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LCSC’s 21st annual Native American Awareness Week is March 10-14
“Two World View: Traditional and Contemporary” is the theme for the 21st annual Lewis-Clark State College Native American Awareness Week and Idaho Indian Education Youth Conference, which will be held March 10-14 on the LCSC campus.
The week will feature a mini pow wow and the LCSC pow wow, video presentations, panel discussions, the Friendship Banquet, and a comedy night. The public is invited to all events and all but comedy night are free.
Area fourth grade classes will participate in a mini pow wow, which will be held on March 11 at 10-11:15 a.m. at the LCSC Activity Center. The pow wow will feature young dancers in traditional Native American attire and information about the dances they will perform.
That night, comedian Drew Lacapa will perform at 7 p.m. at the Williams Conference Center. Admission is $2 for students with student ID cards, and $4 for general admission. Tickets can be purchased from the LCSC office of Native American/Minority Student Services, located in Room 214 of Reid-Centennial Hall on the LCSC campus, or at the Pi’kaminwaas Center, located at 1112 7th St. in Lewiston. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door.
Lacapa in an Apache Hope Tewa and lives on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. Lacapa says his humor is not discriminatory and that everyone is worthy of being teased regardless of ethnicity or religion.
On March 12-13, the Idaho Indian Education Youth Conference will take place at the LCSC Williams Conference Center. On March 12, the conference kicks off at 9 a.m. with the “Nez Perce Language Watch,” which will feature panelists LCSC Humanities professor Harold Crook and Nez Perce elder Horace Axtell. At 10:30 a.m., Mary Jane Oatman-Wak Wak, the Indian Education Coordinator for the Idaho State Department of Education, will discuss “Resources and Strategies for Enhancing Indian Education.” After lunch, Emmit Taylor Jr. of the Nez Perce Tribe Watershed Division will join Ron Peters, the Fisheries Program manager for the Coeur d’Alene Tribune, for a talk about “Environmental Restoration in Today’s Society.” The final discussion will be on “The Nez Perce Kinship System,” which begins at 3 p.m. and will be led by Diane Mallickan of the Nez Perce Historical Park.
Three more panel discussions and presentations will be on March 13. At 9 a.m., LCSC Social Science Professor Alan Marshall will review “The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Donald Sampson, Executive Director of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and Rod Ariwhite, Executive Director of the Nez Perce Tribune, will discuss “Tribal Economic Development” at 10:30 a.m. After lunch, the final discussion will focus on “Native Artists: Traditional and Contemporary Views on Their Works.” The session, which begins at 1:30 p.m., will be led by George Flett of the Spokane Tribe and Sarah Penney of the Nez Perce Tribe.
The annual Friendship Banquet will be held that evening at 7-9 p.m. at the Williams Conference Center. The free dinner features the award of the Native American Awareness Week Lifetime Achievement Award, the Isaac “Ike” Wilson Memorial Scholarship, as well as other scholarships.
The week wraps up with the LCSC Pow Wow on Friday night at 7 p.m.-midnight at the LCSC Activity Center.
The dance categories include Tiny Tots (age 0-6), boys and girls (7-12), teen boys and girls (13-18), men’s and women’s (19-and-older), and men’s and women’s golden age. Dances will be traditional, fancy and grass combined, or fancy and jingle combined. All drums as well as arts and craft vendors are welcome. Concessions will be available from the LCSC Native American Club and Sodexho Food Services.
The week’s events are sponsored by LCSC, the LCSC Native American Club, the LCSC Warrior Entertainment Board, the Idaho Humanities Council, the Clearwater River Casino, the Nez Perce Tribe, Pi’amkinwaas, Associated Students of LCSC, and the LCSC AISLE Grant.
For more information on the event, contact Bob Sobotta, LCSC Director of Native American/Minority Student Services, at (208) 792-2812.
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