12:00 pm - Conference Registration
6:30 pm Visual and Performing Arts Center
PAPER PRESENTATIONS
2:30 pm Panel A: Hybridity versus Assimilation
Room: Russell 305
Moderator: Richard Hartman (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "States of Being in the Dark."
Eric Anderson (Oklahoma State University)
This paper focuses on Linda Hogan's Mean Spirit and speaks directly to the Osage oil boom and to the state of Oklahoma.
2. "Utopian anti-Utopian World View in the Policy Sciences: Native American Gaming Policy as a Case Analysis."
Jerry Cantrell (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
This study considers whether policy makers and members of the Five Civilized Native American Tribes have different visions about what gaming policies are supposed to accomplish.
3. "'The Hominy Indians' Oklahoma's Professional Football Team.'"
Sara Jane Richter (Panhandle State University) This presentation offers insight (and some interesting tales of games and athletes) into a little known bit of Oklahoma history as it investigates the rise and fall of a unique example of pure and unadulterated truly American sportsmanship.
2:30 pm Panel B: Putting Myth in Perspective
Room: Russell 306
Moderator: Robert Henderson (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "The Impact of Judeo-Christian Tradition on the Interpretation/Translation of Chitimacha Sacred Belief of Creation."
Carlon Andre and Carole McAllister (Southeastern Louisiana University)
This paper examines the superimposing of Western patriarchical thought on the oral traditions in translating and in the recording of the sacred belief (creation myth) of the Chitimancha tribe of Louisiana.
2. "The Winnebago Trickster."
Elbert Hill (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
This paper examines the Trickster figure as a negative teaching example.
3. "`Dances with Worlds'": Native Americans as Fixed Reality in America."
Meredith James (University of Oklahoma)
This paper analyzes two films, Dances with Wolves and Dance Me Outside, films which present different perspectives of American Indians.
4:15 pm Panel C: Clashing Cultures and Repatriation
Room: Russell 305
Moderator: John Mischo (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "Culture Clash: Trade, Destruction, Assimilation and Revival (The Cherokees and Europeans)."
William Anderson (Western Carolina University)
This presentation examines the adverse effects of contact between European culture and Cherokee culture.
2. "NAGPRA: A Discussion of Its Implementation and Effects Upon Anthropology."
James Bird
This paper summarizes the important points of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and points out that the state's legislation needs to address violations by their historical societies and close the loop holes present in NAGPRA.
3. "Native American Voices in the Museum: The Oklahoma Museum of Natural History."
Annette Fromm (Oklahoma Museum of Natural History)
This paper addresses the museum's plans to include Native American input in the museum's changing identity and the progress of this cross-culturally complex process.
4:15 pm Panel D: Influence as Anxiety and Acceptance
Room: Russell 306
Moderator: Brooks Flippin (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "Propulsive Tensions in American Identity."
Terri Baker (Northeastern Oklahoma State University)
This paper explores how Native American voices create a very different image from that created by 19th century authors such as Irving and Cooper, an image that shows the conflicting relationship between Native Americans and "others."
2. "Shades of Hemingway--Jim Loney's Nada."
Gay Barton (Baylor University)
This paper deals with the possible influence of Hemingway's short story, "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," on James Welch's novel The Death of Jim Loney.
3. "Crossing Cultural Borders: The Detective Novels of Todd Downing."
Frank Parman
This paper focuses on Todd Downing's nine detective novels published before World War II.
6:30 PM DINNER BANQUET
Room: Visual and Performing Arts Center
Welcome by President Larry Williams
Native American Blessing by Ernest Hooser
Flute Music by Deborah Battist-Tomasi
Keynote Address by Professor Alfonso Ortiz
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1996
8:00 am Continental Breakfast
Room: Russell 300
PAPER PRESENTATIONS
9:00 am Panel E: Reclaiming Cultures.
Room: Russell 305
Moderator: W. C. Mangrum (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "From War Heroes to Guardian Angels: Uncovering the Culture of the Choctaw Nation Headquarters."
Faye Mangrum, Deborah Lamb, and Angie Ansiel (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
In this organizational study of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the researchers conduct a cultural analysis utilizing the tools of qualitative methodologies.
2. "The Process of Democracy in the Chickasaw Nation from its Early Beginnings to Present Day."
Corie Delashaw and Melanie McCoy (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
This paper argues that while tribal government of the Chickasaw Nation appears to be working well, it was outside forces which threatened the sovereignty of this, as well as all, Indian Nations.
3. "(Re)Creation Narratives: Lumbee Indian Group / Life/ Speaking."
Susan Gardner (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
Based on oral histories, this presentation suggests that rather than somehow being 'deficient' Indians, the Lumbee may in fact present a model for many groups seeking to retain Native identity into the next century.
9:00 am Panel F: Celebration of Native American "Self" in Literature.
Room: Russell 306
Moderator: Richard Pearlstein (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "Native American Literature."
John Crawford (Henderson State University)
This presentation provides a survey of Native American literature in the 20th century and examines the writers' purposes.
2. "Touching the Past: Maurice Kenny's Tekonwatontie/Molly Brant, N. Scott Momaday's The Strange and True Story of My Life with Billy the Kid and Robert J. Conley's ADAWOSGI, Swinner Wesley Snell: A Cherokee Memorial."
Amanda Cobb (University of Oklahoma)
This paper argues that these poetry collections function as biographical narratives of the individuals they celebrate.
3. "EKG: An Analysis of Joy Harjo's `Heartbeat.'"
Shannon Vails (University of North Texas)
This paper seeks to analyze the way in which Joy Harjo's poem "Heartbeat," heretofore overlooked by critics, engages in two cultural conversations, weaving back and forth between Native and non-Native world views.
10:45 am Panel G: Native American Voice Heard and Read.
Room: Russell 305
Moderator: Lisa Hill (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "Some American Indian Voices With Oklahoma Connections."
Ruth Arrington (Northeastern Oklahoma State University)
This study presents resource material in the form of newspapers, journals, diaries, magazines, and anthologies that reveal abundant literary sources by and about the Native American of the past and present.
2. The Cherokee Phoenix.
Pam Bumstead (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
This paper examines the history of the Cherokee Phoenix beginning with Sequoyah's invention of the Cherokee syllabary which bridged the gap between illiteracy and letters in the span of a single day and ran through the six years of the newspaper's existence.
3. "A Choctaw Oral Tradition: The `Holisso Holitopa' of Chahta Immataha."
Jerry Lincecum (Austin College)
This presentation will present a role-play of Dr. Lincecum's ancestor, Dr. Gideon Lincecum (1793-1874), and draw upon his autobiography to recount his experiences.
10:45 am Panel H: Visions, Journeys, and Magical Realism.
Room: Russell 306
Moderator: Glenda Zumwalt (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "Giving Voice to Other Stories: Magical Realism and The Marvelous Real in Louise Erdrich's Fiction."
Robin Cohen (Southwest Texas State University)
This paper discusses the supernatural events in the fiction of Louise Erdrich in the context of the debate about "magic realism."
2. "Feminist Journey in The Woman Who Owned the Shadows." Barbara Cook (Utah State University)
This paper explores the complicated relationship with feminism that Paula Gunn Allen incorporates into her novel.
3. "Cult Divine Visions in South Chiapas, Mexico"
Bryan Bayles.
This paper documents the foundation of a cult of divine visions in southern Chiapas, and it tests a developing method to relate meaningfully the variants of narrative accounts of a recent event of both political and religious significance to the Mayan peoples of Mesoamerica.
2:00 PM ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION
"Assault on Tribal Sovereignty"
Room: Russell 300
Panel participants: Curtis Billy, Cecile Carter, Cliff Jones, Ernest Hooser, Alfonso Ortiz, Bob Rabon, Sr.
Participants discuss attacks on tribal religion, state taxing of smoke shops, tax revenues gathered from tribal gambling establishments, and proposed constitutional changes that would dramatically affect tribal financial operations and judical proceedings.
PAPER PRESENTATIONS
3:15 pm Panel I: Captivating Narratives
Room: Russell 305
Moderator: Annette Trefzer (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "Zitkala-Sa's Nineteenth-Century of Subversion of the Indian Captivity Narrative."
Kim Moreland (George Washington University)
This paper explores the means by which Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa) subverts the genre of the Indian captivity narrative to make a political and moral point.
2. "Complete Self Sacrifice: The Instance of Third Person in Charles Eastman's Memoir Indian Boyhood"
Ruth Heflin (Oklahoma State University)
This essay explores the cultural, autobiographical, and personal ramifications of Eastman's use of third person in this story.
3. "`I Thought Perhaps She Was Scheming to Get Her Girl Out of School': Paternalism and Conflict at Haskell Institute, 1918-1930."
Martha Robinson (University of Kansas)
This paper examines Haskell school policy and the conflicts between administrators, on the one hand, and students' families and tribes, on the other hand.
3:15 pm Panel J: Inhalants
Room: Russell 306
Moderator: Sandra Garrett (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
1. "Inhalants: Types, Availability, and Consequences"
Harry Fullwood (Texas A & M of Commerce)
2. Signs of Abuse in Schools and Home Environments"
Susan Girvin (Southeastern Oklahoma State University)
3. "Importance of Dissemination of Information to Native American Populations"
Mike Barley (Jones Academy)
5:00 pm READING
Visual and Performing Arts Center
The award-winning novelist Vincent Mendoza reads from his recent autobiography, Son of Two Bloods which portrays the racism he experienced as a child, not only from the white community but also from members of his own family. Vincent Mendoza's work was honored this year with the North American Indian Prose Award by the University of Nebraska Press.
5:30 pm BOOK SIGNING AND RECEPTION
Visual and Performing Arts Center
6:30 pm DANCE PERFORMANCE BY THE CHICKASAW DANCERS
Visual and Performing Arts Center
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
This year's keynote dinner address is delivered by professor Alfonso Ortiz, a nationally known Native American activist, scholar, teacher, and writer. Professor Ortiz will address changing historical relationships between Native Americans and Euro-Americans. Professor Ortiz is the author of several influential books on Native American history and anthropology among them The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and Becoming in a Pueblo Society (University of Chicago Press) and North American Indian Anthropology (University of Oklahoma Press). He has also edited numerous books on these topics.
ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION
Tribal members and historians discuss topics such as attacks on tribal religion, state taxing of smoke shops, tax revenues gathered from tribal gambling establishments, and proposed constitutional changes that would dramatically affect tribal financial operations and judical proceedings. Participants:
* Ernest Hooser is a Choctaw story teller, photographer, and historian. After forty years as an administrator and a math teacher at Durant High School, he is now retired.
* Curtis Billy is a Choctaw story teller who, as a guest lecturer, broadens the perspective of humanities courses in public schools and community colleges in the Texoma area.
* Cecile Carter is a Caddo historian and cultural representative of the Caddo Indian Tribe of Oklahoma who has published several historical studies, including Caddo Indians: Where We Come From (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995). This recent book traces Caddo history according to archeologists, explorers, missionaries, and what she calls "searchers."
* Bob Rabon practices law in Hugo, Oklahoma, where he is a member of the law firm of Rabon, Wolf and Rabon. He is a 1968 graduate of Oklahoma University of Law School. Actively engaged in the field of Indian Law, he and his frim have served as general counsel to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations for more than twenty years.
* Cliff Jones .....
* Alfonso Ortiz will serve as the moderator for this panel.
FLUTE MUSIC
D.J. Battist-Tomasi, MBS, is a member of the Choctaw Nation and a graduate of Southeastern Oklahoma State University. A Choctaw/Chickasaw woman, Tomasi uses her Alaskan cedar flute as a spiritual instrument for story telling and for healing. With her flute, she will tell one of the creation stories as well as the legend of how and why the flute was created. Her performance will consist of traditional as well as improvisational spirit songs. Ms. Tomasi defines music as "the energy of the audience," and as a spiritual messenger, she hopes to incorporate those energies into her performance.
READING
Mr. Vincent Mendoza will give a reading from his recent award-winning autobiography, Son of Two Bloods (University of Nebraska Press, 1996). Mr. Mendoza was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1947 of a Creek mother and a Mexican father. Now a freelance writer, Mr. Mendoza lives with his wife, Alice, in McAlester, Oklahoma. Son of Two Bloods is his first book.
PERFORMANCE BY THE CHICKASAW NATION DANCE TROUPE
According to the Chickasaw Nation's brochure: "The Chickasaw Nation Dance Troupe was formed in 1992 to educate, preserve and restore the Chickasaw traditions. The troupe serves as a goodwill ambassador for the tribe. The purpose of the Chickasaw Nation Dance troupe is to preserve ceremonial and social Chickasaw songs and dances." The Dance troupe also wants "reinforce our traditional beliefs and to continue this heritage through future generations." The Chickasaw Nation Dance troupe "educates and encourages participation from our audiences. With these avenues, we can communicate our heritage by interrelation."
NATIVE AMERICAN ART EXHIBIT
This art exhibit will feature works from various collections among them the collection of Berenice Fairchilds and photographs from the Chickasaw Museum collection.
Chickasha Aisah (Remaining Chickasaw) is an exhibition depicting "Chickasaw people continuing the life ways of their ancestors." According to the exhibition's introductory text, "Life ways . . . tell a story of families who remember the knowledge passed down through many generations of grandmothers and grandfathers, that precious knowledge is the greatest resource that defines who we are as a people . . . . Chickasaws honor the old days by keeping the spirit alive within us today. The sound of our music, language, and laughter have lingered in the air in a soft whisper that catches a child's ear. We are traditional and contemporary; all balanced in a delicate spiral dance. We hold on to these qualities so that as a people we will always remain Chickasaw."
The collection of Berenice Fairchilds includes Hopi, Zuni and Navajo jewelry, katchinas, and paintings by Jimmy Yellowhair. Mr. Yellowhair is a Navajo artist from Hauck, Arizona where he lives in a hogan on a reservation. Most of the paintings date from the 1960s and 70s. The Fairchilds have organized exhibitions of Jimmy Yellowhair's work for the Gambaro Museum in Washington, D.C., the Mid-America Arts Center in Wichata, KS and many other places.