Contact: Donald Fixico, KU Indigenous Nations Studies Program, (785) 864-7857, or [email protected]; or Nancy Scott Jackson, University Press of Kansas, (785) 864-9160, or [email protected].
LAWRENCE - American Indian leaders of political activist movements from the 1960s to the present will gather for a meeting Sept. 14 to 16 at two universities in Lawrence to discuss American Indian leadership and tribal politics.
The University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University are presenting a three-day conference, "American Indian Leaders: Red Power and Tribal Politics." Events will be conducted on both campuses.
The conference is significant because time and the aging process may make it impossible to reconvene this group of leaders again, said Donald Fixico, KU professor of history and director of KU's Indigenous Nations Studies graduate program. Indeed, a few leaders declined invitations to attend citing health problems.
"American Indian leaders of the past are guiding lights for their peoples," Fixico said. The conference will focus on the future of American Indian leadership through guidance from the past.
Speakers will include:
- Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt, both of the Anishinabe Nation, and co-founders of the American Indian Movement;
- Ramona Bennett, former Puyallup tribal chair and founder of the Survival of American Indians Association;
- Ada E. Deer, a Menominee tribal leader and the first woman assistant secretary for Indian affairs in the U.S. Interior Department;
- Adam Fortunate Eagle, Chippewa, Haskell alumnus and author of "Alcatraz! Alcatraz! The Indian Occupation of 1969-1971" and "Heart of the Rock," to be published this fall by the University of Oklahoma Press;
- LaDonna Harris, Comanche, founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity and of Oklahomans for Indian Opportunity;
- Oren Lyons, Iroquois, co-editor with John Mohawk of "Exiled in the Land of the Free," a study of American Indians and democracy.
Discussion topics include native politics today, tribal politics in the 1960s, tribal sovereignty and leadership, preservation of language and culture, ethics for indigenous studies, Indian activism, and gaming.
Historians and observers of today's tribal politics and economies along with scholars of indigenous peoples of the Americas are expected to attend the conference.
"A benefit from the conference is that people will become more knowledgeable about the 1960s," Fixico said. "Indian leadership, in a modern sense, really emerged during that time."
"I think that these individuals really kind of opened the door," Fixico said of American Indian leaders from the 1960s. "They stepped out of tradition and moved more toward an Indianness. An Indian identity truly emerges from this time period."
While the issues of the 1960s addressed past wrongs and historical differences of conflict and treatment of native people, Fixico said, "I think the contemporary issues are more of tribal enterprise and American Indian self-determination - critical issues like Indian gaming, repatriation, respect toward sacred lands, court decisions that involve return of lands and certainly the expansion of Indian economics."
Special rates are available for students and for American Indians.
For registration information contact Marvin Hunt at the KU Division of Continuing Education (785) 864-7857 or [email protected], or see the Web site: http://www.kuce.org/app/ail/.
HASKELL INDIAN NATIONS UNIVERSITY
Haskell Indian Nations University is accredited to provide higher education opportunities for federally recognized tribal members through degree programs that include baccalaureate degrees in elementary education, American Indian studies, business administration, and environmental studies, and several associate degrees. Haskell opened in 1884 as the U.S. Industrial Training School for American Indian children from first through fifth grades. Students from nearly all the 546 federally recognized tribes have attended Haskell, with more than 150 tribes represented annually. Haskell's vision is to become a national center for Indian education, research and cultural programs that support current needs of American Indians and Alaska natives. http://www.haskell.edu/
KU INDIGENOUS NATIONS STUDIES PROGRAM
Faculty and administrators from Haskell and the University of Kansas developed an interdisciplinary graduate program in indigenous nations studies, offered through KU, that began admitting students in January 1999. KU's Indigenous Nations Studies Program began in 1997 and offers a master's degree of cross-disciplinary studies in order to understand the complexities of indigenous peoples in the Americas. Graduate students in the program may work with more than 20 professors who teach courses on indigenous peoples, including faculty with KU's Tribal Law and Government Center in the law school, KU's Center of Latin American Studies and Haskell Indian Nations University. http://www.ukans.edu/~insp/introduction.shtml.
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