Native American Symposium - Seventh
Press Release Date: 10-24-2007
Southeastern Oklahoma State University will present the 7th Native American Symposium: Sixty–Seven Nations and Counting, Thursday–Friday, Nov. 1–2, with keynote speaker Rennard Strickland, a legal historian of Osage and Cherokee heritage.
There will be more than 25 sessions during the Symposium.
Strickland, this year’s keynote speaker, has had a distinguished academic career as a professor of Native American law. He has served as law school dean at numerous universities, including the University of Oregon, Oklahoma City University, and the University of Oklahoma, where he was also founding director of the Center for the Study of American Indian Law and Policy.
Strickland is the author of more than 30 books directed at both academic and popular audiences. Titles include Tonto’s Revenge: Reflections on American Indian Culture and Policy; Fire of the Spirits: Cherokee Law from Clan to Court; The Indians in Oklahoma: Newcomers to a New Land; and The Handbook of Federal Indian Law. In addition to his legal and historical interests, Strickland is also an avid collector of Native American art and a major donor to a number of museums.
Other featured speakers include composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate; filmmaker Steven Heape; local poet Ron Wallace; and K.T. Fields, Principal Chief of the Natchez Nation. Presentations will cover numerous topics, including Native American literature, history, sociology, politics, education, science, art, and film. Scholars, artists, and members of Indian Nations from across the United States and beyond will come together to discuss topics related to the Native American experience.
Sessions will be held in the Student Union auditorium, Frost chambers and other rooms, along with the Native American Room in SOSU’s Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library, the Fine Arts Recital Hall and the Visual and Performing Arts Center.
Wallace, of Choctaw, Cherokee, Osage and Scots-Irish ancestry and an alumnus of Southeastern, will present a session at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Native American Room. His recently published collection, Native Son: American Poems from the Heart of Oklahoma, was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award in poetry for 2007. He will read his poems and discuss his work.
Tate, a native Oklahoman and member of the Chickasaw Nation, will discuss his compositional technique which incorporates Native American themes and musical traditions into classical music genres at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Fine Arts Recital Hall. He will play examples of his music and deliver a live performance of his work for piano, clarinet, flute, bassoon and narrator titled “Spirit Chief Names the Animal People.” Mr. Tate’s father will perform the narration.
All symposium sessions except the keynote banquet are free and open to the public. Tickets to the banquet, which concludes the event at 7 p.m. Friday in the VPAC, are priced at $20 each.
The Native American Symposium is made possible in part by a Southeastern Cultural and Scholastic Lectureship Grant, a fund derived from student fees, as well as the Red River Arts Council and the Oklahoma Arts Council.
For further information, contact Dr. Daniel Althoff, Department of English, Humanities, and Languages, at 580-745-2584, e–mail dalthoff@sosu.edu or visit our website at http://www.sosu.edu/nas.
