BIOGRAPHY

Thomas Pecore Weso is an educator, writer, and artist. His Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, ISBN:978-0-87020-771-6) was a finalist for the international Gourmand Award and national Gourmand Award winner in the category of Historical Recipes. The Midwest Independent Booksellers picked Good Seeds as one of three November selections, and The Miller’s Tale selected it as one of the “Best of the Fall Cook Books.” Weso is co-author of Langston Hughes in Lawrence (Mammoth Publications) and articles, reviews, and personal essays in Muckleshoot Review, Yellow Medicine Review, Native Literatures: Generations, Overland Review, and others. Weso has an M.A. in Indigenous Studies from the University of Kansas and teaches social sciences at Kansas City Kansas Community College. He is a speaker for the Kansas Humanities Council library program Talk about Literature in Kansas. Weso is an enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Nation of Wisconsin. A selection of Weso’s artwork is viewable online in the e-zine Numero Cinq. He has had one-man and group shows at: Hutchinson Art Center; Final Fridays Art Collective, Lawrence; University of Kansas Student Union; Percolator Gallery, Haskell Cultural Center; Longview Community College in Lee’s Summit, MO; and other venues. His artworks are in collections in Arizona, California, Kansas, Missouri, Washington, D.C., & Wisconsin. His art has been used for book covers of writers Susan Reieke, DaMaris Hill, Diane Glancy, Pamela Dawes Tambornino, Denise Low, Caleb Puckett, and Jonathan Holden. 

EDUCATION
M.A.    University of Kansas, Indigenous Nations Studies;  B.G.S.  University of Kansas, Cultural Anthropology;  A.A.    Haskell Indian Nations University

GRANTS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS

• Sequoyah National Research Center, Research Fellowship, 2012
• Title III Faculty Development grant, Haskell Indian Nations University, to present paper at  Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Conference
• Minority Graduate Fellowship Award, University of Kansas, 1998-99.
• McNair Research Fellowships, University of Kansas, 1994 to 1996. 
• National Science Foundation fellowship, environmental sciences, 1995-1996.
• Philip Whitcomb Writing Award, University of Kansas, 1995.
• Henry Bloch School of Business, University of Missouri-Kansas City research grants

ART EXHIBITS

• Numero Cinq online exhibit 2014
• Hutchinson Arts Council one-man show Jan. , 2013
• Writers Place, KC, March 16, 2012 Final Fridays Lawrence Art Party group shows: July, 2011 to present Percolator Gallery, Lawrence, Nov. 2008, one-man exhibit

  Longview Literary Festival, Sept. 2008, display of photography & drawings

  Haskell Library, April 2007, Native Professors Conference group show

  Haskell Cultural Center, Oct. 2006, one-man show, drawings & acrylic paintings

  La Prima Tazza, June 2006, one-man exhibit, drawings & acrylic paintings

  University of Kansas, April 2006, Native Professors Conference group show

SELECTED EMPLOYMENT
Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences, Kansas City Kansas Community College, 2010-17
Educational Researcher, Haskell Indian Nations University, 2009-2010
Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences, Kansas City Metropolitan Community College. 2004-2009
AP Examination Reader, Educational Testing Service, 2007-2008

PUBLICATIONS
Good Seeds: A Menominee Indian Food Memoir. Wisconsin State Historical Society Press, 2016. Book. Gourmand Award, national winner 

“Crane Clan.” Yellow Medicine Review, 2018. Personal essay.

“My Menominee Grandfather’s Morning Dreaming.” The Muckleshoot Rev. 3 (2011): 70-4.
“Flight.” Rpt. in Philip Whitcomb Awards anthology, University of Kansas Honors Program.
“A Family History of the Wetlands.” The Wakarusa Wetlands in Word & Image. Lawrence: Imagination & Place, 2005.
“Death on the Reservation.”  Show + Tell: A Celebration of Art. Kansas City: Potpourri and Kansas City Artists Coalition.
“Flight.”  Flint Hills Review 2 (1997): 53-57.

PUBLICATIONS: Academic
+“The Evolutionary Narrative of the Pawnee Nation.” Overland Journal (formerly Mid-America Folklore Journal) 34.1 (May 2007): 55-76.
+Langston Hughes in Lawrence: Photographs and Biographical Resources. With Denise Low.  Lawrence: Mammoth Publications, 2004. Book.
+“From Delirium to Coherence: Shamanism and Medicine Plants in Silko’s Ceremony.”  American Indian Culture and Research Journal (UCLA) 28 1 (2004): 53-65.
+“Powwow Origins.”  Conference Proceedings: A Confluence of Cultures: Lewis and Clark. Missoula: University of Montana Press, 2003.  Rpt.  CD-ROM, Conference Proceedings: A Confluence of Cultures: Lewis and Clark. Missoula: University of Montana Press, 2003.
+“Maori Meeting Houses: An Evolution in Design Motifs.” Kansas McNair Journal 1 (Spring 1997):10.  Rpt.  University of Kansas McNair Home Page, Aug.  1996.   Internet.   Published online: www: http://mcnair.falcon.cc.ukans.edu.
+Review of Indian Why Stories, by Frank Linderman.  Mid-America Folklore      Journal 25.1 (Spring 1997): 45-7.
+”Menominee: Tribe.”  Ready Reference: American Indians. Ed.  Harvey Markowitz.   3 vols.   Pasadena: Salem Press, 1995.   478-80.
+“Menominee Sign Languages.” Mid-America Folklore Journal 23.2 (Fall 1995): 91-89.

PRESENTATIONS

Native American Literature Symposium, 2018, presentation on Native Foods as Autobiography, Minneapolis-Mystic Lake. March 17. 

Fall, 2016, numerous appearances, interviews, and workshop presentations about the memoir Good Seeds throughout Wisconsin and Kansas, including Menominee Nation College, The Warehouse Four Seasons Center for the Arts at Eagle River, Kansas Library Association Conference in Wichita, and others.

+“A Native Visual Arts Autobiography.” Native American Literature Symposium, Minneapolis, 2008.
+“Midwest Influences on Langston Hughes,” with Denise Low. Oscar Micheaux Festival, Kansas Humanities Council, Great Bend, Ks., 2005.
+“Ethneogenic Substances in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Novel Ceremony.” Native American Literature Symposium, Minneapolis, and University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, 2005
+“Gender Roles and Geography on the Menominee Reservation.” Avila College, Carol Coburn’s Women’s Studies class, 2004.
+“Evolution of a Pawnee Village.” Kansas Folklore Society.  Wichita, 2004.
+“Shamanism in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.” Southwest/Texas (regional) and American (national) Popular Culture Conference, San Antonio.
“Powwow Origins.”  A Confluence of Cultures: Lewis and ClarkConference. University of Montana, 2003.
+“Origins of the Plains Fancy Dance.” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Conference, Albuquerque, 2001.
+“Humor in American Indian Literature.” Avila College, 1998.
+“Indian Humor.” Haskell Indian Nations University, Humanities Division Conference, 1997.
+“Menominee Sawmill Sign Language.” Kansas Folklore Society.  Matfield Green, 1995.
+“A Comparison of Western and Native Views of Fire.” Kansas Folklore Society.  Wichita, 1994.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Association for the Study of American Indian Literature, 2016-present

Lawrence Citizens Advisory Board, City of Lawrence and Lawrence Police Department 2000-2015
Educational Testing Service AP Examination Reader, 2005-2010, AP U.S.  History
Kansas Folklore Society member, 1995-2000.