Cary Miller is a 60’s scoop survivor whose original families are from Anishinaabe communities of St. Croix and Leech Lake in the United States. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2004 and returned home to teach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2002-2017 where she also served as Director of American Indian Studies. In 2017 she joined the University of Manitoba as an Associate Professor and Department Head of Native Studies (July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2022) and currently serves as Associate Vice President Indigenous: Scholarship, Research and Curriculum. Miller’s research interests include Anishinaabe leadership in the early 19th century, Anishinaabe women’s history, Treaties and sovereignty, Wisconsin Indian History, and Cultures of the Great Lakes Region.
Miller is the author of the book Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg leadership 1760-1845 (2010), which re-examines Ojibwe leadership practices and processes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Miller uses research produced by Ojibwe themselves, American and British officials, and individuals who dealt with the Ojibwe, both in official and unofficial capacities. By examining the hereditary position of leaders who served as civil authorities over land and resources and the interrelated non-hereditary roles of the warriors, and the respected religious leaders of the Midewiwin society, as well as the economic and political roles of Anishinaabe women Miller provides an important new perspective on Ojibwe history.
As head of the department of Native Studies, (Now Indigenous Studies) Miller was responsible for making sure the department grew in ways that support the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the Manitoba Collaborative Indigenous Education Blueprint, the University of Manitoba Strategic Plan 2015-2020 and other local and provincial agreements. She led the committee that established the Indigenous Content Requirement for the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba which some other faculties have chosen to adopt. She has also worked to make Anishinaabemowin and Cree available as three-year concentration programs within Indigenous Studies and introduced Dakota and Michif language classes on campus. Miller has also served as a University Senator, member of several senate committees and on the Faculty of Arts executive.
Contact Information:
• 204-474-6720
Publications (2000-2022):
Dickenson, Olive P., William Newbigging and Cary Miller. Indigenous Peoples Within Canada: A Concise History 5thedition. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Miller, Cary, Margaret Noodin and Bernard Perley. “No Time Like the Present: Living American
Indian Languages, Landscapes, and Histories.” In Indigenous Languages and the Promise of Archives. Edited by Adrianna Link, Abigail Shelton, Patrick Spero. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021.
Miller, Cary. “Every Dream is a Prophecy: Rethinking Revitalization—Dreams, Prophets, and Routinized Cultural Evolution.” In Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World through Stories, edited by Jill Doerfler, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, and Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, 119–32. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press, 2013.
Miller, Cary. Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg Leadership, 1760-1845. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
Miller, Cary. “Gifts as Treaties: The Political Use of Received Gifts in Anishinaabeg Communities, 1820-1832.” American Indian Quarterly 26, no. 2 (2002): 221–45.