Elan Pochedley, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and 1855 Professor of Great Lakes Anishinaabe Knowledge, Spiritualities, and Cultural Practices, was awarded the Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (NCAIS) long-term faculty fellowship to research how Indigenous peoples’ expressions of environmental stewardship and governance have been practiced, sustained, interrupted, and/or rekindled throughout the central and western Great Lakes region.

“I’m really trying to dive into the diversity of human-environmental relationships in the Great Lakes region across time,” Pochedley said. “I’ll look at archival sources from physical and digital collections to find stories that speak to how Indigenous peoples have understood their relationships to waterways and sites of significance — to explore what it means to be in a place and to be of a place.”

During the 2025-2026 academic year, with support from the NCAIS Faculty Fellowship and the Jenison Fund Career and Research Continuity Support, Pochedley is conducting his research at the Newberry Library in Chicago, which contains one of the largest collections of books and manuscripts on American Indian and Indigenous Studies in the world, and a few other libraries throughout the Great Lakes region.