Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert is enrolled with the Hopi Tribe from the village of upper Munqapi in northeastern Arizona. He is Professor and Head the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. Prior to this, he served as Professor and Director of American Indian Studies and Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In addition to co-producing the film Beyond the Mesas (716 Productions), he has written extensively on the Hopi boarding school experience and Hopi long distance running. His books include Hopi Runners: Crossing the Terrain between Indian and American (University Press of Kansas (2018), Education beyond the Mesas: Hopi Students at Sherman Institute, 1902-1929 (University of Nebraska Press, 2010), and a co-edited book entitled The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue: Voices and Images from Sherman Institute (Oregon State University Press, 2012). His other publications have appeared in the Western Historical Quarterly, American Quarterly, History of Education Quarterly, the Journal of American Indian Education, and in edited volumes.

To contact the author, please email him at: sakiestewa@email.arizona.edu