St. Lawrence University: Commencement

Tantoo Cardinal
Doctor of Art

With a bow to the oral traditions of her Native ancestors, Tantoo Cardinal enters the pictures, songs, movements and stories of film, television, radio and stage "to bring understanding between peoples." Born in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, to a Métis (a French term meaning mixed blood) mother, Ms. Cardinal was raised by her maternal grandmother, whose own heritage was Cree, Chippewa and Lakota.

After high school, she became active in Native organizations, including the United Native Youth, eventually serving as its president. She began her acting career with a role in a dramatized documentary, learning early that theatre was a place and a medium to convey ideas to the minds and hearts of others. She has appeared in such film productions as Legends of the Fall and Dances With Wolves and on television's Lonesome Dove; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and The Education of Little Tree. She received the acclamation Best Actress, the Elizabeth Sterling award in Theatre for All My Relations, a play by Floyd Favel starring an all-Native cast. She has hosted documentaries on the struggles of Canadian Indians, As Long as the Rivers Flow, a public television series about the Canadian First People's movement for self-government, and Native Indians: Images of Reality.

For her contributions to the Native artistic community, Ms. Cardinal won the Eagle Spirit award in 1990 and in 1995 she received an International Women in Film Award. A regular visitor to St. Lawrence, Ms. Cardinal conducts workshops and gives presentations in Native American Studies and Speech and Theatre classes. The University offers its own highest honor, the degree Doctor of Art honoris causa, and welcomes Tantoo Cardinal into the Laurentian family.

Return to Commencement	Tantoo Cardinal Doctor of Art With a bow to the oral traditions of her Native ancestors, Tantoo Cardinal enters the pictures, songs, movements and stories of film, television, radio and stage "to bring understanding between peoples." Born in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, to a Métis (a French term meaning mixed blood) mother, Ms. Cardinal was raised by her maternal grandmother, whose own heritage was Cree, Chippewa and Lakota. After high school, she became active in Native organizations, including the United Native Youth, eventually serving as its president. She began her acting career with a role in a dramatized documentary, learning early that theatre was a place and a medium to convey ideas to the minds and hearts of others. She has appeared in such film productions as Legends of the Fall and Dances With Wolves and on television's Lonesome Dove; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and The Education of Little Tree. She received the acclamation Best Actress, the Elizabeth Sterling award in Theatre for All My Relations, a play by Floyd Favel starring an all-Native cast. She has hosted documentaries on the struggles of Canadian Indians, As Long as the Rivers Flow, a public television series about the Canadian First People's movement for self-government, and Native Indians: Images of Reality. For her contributions to the Native artistic community, Ms. Cardinal won the Eagle Spirit award in 1990 and in 1995 she received an International Women in Film Award. A regular visitor to St. Lawrence, Ms. Cardinal conducts workshops and gives presentations in Native American Studies and Speech and Theatre classes. The University offers its own highest honor, the degree Doctor of Art honoris causa, and welcomes Tantoo Cardinal into the Laurentian family.
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