Heather Bruegl is a public historian, activist, and decolonial education consultant who works with institutions and organizations for Indigenous sovereignty and collective liberation.
FOLLOW HEATHER ON SUBSTACK.
On the shore of the Mahicantuck.
In the Munsee language, Heather’s name is Kiishookunkwe, meaning sunflower in full bloom.
Heather is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and a first-line descendant of Stockbridge Munsee. She graduated from Madonna University in Michigan and holds a Master of Arts in U.S. History. She is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in First Nations Education. Her dissertation research will focus on how museums and cultural institutions can support BIPOC workers doing the hard history. Heather is the former Director of Education at Forge Project and travels frequently to present on Indigenous history, including policy and activism.
Heather respectfully acknowledges that she works and resides on the unceded, traditional, and ancestral lands of the Three Fires Council- the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi- along with the Peoria, Miami, and Wyandot. Through forced removal, these nations are now located throughout the United States including parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, and part of Canada.
On a visit to South Dakota, Heather Bruegl stopped on the plains of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. On the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where U.S. Army soldiers killed nearly 300 Lakota people following a failed attempt to destroy the Lakota camp after years of land seizure and conflict, Heather’s passion for history and activism was born.
Leadership
Heather is the former Director of Education and led the Fellowship Program for Forge Project, a Native-led initiative centered on decolonial education, Indigenous art, and supporting leaders in culture, food security, and land justice.
Lectures & Public Talks
Heather presents on numerous topics including Native American policy and activism, the power of Native women, Native Americans and the military service, the Dakota War of 1862, the history of American Boarding Schools, and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP). Please reach out with specific questions or lecture opportunities.
Writing & Research
Heather is a historian and public scholar, conducting research on numerous topics related to American history, legacies of colonization, and Indigeneity. She recently published a series of children’s books on Native histories in the United States.
Activism
Among other events, Heather has spoken at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh for Indigenous Peoples Day 2017; the Women’s March Anniversary in Lansing, Michigan, in 2018; and the first ever Indigenous People’s March in Washington, DC, in 2019. In summer 2019, and virtually in 2020 and 2021, Heather spoke at the Crazy Horse Memorial and Museum in Custer, South Dakota, for their “Talking Circle” series.
Curatorial Practice
Heather has curated several exhibitions, including Mohican Miles at the Mission House Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the Muh-he-con-ne-ok: The People of the Waters That Are Never Still at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Mass.
Heather Bruegl speaking on the histories displacement and erasure for “Lenapehoking: Missing & Murdered Indigenous Persons Crisis” at the Brooklyn Public Library March 2022. The panel featured members of Nichusak (“my women friends”), a working group of activists and lawyers created by Lenape Center to address the crisis. Speakers included Gloria Steinem, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Caroline LaPorte, and Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum, working to bring justice to this pressing human rights issue.
Interview with WMHT from PBS for the exhibition “Women Reframe Landscape” at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, April 2023.