Brenda Child

Child's research and scholarship focuses on Ojibwe history. She has also curated museum exhibits and contributed to public history efforts, including co-founding The Ojibwe People's Dictionary with John Nichols. In 2019 Child curated an exhibit about the legacy of the jingle dress titled Ziibaask'iganagooday: The Jingle Dress at 100. Dr. Child is currently working on a new book entitled The Marriage Blanket: Love, Violence and the Law in Indian Country.

Brenda J. Child is a citizen of the Red Lake band of Chippewa and a historian. She is Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. Her scholarship focuses on American Indian history, including the legacy of American Indian boarding schools in the United States, the role of Ojibwe women in preserving culture, Indigenous education, social history, and the historical legacy of the jingle dress. She also published an award-winning children's book, Bowwow Powwow Bagosenjige-niimi’idim. She has served as president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association from 2017 to 2018.

Dr. Child has worked closely with several museums and heritage organizations, including the Minnesota Historical Society. She was a trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian where she served on the Repatriation Committee, Executive Committee, and the Scholarship and Collections Committee from 2013 to 2019. Additionally, Child offered her expertise for the Heard Museums as a consultant during the creation of the exhibit Remembering our Indian School Days.

Child was born on the Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation (Miskwaagamiiwizaag'igan) in Northern Minnesota in 1959. She has a B.S. Ed. in history and social studies from Bemidji State University, a M.A. in history from the University of Iowa (1983) and PhD in history from the University of Iowa (1993).