Denise Lajimodiere

FARGO – North Dakota Poet Laureate Denise Lajimodiere will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the North Dakota State University commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11, at the Fargodome.

Lajimodiere, an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in Belcourt, has been involved in education for 44 years as an elementary school teacher, principal and professor. She was an NDSU associate professor in the School of Education’s education leadership program.

“This honor was totally unexpected,” said Lajimodiere. “I am very much humbled. As a teacher at heart, I thoroughly enjoyed my years at NDSU working as an educational leadership professor.”

Lajimodiere helped create the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and has written a children’s book and books of poetry. Lajimodiere is a traditional Jingle Dress dancer and Ojibwe Birch Bark Biting artist. She lives in a cottage near the lake on the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Lajimodiere earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.