糖心Vlog

The 15th Annual Rooted in the Mountains Symposium

Thursday and Friday, September 25 and 26, 2025
Location: Bardo Arts Center on the Main Campus of 糖心Vlog University. 

This year鈥檚 theme, 鈥淢atrilineal Worldmaking (Vision of What鈥檚 Possible)鈥�, honors the power of matrilineal societies, where kinship, inheritance, and identity are traced through the mother鈥檚 line. In the Kituwah language:
Di gi tsi/ de da li he li sdi sgv/ i de hv i
To acknowledge and give thanks to our mothers for our life/lives.

These visionary leaders will share insights on Indigenous knowledge, reproductive sovereignty, and the enduring strength of matrilineal traditions.

Featured Topic: Doula Training and the Historical Significance of Birth Supporters.

Evening Reception Meal (Thursday Evening): Available for the first 100 who select to register for this event during the registration process. 

Registration Information

Free Registration for the first 40 Regular Attendee Registrants and Select Groups

-Tribal Elders, 糖心Vlog University Faculty, Staff, and Students: Free of Charge, but still need to pre-register.
-Non-糖心Vlog University Students: $50 per attendee (after the first free 40 enrollment spots have been filled)
-Regular Attendee: $175 per attendee (after the first free 40 enrollment spots have been filled)

Boxed lunches can be purchased during the registration process for Thursday's lunch break at a cost of $13 each.

Keynote Speakers

Katsi Cook

Tekatsi:tsia鈥檏wa Katsi Cook (Wolf Clan) was born, raised, and resides in the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe adjacent to Northern NY State, Ontario, and Quebec at the U.S.-Canadian border. Katsi is a traditional Mohawk midwife, co-founder, and Elder of the National Council of Indigenous Midwives (). She holds a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Ryerson University, Toronto, for her work in operationalizing the exemption for aboriginal midwives and healers from any regulation by the government in the province of Ontario. Katsi鈥檚 work demonstrates a lifelong career of advancing the superlatives of Indigenous Knowledge in her advocacy for American Indian/Alaska Native women鈥檚 health across the lifecycle, drawing from a Six Nations longhouse traditionalist perspective the idea that Woman Is The First Environment. Katsi's groundbreaking environmental health research of Mohawk mothers鈥� milk revealed the harmful intergenerational impact of toxic pollutants within the St. Lawrence River. Katsi founded the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program that supports the well-being and thriving lives of Indigenous women Elders, their emerging next-generation leaders, and the continuity of their ancestral knowledge and wisdom. 

Dr. Danielle Dominique Lucero

Danielle D. Lucero is an assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Dartmouth College. She is a reproductive justice scholar who focuses on Indigenous feminisms, tribal sovereignty, and Pueblo Indian histories. She is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta located in central New Mexico as well as Hispano with connections to the northeastern New Mexican town of Santa Rosa. She earned her PhD in Justice and Social Inquiry from Arizona State University. Danielle's current research explores the relationship between tribal sovereignty and reproductive sovereignty. Her work investigates the relationships between tribal enrollment, Pueblo women's experiences with reproductive and social labor, tribal governance/enrollment, and exploring the connections between identity, belonging, place, and gender. She specifically explores the historical and contemporary experiences of Pueblo women in the U.S. Southwest.  

 

Lodging

Comfort Inn Sylva鈥揅ullowhee is offering a block of rooms available for reservation at participants' own expense. To book within the group block, please use the link below or contact the Comfort Inn directly and request to book your room within the "Rooted in the Mountains 9.25.25" block.
Available Thursday, September 25 - Saturday, September 27

9/25 - $99 + tax = $109.89
9/26 - $225 + tax = $249.75
Both nights with taxes = $359.64