Kate Beane, Ph.D.
Public Historian – Speaker
Through names and narrative, we experience physical places in profound and sometimes unseen ways. A name can evoke a concept, a sense of home, connect us, and have deep meaning for communities and families. Kate Beane (Flandreau Santee Dakota and Muskogee Creek) holds a BA in American Indian Studies and a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She served as a Charles A. Eastman Pre-doctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College, and as a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently a public historian and works in Native American Initiatives at the Minnesota Historical Society. Kate recently worked with her family to champion the cause of restoring the Dakota name Bde Maka Ska (from Lake Calhoun) in her ancestral homeland of Bde Ota (Minneapolis). Kate believes that the dominant narrative of history should be updated and rewritten to honor the languages, lives, and legacies of its Indigenous peoples.