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Michael Waasegiizhig Price is a traditional knowledge specialist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission also known as GLIFWC. Price is Anishinaabe and an enrolled member of the Wikwemikong First Nations. Prior to joining GLIFWC, Price served as forest ecology instructor at Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake Minnesota where he worked to make science more culturally relevant by integrating Anishinaabe language and traditions into the forestry curriculum. Price has a Masters of Science in Forestry from the University of Montana-Missoula and in 2018 received a certificate of Ojibwe Language instruction from Bemidji State University. However, Price says his most valuable education has been from the teachings of Anishinaabe elders including Tobasanokwut Kinew-iban, Basil Johnston-iban, Leroy Littlebear (Blackfoot), Henrietta Mann (Cheyenne), Wallace Humphrey, Nancy Kingbird, Robert “Bob” Jourdain and Bob Shimek, as well as other traditional knowledge-keepers who have kept and preserved indigenous ways of life.
Dr. Hayden L. Nelson is a historian specializing in environmental and Indigenous history in the North American West and currently a Gale Scholar, research historian at the Minnesota Historical Society. A native Wisconsinite, Dr. Nelson attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he received his undergraduate degree in History with minors in both Ancient Studies and American Indian Studies and also earned a Certificate in Ojibwe Language. Following his studies at Eau Claire, he went on to obtain a Masters in History at the University of Montana. Most recently, Dr. Nelson earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of Kansas where he wrote an award-winning dissertation examining the long trajectory of colonization in the North Woods through an environmental lens, from the beginnings of the fur trade in the seventeenth century through the end of industrial logging in the twentieth century.
Dr. Nelson is currently working on revising his dissertation into a book project, co-editing a collection on the history of extractive industries in the Midwest, writing several articles at various stages of completion, and serves as creator and curator of the Great Lakes Fire History Digital Archive. For more on Dr. Nelson's work or to contact him, please visit his webpage: https://www.haydenlnelson.com/
Nicole Dzenowski is the paleontology lab manager at the Science Museum of Minnesota with a background in geology, biology, and paleontology. At Youngstown State University, Dzenowski earned a BA in Geology/Earth Science as well as an BS in biology. They went on to receive a Masters of Science in Geology/Earth Science from Ohio University and spent four years gaining experience as a paleontologist in the National Park Service. Today, as a lab manager, Dzenowski can be found extracting fossils from the ground, cleaning up findings, and putting them back together for study. Together with a team from the Science Museum, Dzenowski participated in a number of outreach activities to promote the Giant Beaver as Minnesota’s state fossil.
American Fur Company Papers, 1831-1849, MNHS Call Number M151.
Contracts with Voyageurs, April 1692, MNHS Collections P1079.
Pierre La Verendrye Papers, 1735-1748, MNHS call number: 129.F.3.8F-1.
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Richter, Daniel K. Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Harvard University Press, 2003.
Rossell, Frank and Róisín Campbell-Palmer, eds. Beavers: Ecology, Behaviour, Conservation, and Management. Oxford University Press, 2022.
Runtz, Michael. Dam Builders: The Natural History of Beavers and Their Ponds. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2015.
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. A Short History of the Blockade: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin. University of Alberta Press, 2021.
United States Department of Agriculture. “Reducing Beaver Damage Through an Integrated Wildlife Damage Management Program in the State of Minnesota.” (2002). https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mn-2002-beaver-ea.pdf.
White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. Cambridge University Press, 1991.