Activist and actor to address U of A Native American graduates

Goldtooth, who is Mdewakanton Dakota and Diné, will deliver the keynote speech at UA’s Native American Student Graduation Celebration and Native American Student Affairs Awards Ceremony.

The ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. Friday at the Grand Ballroom in UA’s Student Union Memorial Center.

The UA currently has about 2,000 Native students enrolled who represent about 200 tribal communities, the university said in a news release. It has been ranked by the National Science Foundation as the top Ph.D.-awarding university to Native Americans between 2016 and 2020.

“Native students carry more than degrees when they walk across that stage,” Goldtooth said in the news release. “They carry families, histories, and entire communities with them. I want to remind them that their academic journey matters, and that our people need their brilliance, their leadership, and their courage now more than ever.”

The UA is ranked at the top for conferring doctoral degrees to Native American students and is located on the traditional homelands of the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui people. It also offers specialized programs for Native American students, including American Indian Studies, Native SOAR mentoring, the O’odham Ki: Living Learning Community and the Arizona Native Scholars tuition program.

Goldtooth has helped shape Indigenous representation in mainstream media through his art, including the 1491s, an all-Native sketch comedy group that uses humor to challenge stereotypes of Indigenous people and to address social and environmental issues. 

His role as “Spirit” on “Reservation Dogs” brought him mainstream acclaim, and he was also a writer on the series for season three. He’s also done roles in “The Last Frontier,” “Fallout,” “Echo” and “Rutherford Falls.”

In addition to being an actor, Goldtooth is also an activist who was a former campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. He now delivers speeches around the world on topics including environmental protection, Indigenous rights, storytelling and more.

He’s also passionate about “language revitalization and is a Dakota language instructor who works to preserve and pass on traditional Indigenous knowledge,” said the UA news release.