Keynote Speakers

Theresa Dardar

(Pointe-au-Chien Tribe)

Theresa Dardar is a lifelong resident of the small American Indian Fishing community of Pointe-aux-Chenes in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, one of the most fragile coastal areas in the world. She is a strong local leader advocating for the restoration and protection of not just the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and its coastal areas but also for the people and communities who call coastal Louisiana home. 

She is a powerful voice for her community, at local, state, national and international forums, such as the United Nations' Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples Conference. She has participated in the Intertribal Agricultural Council and has represented the Gulf Coast in various capacities. 

She works as the Diocesan American Indian liaison and at the Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and serves as President of St. Charles the Roch, Kateri Circle, which is a branch of the Tekakwitha Conference.  She is a board member of Lowlander Center, Inc., Go Fish, a multi-parish alliance of fisher families.  Theresa serves as a Board Emeritus Member on the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center board and member of First Peoples’ Conservation Council.  She is a member of The Grail, a movement supporting the human rights of women. Theresa has been a participant/leader in Church Women United, an ecumenical women’s movement that fights against racial prejudice.

She spends most of her time traveling between political, professional, academic and organizational realms to voice justice concerns for her tribe and for the greater native community. When she does find herself at home, Theresa enjoys cooking special local bayou dishes and being out on the water and shrimping with her husband, Donald.

Patty Ferguson-Bohnee

(Pointe-au-Chien Tribe)

Patty Ferguson-Bohnee is the Director of the Indian Legal Clinic, Faculty Director of the Indian Legal Program, and Clinical Professor of Law, at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.  

She has substantial experience in Indian law, election law and voting rights, and status clarification for tribes.  

Ferguson-Bohnee received her bachelor’s degree with Honors in Native American Studies with an Emphasis in Policy and Law from Stanford University and her Juris Doctorate from Columbia University School of Law with a certificate in Foreign and Comparative Law.  

Ferguson-Bohnee is a member of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe.