Associate Professor
Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt. Her research is focused on Indigenous feminisms, California Indians, Environmental Justice, and Decolonization. Her book We Are Dancing For You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women's Coming-of-age Ceremonies was awarded "Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies" at the 2019 Native American Indigenous Studies Association Conference. She received her Ph.D. in Native American Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research from the University of California, Davis and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Literary Research from San Diego State University. She also has her B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University. Dr. Risling Baldy is Hupa, Yurok and Karuk and an enrolled member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California. In 2007, Dr. Risling Baldy co-founded the Native Women's Collective, a nonprofit organization that supports the continued revitalization of Native American arts and culture. She lives in Humboldt County with her husband, daughter, step-son, and a puppy named Buffy.
A list of your publications and links to where we can find them:
Books:
- We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women's Coming-of-Age Ceremonies. University of Washington Press, 2018
Peer Reviewed:
- "Introduction: Indigenous Peoples and the Politics of Water." Special Issue. Cutcha Risling Baldy & Melanie Yazzie eds. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society, 7.1 (2018).
- "mini-k’iwh’e:n (For That Purpose—I Consider Things) (Re)writing and (Re)righting Indigenous Menstrual Practices to Intervene on Contemporary Menstrual Discourse and the Politics of Taboo" Cultural Studies↔ Critical Methodologies (2016): 1532708616638695.
- "The New Native Intellectualism: #ElizabethCookLynn, Social Media Movements, and the Millennial Native American Studies Scholar.” Wicazo Sa Review 31.1 (2016): 90-110.
- "Coyote is Not a Metaphor: On Decolonizing, Renaming and Reclaiming Coyote" Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society, 4.1 (2015).
- "Why we gather: traditional gathering in native Northwest California and the future of bio-cultural sovereignty." Ecological Processes 2.1 (2013): 17.
Book Chapters:
- “Xo’ch Na:nahsdetł-te Survivance, Resilience and Unbroken Traditions in Northwest California” by Cutcha Risling Baldy & Kayla Begay Ka’m-t’em: A Journey toward Healing. Temecula, California: Great Oak Press. May 2019.
Fiction/Non-Fiction/Poetry:
- “Representation Matters.” North Coast Journal. October 3, 2019. https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/representation-matters/Content?oid=15371022
- “How We Let This Happen.” North Coast Journal. June 27, 2019. https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/how-we-let-this-happen/Content?oid=14525969
- “Genocide and Fugly Chairs.” North Coast Journal. April 11, 2019. https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/genocide-and-fugly-chairs/Content?oid=13800417
- “The G-O Road 30 Years Later.” News from Native California. September 17, 2018.
- "The Flower Dancers: Reviving Hupa coming-of-age ceremonies." North Coast Journal. August 2, 2018.
- "Don't Live in a Murder House." North Coast Journal. August 10, 2017.
- "Water is Life: The Flower Dance Ceremony" News from Native California, Volume 30, Issue 3, Spring 2017.
- “We Fight for the Land, the Earth, Everything: From Bears Ears to the High Country of California.” Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak for Bears Ears, 2016.
- "We Resist, We Survive: Leonard Peltier and Imprisoned Indians." teleSUR English. February 6, 2016, web.
- "Ten Days or Thoughts on That My Baby." As/Us Journal, Issue 5, December 6, 2015
- “Xoq’it-Ch’iswa:l On Her They Beat Time, A Flower Dance Is Held For Her: The Revitalization of the Women’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony Part Two.” Two Rivers Tribune, Volume 21, Issue 32, August 11, 2015.
- “No:’olchwin-ding, No:’olchwin-te To Grow Old In A Good Way: The Hupa Flower Dance and Revitalization of Women’s Coming of Age Ceremonies in Native California.” Two Rivers Tribune, Volume 21, Issue 30, July 28, 2015.
- “Hupa Language Thrives Through Online Resources.” Two Rivers Tribune, Volume 21, Issue 30, July 28, 2015.
- "A Poem for Frog Woman." News from Native California, Volume 27, Number 4, 2014
- "Why I Teach The Walking Dead in my Native Studies Classes." Nerds of Color. April 24, 2014, web.
- "On Separating Veronica Brown from her father Dusten Brown." Native News Online. September 27,2 014, web.