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Indigenous Lecture Series

The Indigenous Studies Series highlights contemporary and historical topics relevant to Indigenous studies, research, and teaching. Through this series Indigenous scholars present their recent research, books, and other important initiatives. The goal of the series is to engage members of the York community and beyond regarding Indigenous Studies initiatives to gain a better understanding of contemporary and historical events effecting Indigenous communities and all of us living on Turtle Island.

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The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told: Understanding American Law Through an Indigenous Lens

Speaker: Keith Richotte, Jr.

Date: Wednesday, Oct. 7
Time: 2:30 – 5:00 p.m. 
Location: Ross Building, Room 802 South

The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told book cover with red animal icons

Join us as guest speaker professor Keith Richotte Jr. examines how the U.S. doctrine of plenary power—granting sweeping authority over Native American nations—came to be understood as constitutional, despite its origins in deeply flawed and outdated assumptions. Through a distinctive blend of legal analysis and Native history, Richotte, Jr. explores when and why this transformation occurred, and what it reveals about constitutional interpretation today. Centring Indigenous perspectives and the tradition of trickster stories, the talk invites audiences to rethink this history and imagine a more just, equitable and constitutional future.  

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Presenter Bio

Keith Richotte, Jr. is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians where he has served as an Associate Justice on the Turtle Mountain Tribal Court of Appeals since 2009. He is also the Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program and Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.

Professional headshot of Keith Richotte Jr

Past Events

The control and eradication of Indigenous womanhood in Canada is rooted within a number of colonial policies that intervene with Indigenous women's rights to birth and mother their own children. A history of racist and sexist views against Indigenous women, continue to shape maternal health experiences today, evident in recent forced and coerced sterilizations; a concern that must also be understood within the context of racialized, sexualized, and gender-based violences against Indigenous women. Matrilineal societies honoured the agency of women and ensured safety through kinship, and they were deemed a threat to the settler colonial land theft project. This presentation introduced Matriarchal Worlding, an Indigenous feminist orientation for ‘rematriating justice’ and upholding the power and place of Indigenous women and girls.

Dr. Jennifer Brant, first and foremost a mother of two boys, belongs to the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk Nation) with family ties to Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. Jennifer is the founding director of the Indigenous Literatures Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto where she teaches courses on Indigenous maternal theory, Indigenous literatures and methodologies. Jennifer is also the co-editor of Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada (2016) and Rematriating Justice: Honouring Our Missing Sisters (2024).