Laurel Grimes

B.A.; Native American & Indigenous Studies, Communication Design; Fort Lewis College, 2023

M.A.; Native American Studies; University of Oklahoma, In Progress

Laurel Grimes is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma from Austin, Texas. She recently graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado with a BA in Native American & Indigenous Studies and Communication Design with minors in Studio Art and Honors. Grimes is currently pursuing her MA in Native American Studies at OU and serves as a GTA instructor for Introduction to Native American Studies online. As an artist and an Asian/Indigenous woman, Grimes’ personal and academic interests focus on intersectional Indigenous identities and expression of cultural knowledge through traditional crafts and contemporary arts. Her past research has investigated relationships between Indigenous identities, Indigenous languages, and tribal histories with an emphasis on the Chickasaw Nation and Chikashshanompa’. Her past artistic projects have explored areas of overlap between Indigenous experiences with relocation and the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants to the US; community responses to MMIR and racialized and sexualized violence; and methods of visual communication through zines. She currently works as the Digital Media Specialist with the All Our Kin Collective, a Mellon and NEH funded non-profit organization creating opportunities for students and non-students to pursue Indigenous language reclamation projects and Indigenous language learning at Fort Lewis College.

Indigenous arts, arts as an expression of indigeneity Indigenous intersectional identities Comparisons of Indigenous relocation/dispossession to experiences of immigration Language revitalization MMIR and community responses to violence

NAS 1013: Introduction to Native American Studies, Fall 2023

2022-2023: Mellon Foundation Fellow, All Our Kin Collective

2017 Exhibiting Artist, Art Space Gallery. Artists Interpret Blue

2020 Exhibiting Artist, Cultural Activities Center of Killeen. Poynesian Impressions

2021-2022 Contributing Artist, Center of Southwest Studies Museum. Throughline: Works Inspired By the Center’s Collections

2022-2023 Project Leader, Community Project. The Stories We Wear: Recognizing and Honoring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives

2023-Present. Digital Media Specialist, All Our Kin Collective