Biography:

Smokey McKinney grew up in the air force, lived in Florida, New York, the Philippines, and Kansas, where he spent junior high through college. He received a Bachelor of Music Education from Baker University, a Biblical Studies degree from Harding University, an MA in Rhetoric and Composition and a PhD in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from Iowa State University. He has been at Haskell Indian Nations University for the past few years, wearing multiple hats of Extension program director, American Indian Studies instructor and director, and most recently, head of the new Institute of Distance Education at Haskell (IDE@). An enrolled member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi nation, McKinney has maintained a website on the tribe's language and culture, and has also published several essays, including "Kansas Came Late," in Flyway, which was named among the top 100 noteable essays of 1998 by Best American Essays.