I'm Gail Straub and you're listening to She Explores.

I feel really lucky though to have found this field because it gets to combine a lot of my interests of

indigenous culture and history but also scientific

methods and then in the end for the communities that I'm working with rather than for non-native people.

This is Ashley Thompson.

Ashley is Ojibwe and a member of the Red Lake Ijibwe and Eagle Clan in northern Minnesota.

She lives in Tucson, Arizona and is getting her PhD in anthropology with a concentration in archaeology.

Ashley is also a runner, climber, and lifelong learner.

On this episode we talk about how she's woven her many interests together and is actively

building a life that is true to her values and true to herself.

Ashley and I talked on May 13th.

We were and still are in the midst of a pandemic and the week before had been

especially raw for Ashley as a runner and an indigenous woman. May 5th is the

National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murder Native Women, and that same day a video was also released of

Ahmad Arbury's death when he went out for a jog. Since our interview, the national conversation

has shifted. I'm so grateful to Ashley for taking the time and for sharing a piece of her story with us,

which starts and ends with a woman who's had a great deal of positive influence in her life.

We'll get to know Ashley after this.

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