Native Educational
Endeavors, INC.

John was born and raised in the mountains of northwestern Montana, on the north side of Flathead Lake. His father’s side is Salish and enrolled members of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation. His mother’s family was from Westby in northeastern Montana, a small farming community of Scandinavian ancestry. After graduating from Flathead High School, John received his bachelor of arts degree in political science and international relations from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and his doctor of jurisprudence from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon.

For over twenty years, he has taught several college, graduate and continuing education courses to over 3,500 students primarily in American Indian Studies (AIS) in the disciplines of history, political science, law, sociology and the general social sciences. From 2007 to 2010, John was associate dean of the American Indian Law Program at the University of South Dakota and director of the Center for American Indian Studies at Black Hills State University. In addition, John has been a visiting scholar at the graduate program in AIS at the University of Arizona, a global issues instructor at the Global Youth Village in Virginia, a Newberry Library Fellow with the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American History in Chicago, and a former USD Indian Law Fellow. After a civil litigation practice with the Miller, Norman & Kenney, Ltd in Minnesota and North Dakota, John has spent the lion share of his career in higher education.

In addition to articles, course materials, grant proposals, news pieces and promotional and development work, his first book, Tribal Sovereigns of South Dakota was published and distributed by the Chiesman Center for Democracy in 2005. John was also a contributing author and editor of Successful Ethical Decision Making published in 2007. In addition to NEE, John continues to teach, write, consult and provide diversity and ethics training to private, public and non-profit programs.