Kinbacher helps coordinate annual Sandoz Conference

“The Sandoz Society conference is one of the reasons I applied at CSC. Hosting the conference here is something I was very excited about,” said Kinbacher, who attended the conference as a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student in 2004 and rode his bike from Chadron to Kearney for a 2016 Sandoz Society board meeting.

This is the second year Kinbacher has been responsible for chairing the conference committee he has been a member of for five years.

He started reading Mari Sandoz books in high school.

“My parents had a copy of ‘Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas.’ It was pretty much a life-changing book as it really piqued my interest in studying history. I was attracted to the way she told the story from a Lakota perspective,” Kinbacher said. “I think that was her greatest gift; she could write through the eyes of her subjects and characters. She did it again in 'Cheyenne Autumn.’”

Kinbacher’s admires the way Sandoz was also able to accurately portray the lives of those she wrote about in his other favorite titles “The Beaver Men,” “The Buffalo Hunters,” and “The Cattlemen from the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias.”

Dr. Jim Margetts, dean of the School of Liberal Arts, said Kinbacher’s exemplary work with the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society’s Pilster Lecturer and Conference Planning Committee demonstrates his deep understanding of the diverse influences that have shaped, and continue to shape, this region.

“He is a tremendous scholar and a great mentor to our students. We are very lucky to have him here, and I appreciate his dedication to the shared missions of the Sandoz Society and Chadron State College. It looks like another great conference,” Margetts said.

Kinbacher invited several CSC faculty members to be on the agenda. Assistant Professor of Communication and Social Sciences David Christensen will make a presentation about twentieth century Lakota history. In keeping with Sandoz’s “Love Song to the Plains,” Laura Bentz and Mary Donahue will exhibit photographs and paintings of the Pine Ridge region.

According to Kinbacher, the Pilster Lecturer will be Susan Power, an author and enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux, who lives near Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she teaches at Hamline University.

Her presentation is Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Chadron State College Student Center.

In 2014, she won the Electa Quinney Award for “Sacred Wilderness.” The novel is in the curriculum of high schools and colleges nationwide.

This year’s theme is “Indian Activism,” a topic of special importance to Sandoz.

Kinbacher said he is pleased that the schedule includes Judi M. gaiashkibos (sic), executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. An enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, she received the distinguished Nebraskalander award at the 2017 Statehood Dinner.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications Professor Joe Starita will also speak. He spent 13 years at the “Miami Herald” and wrote an article that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in local reporting. He wrote “The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge - A Lakota Odyssey,” and it has been translated into six foreign languages and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Starita’s book, “I Am a Man: Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice,” on the life and death of Ponca Chief Standing Bear was chosen for One Book One Lincoln in 2011 and the 2012 One Book One Nebraska.

Kinbacher said other speakers include Dr. Kimberli Lee who is returning to campus to participate in the conference for the sixth time since 1998. She is the author of “I Do Not Apologize for the Length of this Letter,” a book about the Mari Sandoz letters on Native American rights. It won the Nebraska Book Award in 2010.

Dr. Beth Castle and Madonna Thunder Hawk will also present at the conference.

Castle is the producer and director of the documentary “Warrior Women,”about American Indian Movement activists in the 1970s including Thunder Hawk. As a Native Studies professor at the University of South Dakota, Castle has worked on cross-cultural dialogue and community organizing. She also serves on the National Advisory Council for the National Conference in Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education.