Lance M. Foster

I am an enrolled member of the federally-recognized tribe, the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. White Cloud (Ioway) and Black Hawk (Sauk) are among my ancestors. My grandparents moved to California, and my parents met and married there. I was born in 1960. We moved to Helena, Montana in 1966. I was raised and schooled in Helena, where I currently live. I have always been into writing and art.

I attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (1980-81) and graduated from UM-Missoula with a B.A. in Anthropology and Native American Studies, and as an alumni of the UM Wilderness Institute.

I got my M.A. in Anthropology and M.L.A. in Landscape Architecture (Landscape History) from Iowa State University. My theses were on NAGPRA as applied to our Ioway sacred bundle system, and on the Ioway traditional landscape system. I also spent a summer in Africa on a project researching the indigenous knowledge systems of the Yoruba people of Nigeria.

I worked on heritage management for the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service in Montana, the southwest, and Alaska, working with many Indian tribes and Native Alaskan groups.

I was Director of Native Rights, Land and Culture for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) from 2003-2006 before returning home, supervising such advocacy efforts as protecting Pacific fisheries, Native Hawaiian resource rights, countering resort development on Hawaiian lands, and protecting Hawaiian burials and sacred sites. This required working with various stakeholders: Native Hawaiian groups, federal and state government, and business in controversial issues such as the reburial of the Forbes Cave artifacts.

I returned with my wife to Helena in 2006 to be with my grandmother who was dying, and to be with my parents as they are growing older.

I have been also involved in language revitalization and cultural preservation efforts in my tribe, the Ioway/Iowa. That has been the focus of much of my time for many years, and it is the main route for my communication work through the Internet.

I first created a website while at ISU back in 1996-97, called "Native Nations of Iowa," to counter the misinformation on the Ioway that was then prevalent. That website, as it continually developed and evolved, was the origin of my book _The Indians of Iowa_.

I have created several online communities, most notably Ioways Online, providing a forum for tribal members scattered across the U.S., many of whom had been lost to their families back on the reservation. This has continued, with an additional site called the Ioway Cultural Institute (http://ioway.nativeweb.org/).

I have lots of different Internet stuff up:

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/lancemfoster)

YouTube (several Ioway language lessons and other videos there at http://www.youtube.com/user/lancemfoster

Redroom for authors, with a novel in progress I've been tinkering on (http://www.redroom.com/author/lance-m-foster)

Livejournal (personal stuff on nature spirituality, folklore, beliefs, and assorted weirdness: http://hengruh.livejournal.com)

I have a blog on my art (http://lancemfosterstudio.blogspot.com)

My blog on exploring folklore and ghosts in Montana (http://paranormalmontana.blogspot.com)

I have had several publications, the latest my book _The Indians of Iowa_ from the University of Iowa Press (http://www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/2009-fall/foster-indians.htm), and a chapter called "Native American Perspectives on Forts" in William Whittaker's _Frontier Forts of Iowa_. My publications:

1992 The Ophir Creek Historic Mining District: A Contextual Study (Helena National Forest, Region 1, USFS, USDA)

1994 "Iowa", in Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia, by Mary Davis. New York: Garland Press.

1999 "Tanji na Che: Recovering the Landscape of the Ioway," in Recovering the Prairie, Robert F. Sayre, ed. (University of Wisconsin Press)

2001 "A Closing Circle: Musings on the Ioway Indians in Iowa," in The Worlds Between Two Rivers: Perspectives on American Indians in Iowa, Gretchen Bataille, David Gradwohl, Charles Silet, ed. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

2003 "Archaeology's Influence on Contemporary Native American Art: Perspectives from a Monster", in Ancient Muses: Archaeology and the Arts, John Jameson, Christine Finn, and John Ehrenhard, ed. University of Alabama Press.

2008 "Blood Run National Historic Landmark," in American Indian Places,

Frances H. Kennedy, ed. Houghton Mifflin Company.

2009 The Indians of Iowa. University of Iowa Press.

2009 "Native American Perspectives on Forts," in Frontier Forts of Iowa, William Whittaker, ed. University of Iowa Press.

I have worked as an advisor and as an interviewee on two documentaries which have received national awards, America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie (2005) (http://www.lostlandscapefilm.com/) and Lost Nation: The Ioway (2007) (http://www.IowayMovie.com/). I have copies to lend if you would like to see them. I have also done a presentation on my tribe for Iowa Public Television; you can see my presentation online at http://www.iptv.org/series.cfm/15841/intelligent_talk_television/ep:131

Currently I am adjunct professor at UM-Helena, teaching courses in Environmental Ethics (Nature and Society), Sociology, Fine Arts (Drawing and Painting), and Archaeology.