Writing
Rosalyn is an award winning Indigenous writer, environmental historian and ethnobotanist.
Selected Articles & Commentaries
“Indigenous Knowledge, Grasslands and Bison,” PBS The American Bison, October 15, 2023.
“Bison are Sacred to Native Americans – but each tribe has their own relationship to them,” The Conversation, October 6, 2023.
"Native Hawaiian Sacred Sites have been Damaged in the Lahaina Wildfires -- but, as an Indigenous Scholar Writes, Their Stories Will Live On," The Conversation, August 11, 2023. (Also translated into Spanish, "Los lugares sagrados de Hawái perdurarán a pesar de los incendios," The Conversation, August 11, 2023.)
“What Makes Water Sacred to Native Americans,” The Conversation on Water, Edited by Andrea K. Gerlak (expected June 2023). (Reprint from “Why is water sacred to Native Americans?,” The Conversation, March 21, 2017.)
“Land as Text: Reading the Land,” in the “Forum on Narrative and Environmental Justice” with essays by Connie Chiang, Tiya Miles, and Lauret Savoy, edited by Mart Stewart, Environmental History, Volume 28, Number 1, January 2023.
“For Indigenous Peoples, Abortion is a Religious Right,” with Abaki Beck, Aftermath: Life in a Post-Roe America, Edited by Elizabeth Hines, October, 2022. Pp. 126-130. (Reprint from “For Indigenous Peoples, Abortion is a Religious Right,” with Abaki Beck, Yes! Magazine, June 30, 2022.)
“Native Americans’ Decades Long Struggle for Control Over Sacred Lands is Making Progress,” The Conversation, September 30, 2022.
“For Indigenous Peoples, Abortion is a Religious Right,” with Abaki Beck, Yes! Magazine, June 30, 2022.
“Ella Mad Plume Yellow Wolf Photographs by a Native American Woman in the Early 1940s,” Montana The Magazine of Western History, Winter 2021/22. Finalist, Best Western Short Nonfiction, Western Writers of America, Spur Award, 2022.
“Say goodbye to the words ‘Wild’ and ‘Wilderness’,” Missoula Current, August 23, 2021.
“Witness to the Climate Crisis: It is Time to ‘Draw the Line,’” Red Road to DC: Updates from the Road, , August 9, 2021.
“New Wave of Anti-Protest Laws May Infringe on Religious Freedoms for Indigenous Peoples,” The Conversation, July 12, 2021.
“Mountaintop Removal Threatens Traditional Blackfoot Territory,” High Country News, February 1, 2021.
"Ma’s, Montana’s Original Plant-Based Food," Montana Naturalist, Fall/Winter 2020.
“We’re all on Indigenous land,” Missoula Current, August 21, 2020.
“Canada’s Oka Crisis Marked a Change in How Police Use Force,” High Country News, July 21, 2020.
“Misrepresenting traditional knowledge during COVID-19 is dangerous,” with Abaki Beck, High Country News, March 23, 2020.
“How a Native American coming-of-age ritual is making a comeback,” The Conversation, February 10, 2020.
“The legacy of colonialism on public lands created the Mauna Kea conflict,” High Country News, August 6, 2019. Honorable Mention for Best Editorial, Print/Online, Professional Division III, 2020, from the Native American Journalists Association.
“Moving Toward Justice: Take Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women,” Missoulian, January 16, 2019.
“Trump’s Reference to Wounded Knee Evokes the Dark History of Suppression of Indigenous Religions,” The Conversation, January 16, 2019.
"Her Dream: The Blackfeet Women’s Stand Up Headdress," Montana Naturalist, Fall/Winter 2018/2019.
“What Winter Solstice Rituals Tell Us About Indigenous Peoples,” The Conversation, December 13, 2018.
“It Might Be Time to Decolonize Our Sweatlodges,” with Souta Calling Last, Native News Online, December 5, 2018.
“How the Loss of Native American Languages Affects Our Understanding of the Natural World,” The Conversation, October 5, 2018.
“Why Native Americans Struggle to Protect Their Sacred Places," The Conversation, August 1, 2018.
"How Native American Food is Tied to Important Sacred Stories," The Conversation, June 15, 2018.
“From the Desk of Rosalyn LaPier: ‘Of course, there is a Tipi on the cover!,’” UNP Blog, University of Nebraska Press, June 14, 2018.
“Why is Water Sacred to Native Americans?” Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place & Community, No. 8, Fall 2017.
"For Native Americans, A River is More Than a 'Person,' It is Also a Sacred Place," The Conversation, October 8, 2017.
"Will Global Warming Change Native American Religious Practices," The Conversation, July 6, 2017.
"Montana Freshwater Mussels: Mythology & Ecology," Montana Naturalist, Spring/Summer 2017.
"Why Native Americans do not Separate Religion from Science," The Conversation, April 20, 2017.
"Why is Water Sacred to Native Americans?" The Conversation, March 21, 2017.
"What Makes a Mountain, Hill, or Prairie a 'Sacred' Place for Native Americans?" The Conversation, February 16, 2017.
"How Standing Rock Became a Site of Pilgrimage," The Conversation, December 6, 2016. (In Univision, December 9, 2016 as "Como el Standing Rock se Convirtio en un Lugar de Peregrinacion").
"Why Understanding Native American Religion is Important for Resolving the Dakota Access Pipeline Crisis," The Conversation, November 2, 2016. (In The Washington Post, November 4, 2016).
"Smudging: Plants, Purification and Prayer," Montana Naturalist, Spring/Summer 2016.
"What's in a Name?," Montana Naturalist, Spring/Summer 2015.
"Silent, Sacred and Wild," Crown of the Continent Magazine, Spring 2015.
“Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Adapt to Climate Change," Environmental Justice in Action, July 1, 2014.
"Montana's Metis People," Montana Naturalist, Winter 2013/2014.
"Thoughts on What Makes A Place Holy," The Great Falls Tribune, October 24, 2013.
"From the Natural to the Supernatural: Discovering the Piegan People's World View," Montana Naturalist, Winter 2009/2010.
“An Important Gift: Blackfeet Language and History,” with William Farr, Journal of American Indian Education, 45:2, Fall 2006.
“Blackfeet Botanist: Annie Mad Plume Wall,” Montana Naturalist, Fall 2005.
Statement(s)
“Indigenous Science Statement,” with Robin Kimmerer, Melissa Nelson, and Kyle Whyte. April 2017.
Contact Rosalyn
