Robert Allen Warrior

I was born in Marion County, Kansas in 1963. My dad, who was Osage, was a high school basketball coach when I was born. My mom took care of me and my brother back then, but took various secretarial jobs after my parents split up. At various times, I lived in Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, California, and Colorado, and ended up at Pepperdine in Malibu for college in the early 1980s. I headed east for grad school, attending Yale and Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where I earned a Ph.D.

I began writing professionally at age 16, and while a grad student decided to focus energy on writing about Native issues for alternative media, including Native media. I traveled a lot and wrote for the Village Voice, News from Indian Country, the Lakota Times, Lies of Our Times, the Guardian, the Progressive, C&C, and others.

While doing so was never a part of my long-term plans, I became a college professor after finishing my doctorate. Currently, I teach at the University of Oklahoma. I live with my family in Norman, Oklahoma and am happy to be close enough to the Osage Reservation to be part of our dances, participate in Osage social and political life, and take Osage language classes.