Rodney Frey

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The Department of
Sociology & Anthropology

Rodney Frey, Ph.D.

Office: Phinney 116
Phone: (208) 885-6268
Email: rfrey@uidaho.edu

Mailing Address: Department of Sociology & Anthropology - University of Idaho
P.O. Box 441110
Moscow, ID 83844-1110

College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
Director of General Education and Professor of Ethnography

With UI Since 1998

Ph.D., University of Colorado, Anthropology, 1979
M.A., Colorado State University, Anthropology, 1974
B.A., Colorado State University, Anthropology, 1972 (graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi)

Research/Focus Areas

The Indigenous Peoples of the North American Plateau and Plains, and the confluence of their oral traditions and Euro-American contact history
Research Methodology, working collaboratively on applied projects with Indeginous Peoples
World Religions: Indigenous, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Indigenous curriculum development

Rodney Frey is a Professor of Ethnography. Over the last 38 years he has been associated with and conducting various applied, collaborative projects with the Apsáalooke (Crow) of Montana, the Schitsu’umsh (Coeur d'Alene) and Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) of Idaho, and the Confederated Warm Springs Tribes of Oregon. Among his primary teachers, and to whom he acknowledges his indebtedness to, are Tom and Susie Yellowtail, Lawrence Aripa, Josiah and D’Lisa Pinkham, Cliff and Lori SiJohn, Alvin Howe, and Rob and Rose Moran.

In August, Rodney accepted the position of Director of General Education.

Selected Publications

The World of the Crow Indians: As Driftwood Lodges. (University of Oklahoma Press 1987 and paper 1993).
Stories That Make the World: Oral Literature of the Indian Peoples of the Inland Northwest as Told by Lawrence Aripa, Tom Yellowtail and other Elders. (University of Oklahoma Press 1995 and paper 1999).
Landscape Traveled by Coyote and Crane: The World of the Schitsu'umsh - Coeur d'Alene Indians, in collaboration with the Schitsu'umsh (University of Washington Press 2001; 2005).
Nez Perce Tribe Lifelong Learning Online Module (Nez Perce Tribe 2001)
Coeur d'Alene Tribe Lifelong Learning Online Module (Coeur d'Alene Tribe 2002)
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Lifelong Learning Online Module (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs 2003)
"If all these great stories were told, great stories will come!" co-authored with Tom Yellowtail (Crow) and Cliff SiJohn (Coeur d’Alene), as presented at the Indigenous Ways of Knowing International Conference, Lewis and Clark College (2007). This paper chronicles my recent journey with cancer, and the healing that came from my family and friends in the Indian community. It also appears in Religion and Healing in Native America, edited by Suzanne Crawford (Praeger Press 2008).

Research Projects

My current research and writing endeavor is tentatively called, "Huckleberries: Stories from the American Indian Experience." It is an attempt to bring together all the lessons I've learned from working with Tribal elders over the last four decades, and offer an ethnographic methodology and pedagogical approach to researching, understanding, presenting and teaching American Indian culture. In so doing considering, there are critical implications for our humanity as well.

Outreach Projects

Applied, collaborative research with the Crow of Montana (since 1974), the Coeur d'Alene of Idaho (since 1990) and Nez Perce of Idaho (since 1995), and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon (since 2001), along with other American Indian communities focusing of indigenous oral tradition and ethnography (including epistemology, oral narratives, language, sense of place, spiritual and artistic expression, cultural change and Euro-American contact history), Natural Resource Damage Assessment, and indigenous curriculum development.

Awards and Honors

Excellence in Teaching Award 2012
Distinguished Humanities Professor 2011-12 - College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences
UNITY Service Medallion, UNITY Student Organization and the Office of Multicultural Affairs 2006
Excellence in Research Award 2005
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Faculty Service Award 2003
Humanities Fellow, College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences 2002-03