2011 Native American Symposium

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Films – Student Union Auditorium 213

9:00 am – The Language of Victory: American Indian Code Talkers of World War I & II, Gary Robinson, Tribal Eye Productions (22 min.) Explores the important contribution of these Native Americans to the national war effort in the 20th century.

9:30 am – Search for the World’s Best Indian Taco, Steven Judd (11 min.) A short humorous piece.

9: 45 am – River of Renewal, Pikiawish Partners & NAPT (54 min.) Depicts the struggle by Native Americans and others to protect the environmental integrity of the Klamath River in northern California and Oregon.

10:40 am – Rivercane Restoration: Linking Cultural, Biological, and Economic Values, Sean Gantt, University of New Mexico (7 min.) Focuses on the proceedings of the 2009 Rivercane Symposium held at the Pearl River Resort of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

11:00 am – Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School, Steven Heape, Rich-Heape Films (80 min.) Major documentary chronicling this sad chapter in the history of Native American education. Includes comments by our keynote speaker Dr. Henrietta Mann.

1:00 pm – Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, Neil Diamond (88 min.) Explores the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood films from the silent era to the present, using clips from hundreds of movies and interviews with film writers, directors, and actors.

2:30 pm – Harvesting Hope, Vanessa Lozecznik, Ryan Klatt, and Shirley Thompson (36 min.) Depicts the effort by Native Americans in northern Manitoba, Canada to grow their own food by implementing traditional Aboriginal practices.

3:10 pm – Tenth Festival of Pacific Arts, July 2008, Pagopago, David Kahn (2 hrs). Features traditional music and dancing from a variety of Native cultures across the Pacific, including a number of U.S. island territories, as part of the Tenth Festival of Pacific Arts.

5:00 pm – Poetry and Short Story Readings – Student Union Auditorium 213

• Jeffrey DeLotto, Texas Wesleyan University, “Two Hawks Builds a Morning Fire” and “A Karankawa”
• Brian Hudson, Hudson, Brian K., University of Oklahoma, “Land Run on Sooner City”
• Ron Wallace, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma Cantos

Reprise Film Showings – Student Union Auditorium 213

6:30 pm – Harvesting Hope, Vanessa Lozecznik, Ryan Klatt, and Shirley Thompson (36 min.)

7:10 pm – Search for the World’s Best Indian Taco, Steven Judd (11 min.)

7:25 pm – River of Renewal, Pikiawish Partners & NAPT (54 min.)

8:30 pm – Our Spirits Don’t Speak English: Indian Boarding School, Steven Heape, Rich-Heape Films (80 min.)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2011

7:30 am – Student Union Atrium Loft – Continental Breakfast

8:00 am – Native American Social Issues I – Student Union Auditorium 213

• K. T. (Hutke) Fields, Natchez Nation, “Cultural Continuum and its Effects on Contemporary Indian Life”
• Michael Snyder, Oklahoma City Community College, “Queer Life and Text of an Oilman: John Joseph Matthews and E.W. Marland”

8:00 am – Native American Literature I – Student Union 303

• Francisco Q. Delgado, CUNY York College, “The Gaze Without Reflection: Alienation and Reconciliation in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”
• Marija Knežević, University of Montenegro, “Maximum Morality of Thomas King’s Medicine River”

9:00 am – Native American Social Issues II – Student Union Auditorium 213

• Thomaira Babbitt, University of Central Oklahoma “NAGPRA as a Paradigm: The Historical Context and Meaning of Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 2011”
• Wynema Morris, Nebraska Indian Community College, “The Misrepresentation of Omaha Tribal Culture and Language”

9:00 am – Native American Religion – Student Union 323

• David Kahn, “The Spirit World of Mongolians, Siberians, and the Inuit of Canada and Greenland”
• Richard Mize, The Oklahoman/NewsOK.com, “Christopher Columbus and Bartolome de Las Casas, Worshipping Christ Versus Following Jesus: Spiritual Roots of their Twin Christian Legacies”

9:00 am – Native American Literature II – Student Union 303

• Arianna Mancini, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, “On the Path of the Next Eco-Warriors: March Point’s Visual Storytelling”
• Yonka Krasteva, Butler Community College, Shumen University, “The Discourse of Madness and Environmental Justice in Linda Hogan’s Novel Solar Storms”

10:00 am – Native American Social Issues III – Student Union Auditorium 213

• Gretchen Eick, Friends University, “Indian or ‘American’? Charles Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman’s Cross-Racial Marriage, 1890-1920”
• Steven B. Sexton, University of Oklahoma, “Zitkala-Ša’s Reaction to Assimilation/American Philanthropy”

10:00 am – Native American Film I – Student Union 323

• Gabriel S. Estrada, California State University Long Beach, “Visual Sovereignty, Political Leadership, and Masculinity in Cheyenne Film”
• Colleen Thurston, Montana State University, “Choctaw Trail of Tears”

10:00 am – Native American Literature III – Student Union 303

“Telling Our Stories: Native Narratives & Language Studies,” Northeastern State University

• Joseph Faulds, “‘Down the memory spilling out into the world’ (Silko): The Spiral Cycle of Repetition With Variation in the Serious Comedy of Native American Traditional Mythoi as an Adaptive Bridge into the Future”
• Kimberli Lee, “Stories Through Song: Annie Humphrey’s Call for Awareness”

11:00 am – Native American Literature III (continued) – Student Union 303

• Jacquetta Shade, “Women’s Ways: Cherokee Domestic Folklore”
• Les Hannah, “If the Subaltern Speaks in the Woods …?”

11:00 am –Native American Social Issues III – Student Union Auditorium 213

• Yolanda Leon Polequaptewa and Nikishna N. Polequaptewa, University of California, Irvine, “Dysfunctional Families and the Loss of Tradition: Native History and Culture as the Key to Solving Social Ills in Indian Country”
• Yolanda Bluehorse, “A Personal Native American Perspective on Dealing with the Criminal Justice System”

11:00 am – Native American Film II – Student Union 323

• Adrianne Cross, Atoka High School, “Romances with Wolves: Native American Representation in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series”
• Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., Yale University, “Gambling on Navajo Joe”

11:00 am – Native American History – Henry Bennett Library, Native American Room

• Brandon Burnette, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, “The Administration of Indian Affairs from 1775-1930s”

12:00 pm – Lunch on your own.

1:00 pm – Native American Education I – Student Union Auditorium 213

• Neyooxet Greymorning, University of Montana, “Accelerated Second Language Acquisition: Forging a New Path for Native Language Instruction”
• Travis Hardin and Nichlas Emmons, Ball State University, “The Importance of a Multidisciplinary Approach in Native American Studies”
• Nichlas Emmons and Travis Hardin, Ball State University, “Climate Change Education in Tribally-Controlled Institutions of Higher Learning”

1:00 pm – Native American Music and Dance – Student Union 323

• Paula Conlon, University of Oklahoma, “Red Power: American Indian Activism through Powwow Music and Dance”
• Clyde Ellis, Elon University, “‘We Fancy Danced Just Like the Men, and We Wore the Same Outfits Too’: Young Women and the Changing Nature of Southern Plains Powwow Dancing”
• Frederic Murray, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, “Shifting Boundaries: Violence, Representation, and the Salt Songs of the Great Basin Peoples”

1:00 pm – Native American Literature IV – Student Union 303

“Generation Next: The Diverse and Dynamic Perspectives of Contemporary American Indian Writers,” University of Central Oklahoma

• Timothy Petete, “The Tyranny and Revision of Expectations: An Analysis of Eddie Chuculate’s Cheyenne Madonna”
• Deborah Brown, “Sherman Alexie’s Writing: On and Off the Reservation”
• Shay Rahm-Barnett, “He doesn’t talk about coyotes”: The Native Character in David Treuer’s The Translation of Dr. Apelles”

2:30 pm – Native American Education II – Student Union Auditorium 213

• Mary Harjo, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, “Indian Boarding School”
• Paul McKenzie-Jones, University of Oklahoma, “Reclaiming Education for Themselves: The Workshops on American Indian Affairs, 1956-1972”
• Amy Gantt, Southeastern Oklahoma State University/Chickasaw Nation, “The Clemente Course at Southeastern”

2:30 pm – Native American Film III – Student Union 323

• Vanessa Lozecznik and Shirley Thompson, “Reclaiming Food Sovereignty in Northern Manitoba Communities from Local Actions to Collaborative Video”
• Jeremy Naranjo, “Aliksai: ‘Listen: This Is My Story’”

2:30 pm – Native American Literature V – Student Union 303

“By Any Other Name a Different Being: Naming and Native American Identity,” East Central University

• Steve Benton, “Extermination by Any Other Name: Louisa May Alcott, Horace Greeley, and the American Educational Imperative”
• Ken Hada, “One Must Know Where We Don’t Want To Go: Identity in Ofelia Zepeda’s Where Clouds Are Formed”
• Jennifer L. McMahon, “What’s in a Name?: Dead Man and Transcending Stereotypes of Native Americans”
• Murray, Jason, “Sophia Alice Callahan’s Wynema: Struggling to ‘See Things as They Are, in the True Light’”

4:00 pm – Student Union Auditorium 213

Native American Excellence in Education Student Field Trip Reports

• “Nanih Waiya: The Historical, Spiritual and Cultural Significance for Choctaws”
• “Homeland Village Sites”

6:00 pm – Visual and Performing Arts Center (VPAC) – Keynote Banquet (Tickets required. See below.)

7:00 pm – Visual and Performing Arts Center (VPAC) – Keynote Speech (Free and open to the public.)

Henrietta Mann

The keynote speaker this year is the distinguished educator and scholar Dr. Henrietta (Henri) Mann. A leading advocate of tribal education, Dr. Mann is currently serving as founding president of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College, temporarily located at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She also holds an endowed chair in Native American Studies at Montana State University and has taught at several other major universities, accumulating a long list of prestigious honors and awards. Dr. Mann has always been aggressively focused on inspiring young Native Americans to set the highest goals for themselves, so that like her they too can go “Where no one else has gone before.” Henrietta Mann’s appearance has been made possible by a grant from the Cultural and Scholastic Lectureship Fee Committee, a fund collected from and administered by the students of Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Feature Film Showing

8:30 pm – Russell 100 – Reel Injun (2009), Neil Diamond (88 min.)

• A fascinating recent documentary that explores the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood film from the silent era to the present. Includes clips from hundreds of movies and interviews with film writers, directors, and actors both Native and non-Native, tracing how the how Hollywood has shaped popular understanding and misunderstanding of Native American culture and history.