03-26-04

LONGTIME AMERICAN INDIAN ACTIVIST TO ADDRESS SYMPOSIUM AT IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY APRIL 2

AMES, Iowa -- Clyde Bellecourt, an advocate for American Indian civil and spiritual rights and co-founder of theAmerican Indian Movement in 1968, will present the keynote Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture, "Sacred Spaces andPlaces," at Iowa State University's 33rd annual Symposium on the American Indian. The lecture will begin at 8 p.m.Friday, April 2, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. A reception will follow.

Bellecourt currently serves as director of the Peacemaker Center, Minneapolis, which he helped found in 1989. He alsois founder and current board chairman at American Indian OIC, a Minneapolis jobs program that has moved more than14,000 people from welfare to full-time employment. In Minneapolis, he also started the Heart of the Earth SurvivalSchool, the city's first culturally based alternative school and a legal rights center for American Indians.

Bellecourt was a major figure in the occupation of Wounded Knee, S. D., in 1973. He was born on the White EarthReservation in northwestern Minnesota and has firsthand experience with American Indian sacred land concerns.

This year's symposium events run March 31-April 3, and are free and open to the public. The symposium's theme is"Turtle Island: Sacred Island," which refers to the name American Indian tribes use for North America. The scheduledevents will focus on understanding and honoring the land, both in an environmental sense and as a sacred place.

Other symposium highlights include:

• Daniel Wildcat, head of the environmental research studies center at Haskell Indian NationsUniversity, Lawrence, Kan., will speak on the role of technology in preserving culture and environment. Wildcat waspart of a group that successfully pursued state legislation to protect Native American remains in Kansas, two yearsbefore similar legislation was approved at the federal level. He will speak at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 1, in theMemorial Union Gallery.
• Wildcat also will help lead a discussion following a showing of Who Owns the Past, a 2001 PBSdocumentary about American Indians' struggle for control of ancestral remains that features Wildcat. The event will beheld from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, April 3, also in the Gallery. During this same time, there will be a family/children'sevent in rooms 244-246 of the Memorial Union that includes storytelling, flute playing, arts and crafts, and games forpeople of all ages (some are geared for children.)
• The work of St. Paul artist Carly Bordeau, entitled "They Call Me Turtle Woman," will be on amonth-long exhibit in the Gallery. Bordeau will give a presentation related to her work at 3 p.m. Friday, April 2, inthe Gallery.
• The symposium concludes Saturday, April 3, with an exhibition powwow from 1 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 10p.m. in 175 Forker Building. Dancers will perform grand entries at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.

A complete schedule for the symposium follows:

• Now through April 4
  
• Art exhibit, "They Call Me Turtle Woman," Carly Bordeau (White Earth Ojibwe Nation), artist from St. Paul, Minn.,Gallery, Memorial Union.
  
  Wednesday, March 31
  
• 8 p.m., Performance, Bryan Akipa (Sisseton/Wahpeton Dakota Nation), Native American flute music, Maintenance Shop,Memorial Union.
  
  Thursday, April 1
  
• 8 p.m., Lecture, "Peoples of Places: Environment, Culture, Technology," Daniel Wildcat (Euchee), co-director of theHaskell Environmental Research Studies Center, Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, Kan., Gallery, MemorialUnion.
  
  Friday, April 2
  
• 3-5 p.m., Presentation, "Reflections On: They Call Me Turtle Woman," Carly Bordeau, White Earth Ojibwe Nation, St.Paul, Minn. Gallery MU.
  
  
• 8 p.m., Lecture,Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture,"Sacred Spaces and Places: A Native AmericanPerspective," Clyde Bellecourt (Mississippi Band of the Anishinabe Nations/Ojibwe), Minneapolis, Great Hall, MemorialUnion.
  
  Saturday April 3
  
• 9-11 a.m., Film,Who Owns the Past,and commentary by Daniel Wildcat (Euchee) and Smokey McKinney (PrairieBand Potowatami) Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, Kan. Gallery, Memorial Union.
  
  
• 9-11 a.m., Family program, arts, crafts, storytelling, flute playing and activities for people of all ages, Rooms244-246, Memorial Union.
  
  
• 1-5 p.m. and 7-10 p.m., Powwow, American Indian dancers and drum groups, grand entries at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., 175Forker Building.
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