Dr. Chris Mato Nunpa is a Wahpetunwan (“Dwellers In The Leaves,” or Wahpeton) Dakota from the Pezihuta Zizi Otunwe, “Yellow Medicine Community” (BIA name, Upper Sioux Community), in southwestern Minnesota. Dr. Mato Nunpa is now retired, having served as an Associate Professor of Indigenous Nations & Dakota Studies at Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minnesota, for his last sixteen (16) years of his professional career, from August 1992 through May 2008. Dr. Mato Nunpa’s special research interest is Genocide of the Indigenous Peoples of the U.S. in general, and Genocide of the Dakota People of Minnesota, specifically. Dr. Mato Nunpa is currently working on a book titled "A Sweet-Smelling Savour: Genocide, the Bible, and the Indigenous Peoples of the U.S."

Mato Nunpa speaks from the heart and from many experiences with the resistance of indigenous people including the current events at Standing Rock in North Dakota.