Graduate student Marissa Carmi is contributing to research about Oneida history, identity and sovereignty while supporting the larger narrative of Native diversity that has long been silenced.

Graduate student Marissa Carmi is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin — and as an American Indian — she’s brought her life experiences and perspective to serve graduate and professional students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  

Together with American Studies professor Dan Cobb, undergraduate students learned the meaning of hands-on research over the last year and a half. They planted a garden inspired by their transcriptions of the diary of one of the 20th century’s most influential American Indian writers and intellectuals: D’Arcy McNickle.

As a result of systemic oppression, there are fewer than 200 native Cherokee speakers in North Carolina. UNC scholars are teaming up to create a new translation model and grow the literary library of works available in Cherokee.