To get the UCO community involved in celebrating Native American Heritage Month, the Native American Student Association and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion is hosting a special kick-off event where UCO students and community leaders will showcase their talent and empower others to learn about the uniqueness of Native American people. We will also premiere the many exciting upcoming events and programs that will occur during Native American heritage month. FREE LUNCH PROVIDED.
Location: Old North Amphitheater - 11 a.m. & Lunch at Broncho Lake - 12 p.m.
Professor Miller is from Tiger Clan and Tom Palmer Band of the Seminole Nation. Trained as a historian, Dr. Miller has served on the faculty of the University of Nebraska & Arizona State University. Miller is currently living in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her writings include Native Historians Write Back: Decolonizing American Indian History (Texas Tech University Press, 2011) and co-authored by james Riding In; Coacoochee’s Bones: A Seminole Saga (University Press of Kansas, 2003); “Seminoles and Africans under Seminole Law: Sources and Discourses of Tribal Sovereignty and ‘Black Indian’ Entitlement,” Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Native American Studies 20:1 (Spring 2005); 23-47.
Come be a part of an interactive forum which will discuss how Native American Boarding Schools allowed many Natives identity to be stolen. This forum will also discuss State Recognized Tribes and Indian Freedman.
Location & Time: NUC Will Rogers Room 6 p.m.
The term "Stomp Dance" is an English term which refers to the 'shuffle and stomp' movements of the dance. In the native Muskogee language the dance is called Opvnkv Haco, which can mean 'drunken,' 'crazy,' or 'inspirited' dance. This usually refers to the exciting, yet meditative effect the Dance and the medicine have on the participants. Come and experience the wonderful and exciting experience of Stomp Dance.
Location & Time: NUC Grand Ballroom 2 p.m.
The Tar Creek area was home to one of the largest lead and zinc strikes on the planet. Now it’s home to America's worst environmental disaster. Acid mine water in the creeks, stratospheric lead poisoning in the children, and sinkholes that do the unthinkable to small town America. This place is the stuff of science fiction. Except Tar Creek is centered around Picher, Oklahoma, America's Heartland. And it might be the one place in the States where you'd swear you stepped into a third world country. It’s so bad that the federal government is buying everyone’s homes and moving them out. At least they are trying to. Corruption from Senator Jim Inhofe's office on down to the local Trust in charge of the buyout has forced some to remain because they can't afford to move. This land belongs to the Quapaw Tribe, and the Tribe will be handed back the worst Superfund site in the country after the government moves everyone away. Worse still, the Bureau of Indian Affairs made the mining companies leave all of this lead-laced waste rock on their land—75 million tons of it—which has caused this pandemic lead poisoning. For over 100 years, the government has been controlling Tar Creek, from Indian Removal to subsidizing wartime mining to 200 million in cleanup funds to the eventual buyout of families. Come learn what the Quapaw Tribe is fighting against.
Location & Time: NUC 211 12 – 1:15 p.m.
When it comes to some Americans, knowledge about Native American culture and history is often times based on stereotypes. In this forum we will discuss those stereotypes and learn what is truly Native.
Location & Time: NUC 320C & 6 p.m.
Be a part of a world wide event that is happening on college campuses everywhere. This is an opportunity for you to wear your moccasins all day long. By wearing your moccasins, you are showing the world that you truly appreciation rich Native culture.
Principal Chief Leonard M. Harjo is a leader with a vision for the future the Seminole Nation. He was raised on his grandfather’s allotment near Wolf, Okla. Like many rural Seminole families of the period, his family lived the “old way.” They raised livestock, grew corn and other crops, and spent much of their leisure time at church. Chief Harjo’s parents were proud of their heritage and encouraged their children to live by the traditional values of self-reliance, respect for others, humility and community service. He attended Wolf Elementary, then Bowlegs High School until tenth grade. Through a program called “A Better Chance,” Chief Harjo temporarily left his home community to attend a preparatory school in the northeast United States during his junior and senior year. Upon graduation in 1975 he was admitted to Harvard University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with an emphasis in Economic Development in 1979. In 1986 he received a First Nations Fellowship to attend The Yale School of Organization and Management and graduated in 1988 with a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management. Come meet Chief Harjo!
Location & Time: NUC 301 6 p.m.
Come and learn about Domestic Violence in Native country. We will discuss how domestic violence has affected the Native American community and how we can use our voices to stop the violence.
Location & Time: NUC 320C 6:30 p.m.
Location & Time: NUC Food Court
Our Spirits Don't Speak English (2008) is a documentary film about the Native American boarding schools, which youths attended chiefly from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. It was filmed by the Rich Heape Company and directed by Chip Richie. Native American storyteller Gayle Ross narrated the film. Ross is a descendant of John Ross, chief of the Cherokee Nation in the Trail of Tears period. The film deals with both the schools run by Christian missionaries and those run by the United States' Bureau of Indian Affairs. It addresses the schools' role of forcing cultural assimilation of the resident children into the ways of the majority culture of European Americans.
Location & Time: NUC 211 12-1 p.m.
Come learn the history of the Native American Dreamcatcher. According to Native Americans, dreams that humans have while they sleep, are sent by sacred spirits as messages. According to their Legend, in the center of the Dream Catcher there is a hole. Good dreams are permitted to reach the sleeper through this hole in the web. As for the bad dreams, the web traps them and they disappear at dawn with the first light. For some, they try to determine what messages are being past onto them and what the message represents.
Location: NUC Food Court 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
For centuries Native Americans had been forced from their lands in the east and were told that eventually they would have a place out west where they could live in peace and call their own. After years of broken promises the tribes in Indian Territory decided the best way to preserve their way of life was to become a state. The Indians wanted a state they could govern themselves and they called it “Sequoyah.” Some of the men fighting to make Indian Territory a separate state would become the most famous names in Oklahoma history. But powerful politicians, boomers and railroad interests joined forces to make sure the twin territories would become one state. Come and watch the OETA’s history series as we go Back in Time to see the struggle to establish the State of Sequoyah.
Location & Time: NUC 211 12-1 p.m.