2025 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Research Lightning Talk Winners
Laura Schuhmann
December 1, 2025
The 2025 Indigenous Peoples’ Day, with the theme "Indigenous Joy: Celebrating Strength & Resilience,” was celebrated on Monday, October 13, 2025, at ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø (ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø) included student research talks that featured many interesting topics.
POCATELLO, Idaho––The 2025 Indigenous Peoples’ Day, with the theme "Indigenous Joy: Celebrating Strength & Resilience” was celebrated on Monday, October 13, 2025, at ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø (ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø) included student research talks that featured many interesting topics. The dedicated Research Lightning Talk session was a brand-new addition to the event this year.
The selected students had 3 minutes to get on stage, present their research, with an accompanying visual, to audience members and a panel of judges for the chance to win $500, in each category: Undergraduate and Graduate. The judging happened live, and the winners were announced shortly after the presentations.
Both the undergraduate and graduate student winners are from ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø’s College of Arts and Letters (CAL). Darious Tillman, a junior majoring in Sociology and Shoshone Language, is the Research Lightning Talk winner in the undergraduate category. His talk was titled: "The Occult Wisdom of the Shoshone.”
Bobette Haskett, a Master’s student in Anthropology, won the Research Lightning Talk in the graduate category. Her talk was titled: "My Indigenous Perspective: How Cultural Ways Perpetuate Healing, Mentally, Physically and Spiritually."
They each won $500, sponsored by the Idaho Community-engaged Resilience for Energy-Water Systems (ICREWS) program out of the Idaho EPSCOR Office.
All research talks had to broadly relate to this year’s theme, "Indigenous Joy: Celebrating Strength & Resilience”, for best consideration.
In addition to the two winners, multiple other CAL students participated in the Research Lightning Talk. Here is the full CAL participant list:
- Darious Tillman, Undergraduate - Sociology (CAL)
- Alex Robinson, Graduate - Anthropology (CAL)
- Bobette Haskett, Graduate - Anthropology (CAL)
- Ontaria Ariwite, Undergraduate - Anthropology (CAL) *** Abstract was accepted but was unable to attend
- Julia Alcala, Graduate - Anthropology (CAL) *** Abstract was accepted but was unable to attend