Bio
Joe Starita is a professor within the College of Journalism and Mass Communications whose classes have produced two depth reports focused on Native American women. He is the author of “I Am a Man: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice,” on the life and death of Standing Bear, the Ponca chief at the center of the 1879 landmark ruling establishing legal rights for Native Americans. He also wrote “The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge: A Lakota Odyssey” (2002) and “A Warrior of the People” (2016), about Susan LaFlesche, the first Native American to become a doctor. In 2011, Starita received a civil rights award from the National Education Association for his work with the Native American community.