Released Jan. 7, 2008

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Henrietta Mann, special assistant to Montana State University President Geoff Gamble and professor emeritus in Native American Studies, has taken a one-year leave to serve as the inaugural president of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College in Weatherford, Okla.

Mann, a Cheyenne tribal elder, will continue to serve as special adviser to Gamble during her assignment. Mann plans to return to MSU in January 2009. Mann has been at MSU since 2000 when she was named the first endowed chair for the MSU Native American Studies Department. Mann had been at the University of Montana intermittently for 28 years prior. Rolling Stone magazine selected her as one of the top 10 college professors in the country in 1991.

Mann and Gamble established MSU's Council of Elders, composed of leaders of all of Montana's tribes. Mann is also fundraising for a planned $10-million Native American Studies Center, $2 million of which is targeted as scholarships for Native American students.

A native of Hammon, Okla., Mann received her bachelor's degree in education from Southwestern Oklahoma State, her master's from Oklahoma State and a doctorate from the University of New Mexico. She has also taught at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley.

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http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=5471

Contacts: Henri Mann (406) 994-7431, henrim@montana.edu, henrietta.mann@swosu.edu

Evelyn Boswell, evelynb@montana.edu

Carol Schmidt, cschmidt@montana.edu