Cornel Pewewardy Receives Lifetime Achievement

Professor Emeritus Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University and Comanche Nation Vice Chairman Cornel Pewewardy received the National Indian Education Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.

He said without family, he wouldn't be where he's at.

“What it feels like is just very rewarding that I'm not here by myself,” Pewewardy said.

Pewewardy said the requirement was to center his professional career in Indian education.

“You know, I try to focus on creating new indigenous schools as a founder and architect administrator of the American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota, where it still exists today, to running Bureau of Indian Affairs schools in the Navajo Reservation,” he said.

Pewewardy said being nominated by his peers like the Oklahoma Council for Indian Education is an honor, and the award reflects a dedication to decolonizing scholarship, transformative teaching and having integrity-filled service toward Native communities.

“So, to me as an educator, we really need to do better than the previous generation, and it's not about being politically correct; it's about doing the right thing. Just being right. Being culturally and academically correct. It's about making indigenous education stronger and more diverse in a global society,” he said.

In higher education, Pewewardy has also helped educate 20 Native teachers to be classroom practitioners to continue with the advocacy. When he leaves as the Vice Chair of Comanche Nation, he plans to create a caretaking economy.

“The climate justice movement needs to be re-centered. Recenter the labor of struggle of caretakers if it is to be successful. Caretakers can be powerful architects of a new economic system to replace capitalism through a caretaking economy,” Pewewardy said.

Currently, Pewewardy is in the midst of writing letters of recommendation for his students.