Mickki Garrity

University of Minnesota | Ilíiaitchik: Indigenous Correspondents Program (ICP)

Major / Minor: Tribal Land and Natural Resource Management

Graduation Year: 2025

Mickki Garrity (Potawatomi) is an impassioned advocate for environmental healing, cultural sovereignty, and Native science. Enrolled in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Mickki recently relocated to Minnesota from the West Coast. Her academic journey began with a bachelor's degree in Native Environmental Science from Northwest Indian College with the highest honors. This fall Garrity will begin graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, where she will research the ecocultural relationships between cultural keystone species of significance to the Nishnabek people, such as beaver and wild rice. As a first-generation, non-traditional scholar with a background in non-profit work, she embodies tenacity and approaches research with a distinctive perspective.

Mickki is also a writer and enjoys interweaving traditional narratives into the contemporary fabric of academia and literature. Her contributions to various publications, including the Tribal College Journal, demonstrate her capacity to bridge ancestral ecological knowledge with present-day environmental discourse. Her storytelling is rooted in her Potawatomi heritage, a medium through which she aims to illuminate the profound interconnection between nature and humanity.

With fellowships in both the Society for Ecological Restoration and the Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate and Postgraduate program, she is committed to amplifying Indigenous voices in food sovereignty, ecological restoration, and climate adaptation.

Embracing the responsibilities of new parenthood, Mickki bears the mantle of shaping an environmentally-conscious future, and hopes to participate in resilient solutions spearheaded by Indigenous communities that honor the legacy of forebearers and inspire generations to come.