Native scholars and its commitment to develop a Native American Studies Program.

Dr. Jennifer Ladino, Ph.D. (jladino@u.washington.edu )
Department of English: Originally from Virginia, Jennifer Ladino received a BA in English from the University of Virginia, then headed west to earn a PhD at the University of Washington. Her teaching and research focus on 20th century American literature and culture. In summers, she has worked for the National Park Service, a job that sparked her interest in representations of nature – understood as landscape, symbol, everyday environment, or simply “space.” Dr. Ladino’s research grapples with literary and cultural nostalgia, explores what it means to “get back to nature,” and considers how nostalgia might promote socially and environmentally just ends. Native American literature has been central to this project. Her article, “Longing for Wonderland: Nostalgia for Nature in Post-Frontier America,” argues that Zitkala-Ša’s American Indian Stories revises dominant nostalgic discourse of the time and imagines equitable human societies. She is looking forward to teaching Native American literature at Creighton.

Dr. Tracy Leavelle, Ph.D. ( tracy.leavelle@creighton.edu )
Department of History: Tracy Neal Leavelle joined the Department of History as an assistant professor in 2003. He came to Creighton University from Smith College, where he was the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities for 2001-2003. There, he taught in the American Studies Program and participated in the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute project on "Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Ancient and Modern Worlds." He completed his undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology and Native American studies at Dartmouth College and attended Arizona State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in history. His teaching and research interests include early American, American Indian, and religious history. His current research examines the nature of spiritual encounters between Catholic missionaries and American Indians in colonial North America, exploring such issues as the translation and reception of religious concepts, the impact of gender and generational differences on Native responses to Christianity, and the role of religion in shaping colonial geographies. The working title of his book is Encounters of Spirit: Religion, Culture, and Community in French and Indian North America. Other works in progress include a study of conflicts over Native American cultural landscapes and sacred sites and an interview with a Cree ceremonial leader that examines issues of religious tolerance and intolerance.

Dr. Richard Witmer, Ph.D. ( witmer@creighton.edu )
Department of Political Science: Richard Witmer is an assistant professor of Political Science where he teaches courses on American Indian politics, policy and tribal governments as well as courses in American Politics. His current research projects include the political participation of American Indians tribes and tribal leaders in non-tribal elections and politics. A second area of research includes the tribal-state compacting process. His recent publications include an examination of the U.S. Governments approach to Indian Environmental policy entitled “Federal Indian Law and Environmental Policy: A Social Continuity of Violence” with Peter Jacques and Sharon Ridgeway, and an examination of the spread of Indian gaming from state to state entitled “Disentangling Diffusion: The Effect of Social Learning and Economic Competition on State Policy Innovation and Expansion” with Fred Boehmke.