After she gave a lecture in November regarding Native American land rights in the U.S., a University of Victoria professor was informed by the FBI recently she was under investigation for inciting violence.
Waziyatawin specializes in indigenous studies and splits time between Victoria and her home in Minnesota. Aside from lecturing, Waziyatawin is an author and activist for the Dakota people. Waziyatawin told the CBC the controversy arose after a heated lecture in Minnesota addressing land claim disputes.
“In the context of Dakota people in [their] Minnesota homeland, most importantly, we have a major land issue and . . . at the core is the reclamation of a land base for Dakota people within our homeland,” Waziyatawin told the CBC.
“When I talked about that, I talked about that in the context of reclaiming that land by any means necessary, and that’s what causes all of the uproar.”
A student who attended the lecture wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper claiming her remarks were bordering “terrorism”-like statements.
The FBI informed Waziyatawin they wanted to be sure she was not a threat to national security, according to Waziyatawin.
Last Tuesday, the Vancouver Sun reported the FBI closed the case.
The FBI said they could not find any sufficient evidence in her original lecture to support the complaining student’s claim.