Symposium Focuses on Native Americans in Higher Education

Native American students, their families and teachers will join members of the University of Washington Tacoma community on Oct. 7 for the second annual Symposium on Contemporary Native American Issues in Higher Education.

The symposium provides an opportunity for the Tribal communities to come to campus, learn about the university, and make connections that will help them to be successful in their academic pursuits, said Sharon Parker, UW Tacoma assistant chancellor for equity and diversity. It’s also an opportunity for the UW Tacoma community to increase our understanding of Native American students and learn how to attract them to higher education.

The event, which takes place in Philip Hall on the UW Tacoma campus, engages participants in cross-cultural discussion about what it takes to become a successful college student, including pre-college preparation, the application process, course offerings, the role of culture in and out of the classroom, and how an education can serve the tribal community.

The symposium is organized in two tracks, Parker noted. “If you want to know about a college education and what that’s like, you can find that here,” she said. “If you want to discuss the issues and concerns of Native Americans in higher education, we have that, too.”

Open to students, parents, families, teachers, faculty members and administrators, the symposium includes sessions and workshops throughout the afternoon. Noted speakers include:

• Swil Kanim, an award-winning, virtuoso violinist of the Lummi Nation. Kanim calls himself a violindian. He intertwines his original compositions with storytelling, poetry and audience interaction. Kanim is also a motivational speaker and actor, appearing in Sherman Alexie's award-winning movie, The Business of Fancydancing and in two dozen episodes of the television series, Northern Exposure. Kanim replaces Michael Pavel, who is unable to attend.
• Charlotte Coté, a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribe in Canada. She is a UW associate professor of American Indian studies and chair of the House of Knowledge Longhouse Project on the UW Seattle campus. Her research centers on Native governance, politics, law and sovereignty in the USA and Canada and her latest publication focuses on the whaling practices of her tribe. Coté is active in the Puget Sound Native community, serving on the board of the Potlatch Fund Foundation and as an executive member of the Seattle Art Museum Native Arts Council.
• Billy Frank, of the Nisqually Indian Tribe. Frank has served as chair of the Northwest Indian Fish Commission for more than two decades. He is known as a tribal rights and environmental activist and was honored with the 1991 Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and the 2004 Indian Country Inaugural American Visionary Award. Frank will speak about his experiences in the 1970s battle for fishing rights and his role as a leader on issues of sovereignty. His talk will be followed by a showing of the film “As Long as the Rivers Run,” a documentary of the struggles of Northwest tribal people to maintain their fishing rights and way of life.
• Kristina Ackley, a researcher, writer and teacher specializing in world indigenous people’s studies, Native American studies, anti-Indian movements and museum studies. Ackley is a professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., where she is teaching a course called “American Frontiers: Homelands and Empire” that examines how 21^st century North American communities are wrestling with the legacies of colonization, imperialism and migration. Ackley is a member of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin, and is of Bad River Chippewa descent.