About Rosalyn LaPier

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Rosalyn is an award winning Indigenous writer, environmental historian, and ethnobotanist.

She works within Indigenous communities to revitalize traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and to strengthen public policy for Indigenous languages.

She is a traditionally trained ethnobotanist. She learned ethnobotany & traditional ecological knowledge by apprenticing with her maternal grandmother Annie Mad Plume Wall & her aunt Theresa Still Smoking for more than 20 years.

She has written two award winning books, two Blackfeet language lexicons, and dozens of articles and commentaries. Her writing has appeared in The Conversation, High Country News, The Montana Naturalist, Washington Post, & other places.

She splits her time between living in the lands of the Peoria & Potawatomi peoples in Urbana, Illinois, the Salish in Missoula, Montana, and the Blackfeet reservation. She is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana and Métis.

Ask Her

Rosalyn gives interviews as an expert on Indigenous environmental issues, ethnobotany, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), Indigenous Knowledge and environmental history of the American West.

Current & Previous Positions

  • Rosalyn is a Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and a Research Associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

  • She previously worked at Piegan Institute, a private nonprofit on the Blackfeet reservation working to revitalize the Blackfeet language. She raised more than $4,000,000.00 for their programs.

  • She previously taught at NAES College, a private Native-controlled college, which offered a B.A. degree in Indigenous Public Policy & Community Development. And at the University of Montana’s Environmental Studies Program.

Contact Rosalyn