Editors’ Introduction

Author Biographies

• Seth Schermerhorn, Hamilton College

  Seth Schermerhorn is an associate professor of religious studies and program director of American studies at Hamilton College, which was founded on the territory of the Oneida Indian nation. Schermerhorn specializes in the interdisciplinary study of Indigenous traditions, particularly in the Southwestern United States and northern Sonora. Although he has worked with several Indigenous nations, Schermerhorn works most extensively with the Tohono O’odham nation. His first book, Walking to Magdalena: Personhood and Place in Tohono O’odham Songs, Sticks, and Stories, was copublished by the University of Nebraska Press and the American Philosophical Society in 2019. He is cochair of the Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit of the American Academy of Religion.

• Marie Alohalani Brown, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

  Marie Alohalani Brown is a Professor of Religion, specialist in Hawaiian religion, culture, and oral/literary traditions at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. She is the author of Ka Po'e Mo'o Akua: Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities (University of Hawai'i Press, 2022) and Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa 'Ī'ī (University of Hawai'i Press, 2016), winner of Ka Palapala Po'okela excellence award in the categories of Hawaiian language, culture, and history (2017). She is the co-editor with Christina Bacchilega of The Penguin Book of Mermaids (Penguin Classics, 2019).