This is the fifth article in my series about our changing Earth from interviews with Native Americans shared in We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth, edited by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth (USA 2022). My presentation does not follow the order of the interviews.

#5: Lyla June Johnston (Diné [Navajo], Tsétsêhéstâhese [Cheyenne])
      (Chapter 5, pp. 61-72)

Lyla June Johnston is a Native American poet, singer-songwriter, hip-hop artist, human ecologist, public speaker, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European lineages. She’s originally from Taos, New Mexico. Her multi-genre presentations focus on Indigenous issues and solutions, supporting youth, inter-cultural healing, historical trauma, and traditional land stewardship practices.

She has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Anthropology (with Honors) from Stanford University (2012) and a Master’s degree in American Indian Education (with Distinction) from the University of New Mexico (2017). Following her 2021 interview with Dahr and Stan, she earned her PhD from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.   

Having grown up with an Indigenous worldview, coupled with her education, Lyla June’s personal goal is to “grow closer to Creator by learning how to love deeper.”

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