Melinda Micco

Dr. Melinda Micco is a Seminole, Choctaw, and Creek filmmaker and activist. She has authored numerous books and articles, including "African Americans and American Indians" in Encyclopedia of North American Indians (1996), "Tribal Re-Creations: Buffalo Child Long Lance and Black Seminole Narratives," in Vol. 16 of Literary Studies East and West (Summer, 1999), and two articles (2004-05) “To Be or Not To Be Indian: Construction of Identity for Native and African Americans in African Americans and Native Americans: Explorations in Narrative, Place, and Identity,” and “Blood and Money: The Case of Seminole Freedmen and Indians in Oklahoma” in Crossing Waters, Crossing Paths: Black and Indian Journeys in the Americas. Her film projects include the documentary Killing the 7th Generation: Reproductive Abuses against Indigenous Women (with Esther Lucero); and her current film project is Every Step A Prayer: Refinery Corridor Healing Walks, about the Indigenous women-led campaign to end the production of oil and gas in communities of color such as Richmond, CA, in what has come to be known, through their efforts, as the oil refinery corridor. Dr. Micco is a Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at Mills College, Oakland, CA.

Image: Melinda Micco (Seminole, Choctaw, and Creek), 2020. Photographer: Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie.