The Building Relationship group works to strengthen connections between southeast Nebraskans and Otoe-Missouria tribal citizens through events, partnerships, and ongoing relationships.
Cory DeRoin, a proud member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe and the Bear Clan, is the Project Coordinator for Building Relationships. As the current mayor of Red Rock, OK, DeRoin is deeply committed to supporting tribal communities culturally, spiritually, and economically. He serves as the HR Director for the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma’s Fancy Dance Casino, focusing on skill development for Native professionals across northern Oklahoma. Previously, DeRoin held roles in Accounting and HR with the Kaw Nation, as well as property and procurement positions with the Pawnee Nation and Ioway Tribe, where he achieved a landmark four consecutive clean audits for the Pawnee Nation.
DeRoin’s volunteer work includes serving with the Pawnee Seed Preservation Society, where he aids in corn harvesting in Oklahoma and Nebraska. His career and volunteerism reflect his lifelong mission to uplift tribal communities, and he remains dedicated to advancing their growth and visibility across Indian Country.
Billie Ann Tohee, a tribal elder and enrolled member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians and a descendant of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, brings a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and compassion to the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s “Walking in the Footsteps of Our ancestors.”
Tohee is the Executive Director of the National Indian Council on Aging headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she advocates for Native Elders across the nation. She grew up in Stillwater, Okla., and her permanent home is in Perkins, Okla. It’s important to Tohee to be able to visit and participate with the Otoe-Missouria and Iowa tribes as much as possible. It’s also important to her to live by her tribal traditions, customs, and beliefs that were taught to her from as she can remember, as much as possible in her daily life.
Tohee has a degree from the University of New Mexico in Political Science and a degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Law in Indigenous Law.
Della Warrior, M.A. (Otoe-Missouria) is the President and CEO of MICA Group. Warrior served as lead consultant for the development of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, as Chief Operating Officer of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Director of Indian Education for the Albuquerque Public Schools and as a co-founder, and the second Executive Director, of the MICA Group. She holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard. She is a former board member of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the American Indian College Fund and was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame.
Dr. Gabriel Bruguier, an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, serves as an Assistant Professor and Research Specialist Librarian in UNL’s Research Partnerships Department. Growing up in Vermillion and Sisseton, SD, Bruguier earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy. From 2017 to 2023, he was the Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Mid-America Transportation Center in UNL’s College of Engineering, where he developed programs like the MATC Scholars Program for Tribal College Students and the Sovereign Native Youth STEM Leadership Academy, bridging educational opportunities for Native American students.
Currently, he is a co-PI on an ACLS Digital Justice Development Grant and collaborates on the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project. He’s working on a book chapter for the Historical Truth and Reconciliation in Nebraska Project and has published papers on Native language revitalization and philosophy. Since 2018, Bruguier has also served as the City of Lincoln Representative on the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and as a consultant for the Genoa Indian School Museum Foundation.
Judy Hart is the founder of Lincoln, Nebraska's Angels Theatre Company in the early 1990's. She retired from theatre producing in 2022. She is a board member and Network leader with Justice in Action, and currently the board president at the Unitarian Church of Lincoln. She honors her mentors and gives back as a Teammate and after school CLC club leader at Lefler Middle School. Judy is a basketmaker, and former camp director, actor, teacher, and director.
Dr. Mary K. Stillwell earned her PhD in plains literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her poems and criticism have appeared in The Paris Review, The Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, Midwest Quarterly, South Dakota Review, The New York Quarterly, Midwest Quarterly, Book of Re-reading of Recent American Poetry II, Women’s Studies, and numerous anthologies.
She is the author of The Life and Poetry of Ted Kooser, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2013. Her books include Reasonable Doubts (Finishing Line Press, 2020), Maps & Destinations (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2018), Fallen Angels (Finishing Line Press, 2013), and Moving to Malibu (Sandhills Press, 1990). Nebraska Presence, an anthology of contemporary Nebraska poetry, co-edited with Greg Kosmicki, was the 2018 One Book One Nebraska selection. Stillwell is a native Nebraskan. She was raised in Omaha and on a farm in southeast Nebraska. Parents of two adult children, Stillwell and her partner, Frank Edler, live in Lincoln.