Humanities Lab-Connecting Culture to Food: Our History

Erin Tapahe (Diné) is originally from Window Rock, Ariz. and learned the importance of helping her people from the example of her grandparents. Tapahe has a bachelor’s degree in communications and worked as a journalist to write about the successes, truth, and power of Native people. She decided to go back to school to continue her education and is working towards her master's degree in American Indian Studies and Public Administration. Tapahe hopes to continue in her education to help her community and younger generations.  

Randii Lantz Castaneda is a junior majoring in American Indian Studies with minors in anthropology and studio art.  She is descended from the Yaqui community in the municipality of Cajeme in Sonora, Mexico. She was born in California but was raised in South Carolina by her father after he was granted sole custody. This distance between Lantz Castaneda and her maternal family left her feeling culturally lost. Growing up, she used art as a form of expression. This taught her that revitalizing cultural arts is a way to heal intergenerational trauma and mend communal disconnection. Concluding her degree, she hopes to pursue a career in the museum field to help reframe how Indigenous peoples and their cultures are portrayed within exhibits.

Jasmine Torres is in her fourth year at Arizona State University and triple majoring in: psychology, sociology, and American Indian studies. Her mother’s tribe is Pechanga and her father’s tribe is Torres Martinez. Both tribes are located in Southern California. Torres grew up culturally involved on her mother’s reservation with her maternal grandmother. Growing up without both of her parents, this left her having difficulty confiding in adult figures which inspired her interest in becoming a therapist for Indigenous youth. Torres plans on attending graduate school to study clinical psychology. She hopes to attend graduate school in Southern California to begin working with her tribal communities