President Gottfredson sent the following email to campus. You may also read more about Jason Younger in AroundtheO.

Dear Campus Community,

I am pleased to announce Dr. Jason Younker will join the University of Oregon as our first formal governmental liaison to the nine federally recognized tribes of Oregon.

Dr. Younker joins the university leadership this month as Assistant Vice President and Advisor to the President on Sovereignty and Government to Government Relations. He is a member of the Coquille Nation and is currently a tenured associate professor and chair of the department of sociology and anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology. He served as RIT’s liaison to the native nations of New York and southern Canada.

Dr. Younker is the president of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists. He earned his Ph.D. in anthropology at the UO in 2003. During his studies in Oregon, he was a leader in the Southwest Oregon Research Project at the Smithsonian Institution and in the subsequent Potlatches (traditional native gifting) that returned documents relating to their cultural heritage to the nine federally recognized tribes and the historic 54 bands and tribes that occupied the land that is now known as the state of Oregon.

As a public university we have an opportunity and responsibility to foster and forge new relationships with Oregon’s first peoples. Bringing Dr. Younker back our campus is a wonderful way for the UO to build academic, economic, social, and cultural collaborations with the nine sovereign nations within our state. These partnerships support our academic and research mission in ways that will benefit the university, the state, and the tribes.

I invite you to learn more about Dr. Younker’s experience here.

Please join me in welcoming him to campus.

Regards,

Michael Gottfredson
President