Natasha Myhal is a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. From 2023-2025 she is a Provost's Fellow and then will transition to the rank of Assistant Professor of Indigenous Environmental Studies at The Ohio State University. At Ohio State, she is also a collaborative faculty member in the Center for Ethnic Studies. Before joining the School of Environment and Natural Resources, she was the 2022-2023 Henry Roe Cloud Dissertation Fellow at Yale University, hosted by American Studies and the Yale Group for the Study of Native America.
Her interdisciplinary research and teaching centers on three areas: Anishinaabe epistemologies and value systems such as mino-bimaadiziwin (living well), contemporary forms of Indigenous governance, Indigenous environmental restoration and cultural practices. With these areas, her research is attuned to historic and ongoing forms of colonialism that have exacerbated the vulnerabilities Indigenous peoples face with the effects of climate change. Her academic training is rooted in Critical Ethnic Studies and Critical Indigenous Studies, thus she prioritizes Indigenous storytelling and relationality, as deeply rooted in place, to celebrate Indigenous cultures and their ongoing ties to the environment.
In her current research, she works collaboratively with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Natural Resources Department and their Nmé (Lake Sturgeon) Stewardship Program. Nmé and their epistemologies animate her research, bringing into focus the important relations between Indigenous space time, political ecologies, and the agency of more-than-human beings.
Dr. Myhal has received fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies, The Cobell Scholarship Fund, and the Intertribal Timber Council.
Education
Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder- Critical Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Native American and Indigenous Studies – 2023
M.A., University of Kansas – Indigenous Studies – 2017
B.A., University of Minnesota, Morris – American Indian Studies & Environmental Studies – 2015
Research Interests
Critical Indigenous Studies; Indigenous geographies; Indigenous environmental knowledge; Collaborative and Community-based Research Methods; Indigenous governance; Indigenous natural resource management; environmental justice; Indigenous political ecologies.
Selected Publications
Refereed Articles
2022. Flood, Macey and Natasha Myhal. “White Pine in Time and Place: Anishinaabe History, Western Herbalism, and the Settler Dynamics of Appropriation” In Special Issue: Colonial Histories of Plant Based Pharmaceuticals. Journal of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.
Contributions to Edited Collections
2023. Myhal, Natasha and Clint Carroll. “Indigenous Optimism in the Colonialcene.” Anthropological Optimism: Engaging the Power of What Could Go Right, edited by Anna Willow.
Book Reviews
2022. Myhal, Natasha. Review of Doodem and Council Fire Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance by Heidi Bohaker. American Indian Quarterly.
Public Scholarship
2022. Myhal, Natasha. “The Nourishment Between Land, Community, and Self.” Environmental History Now Problems of Place Series.
Professional Associations
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
American Association for Geographers
