"Resistant Communiqués: Indigenous Geographies and A More Just Future with Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles"

As we end November, the Resistant Communiqués Collective is honored to present Season I, Episode VI of the Resistant Communiqués Podcast, “Resistant Communiqués: Indigenous Geographies and A More Just Future with Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles”, featuring Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, an Indigenous geographer whose current work focuses on Indigenous land relations and Indigenous cultural resurgence in an era of climate crisis.

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, and it comes at a particularly critical time for Indigenous communities globally. The Trump Administration is no supporter of Native Americans: its policies thus far are a mix of heavy budget cuts to health services and education, and attempts to open up land for resource extraction. This is in conjunction with an assault on climate policies and renewed support for fossil fuels. Taken to their logical ends, these policies disproportionately threaten Indigenous communities.

However, doomerism is not the path forward. Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles is a professor of geography at the University of British Columbia who studies geography with the benefit of Indigenous knowledge systems and perspectives. He works to decolonize a perspective and a science that were very much products of an imperialist worldview, and in so doing showcases how, collectively, we can break out of the cycles of destruction and harm we inhabit by studying indigenous ways of understanding the world.

Our phenomenal guest, Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), is an adjunct professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. Smiles is an Indigenous geographer whose current work focuses on Indigenous land relations and Indigenous cultural resurgence in an era of climate crisis. They direct the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory, one of Western Canada’s first Indigenous geographies-focused research groups. You can learn more about Dr. Smiles’ work at his website deondresmiles.com and the Geographic Indigenous Futures Collaboratory at geographicindigenousfutures.ca.

Here is our interview with Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles.

Listen, share, and study with us using the multimedia syllabus below.

Luta,

Resistant Communiqués Collective

Learn more about Resistant Communiqués on the About page (here).Accessibility: The transcript for this episode is available.

Want more Resistant Communiqués? Follow @ResistantCommPod across all social media platforms: Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | Threads | Facebook

Resistant Communiqués is a grassroots project, self-funded by the Resistant Communiqués collective and funded in part by our listeners. Your support helps foster an independent, creator-owned podcast of People’s and Resistance History. You can help support the grassroots project and keep the episodes coming by becoming a paid subscriber.

Multimedia Syllabus: “Resistant Communiqués: Indigenous Geographies and A More Just Future with Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles”

Note: This is not an exhaustive bibliography; it serves as a starting point for further research.

Please note: Due to Substack’s interface, some of the bibliography items below are directly linked to the items instead of being correctly formatted with a hyperlink. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Indigeneity

Gomez, A. (2023, January 3). Indigeneity [Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0]. Political Theology Network. https://politicaltheology.com/indigeneity/

Nowell, C. (2020, September 25). In the Navajo Nation, Anarchism Has Indigenous Roots. https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/anarchism-navajo-aid/

United Nations. (n.d.). Factsheet: Who are Indigenous peoples?. Indigenous People, Indigenous Voices. https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/5session_factsheet1.pdf

Land Back Movements

Abou-Ghalioum, V. (2022, December 30). The Land Back Movement Takes Root in Ohio | Sierra Club. Sierra Club. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/land-back-movement-takes-root-ohio

Diaz, J. (2021, October 5). A historic rainforest and other lands have been returned to Indigenous Australians. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043256101/indigenous-australians-get-land-back-queensland

Yesno, R., & Maher Lopez, X. (2020, September 10). Four Case Studies of Land Back in Action. Briarpatch Magazine. https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/four-case-studies-land-back-in-action

Geography and Land

Fradin, L. (2015, October 15). Colonial legacies in geography. The McGill Daily. https://www.mcgilldaily.com/2015/10/colonial-legacies-in-geography/

Singleton, S. (2008). ‘Not our borders’: Indigenous people and the struggle to maintain shared cultures and polities in the post‐9/11 united states. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 23(3), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2008.9695707 https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1105&context=bpri_publications

Smiles, N. D. (2023). Reflections on the (continued and future) importance of Indigenous geographies. Dialogues in Human Geography, 14(2), 217-220. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206231179229 (Original work published 2024)

Indigenous rights in the U.S

Baer, S. (Director). (1992). WARRIOR The Life of Leonard Peltier—YouTube [Video recording].

BackStory. (2019, September 6). Standing Rock and the History of Indigenous Resistance in the United States (No. 293) [Broadcast].

Helmore, E. (2025, November 28). Native American actor says she was detained by ICE officers who said tribal ID ‘looked fake.’ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/28/elaine-miles-actor-ice-detained-id-fake

This Day. (2023, May 6). Wounded Knee ’73 (1973) [Broadcast].

Wilson, B., & MNopedia. (2025, November 3). How the American Indian Movement Patrol combated police brutality in Minneapolis. MinnPost. https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2025/11/american-indian-movement-patrol-minneapolis-against-police-brutality/

Indigenous rights in Canada

Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada. (n.d.). Communities: Atlas / Métis. Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada. Retrieved November 30, 2025, from https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/communities/

Michael and Us, & Jacobin Radio. (2021, December 13). Michael and Us: The Kanehsatake Resistance [Broadcast].

Morin, B. (2021, November 29). ‘Hunted’: How Indigenous women are disappearing in Canada. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2021/11/29/hunted-how-indigenous-women-are-disappearing-in-canada

Mosby, I., & Millions, E. (2021, August 1). Canada’s Residential Schools Were a Horror. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/canadas-residential-schools-were-a-horror/

Mapping

Native Land Digital. (n.d.). Native-Land.ca | Our home on native land: Reciprocity. Native Land Digital. Retrieved November 30, 2025, from https://native-land.ca/maps/reciprocity

Listen to the Music of the movement.

The Halluci Nation (Director). (2011, January 2). Electric Pow Wow Drum (Official Video)—YouTube [Video recording].

The Halluci Nation (Director). (2016, July 12). The Halluci Nation—We Are The Halluci Nation Ft. John Trudell & Northern Voice (Official video) —YouTube [Video recording].

Guest’s Choice

System Of A Down (Director). (2009, October 3). System Of A Down—B.Y.O.B. (Official HD Video) —YouTube [Video recording].

[CREDITS] Resistant Communiqués Podcast Season I, Episode V - Resistance at Home and Abroad: Palestinian Solidarity with Dr. Eman Abdelhadi.

This episode of the Resistant Communiqués Podcast:

* Podcast Episode Writers: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson

* Podcast Episode Question and Script Development: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson

* Podcast Episode Researcher: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson

* Podcast Episode Fact-Checking: Jamila Hammami, Zeb Larson, & Justin Fowler

* Podcast Episode Recording: Zeb Larson

* Podcast Episode Production: Jamila Hammami

* Podcast Episode Editing: Jamila Hammami

Podcast Multimedia Syllabus Development: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson

Episode Featuring:

* Resistant Communiqués Podcast Introduction: Jamila Hammami

* Resistant Communiqués Podcast episode Host: Jamila Hammami & Zeb Larson

* Resistant Communiqués Podcast episode Guest: Dr. Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles

* Resistant Communiqués Podcast episode outro: Zeb Larson

[MUSIC]

Royalty-Free Music Artists/ Composers:

* Podcast Intro Music: Cheel - Soft Feeling

* Episode Intro Music: Wayne Jones - Connection

* Episode Music: Karl Casey - New Dawn

* Episode Outro Music: Cheel - Soft Feeling

Royalty-Free Music for the Podcast and Episode:

* Music Editing: Zeb Larson

* Music Mixing: Jamila Hammami