K-State Columbus Day Indigenous Peoples Day Conference

Monday, October 12, 2020

K-State Land Acknowledgement
from CaleMitchell Photography on Vimeo

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AGENDA

Intro and Jenny L. Davis, Ph.D. Keynote

9:10 a.m. CST

Introductions: Laverne Bitsie-Baldwin (Diné)
Director of Multicultural Engineering Program, Carl R. Ice College of Engineering; Co-Chair, K-State Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance
Native American Student Body (NASB) Land Acknowledgement
Welcome Message: Alex Red Corn (Osage)
Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, College of Education; Co-Chair Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance; Executive Director, Kansas Association for Native American Education
Opening Song and Opening Words:
Cornel Pewewardy (Comanche-Kiowa)
Professor Emeritus, Portland State University

9:30 a.m. CST – Keynote

Jenny L. Davis, Ph.D. (Chickasaw)

Associate Professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies, University of Illinois

“Our Languages Hold a Place for Us: Reclaiming Indigenous Systems of Gender, Sexuality, and Kinship in Language Revitalization”

Introduction: Harold Wilcox (Prairie Band Potawatomi)
President, Native American Student Body, Kinesiology Major

Question Moderators: Brandon Haddock (Cherokee), Student Services Coordinator and Lisa Tatonetti, Professor of English and Queer and Indigenous Studies Scholar

Jenny L. Davis is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and an Associate Professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she is the director of the American Indian Studies Program and the Chancellor's Fellow of Indigenous Research & Ethics.

Her research focuses on language revitalization; Indigenous gender and sexuality; and collaborative methods, ethics, and repatriation in Indigenous research. Her research has been published in the Annual Review of Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Gender & Language, Language & Communication, and the Review of International American Studies (RIAS), among others.

Her creative work has most recently been published in Transmotion; Anomaly; Santa Ana River Review; Broadsided; North Dakota Quarterly; Yellow Medicine Review; As/Us; Raven Chronicles; and Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance and exhibited at the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

Indian Country in Times of COVID Panel

10:30 a.m. CST – Panel

Indian Country in Times of COVID: Health Disparities, Language Revitalization, and the Digital Divide

Kathy DeerInWater, Ph.D. (Cherokee)
Chief Program Officer, American Indian Science and Engineering Society – Oklahoma Remote Office
Melissa E. Lewis, Ph.D., LMFT (Cherokee)
Assistant Professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine 
Vann Bighorse (Osage and Cherokee)
Graduate Student in Educational Leadership, Director of the Osage Nation Language Department

Introduction: Victor Andrews (Walker River Paiute)
Graduate Student and Indigenous Health Disparities Scholar, College of Health and Human Sciences

Panel Moderator: LaVerne Bitsie-Baldwin (Diné)

Question Moderator: Debra Bolton (Ohkay Owingeh/Diné/Ute)
Director of Intercultural Learning and Academic Success, Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs

Panelist Bios:

Dr. Kathy DeerInWater is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She joined the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) in October 2014 and completed her Doctoral degree in Ecology at the University of California, Davis in September 2015. As a long-time member of the AISES family, Dr. DeerInWater brings first-hand experience and passion to AISES’ mission of increasing the representation of Native people in STEM studies and careers. Dr. DeerInWater has extensive experience developing and implementing innovative and engaging programs supporting our youngest students to senior-level professionals in STEM. Dr. DeerInWater is also a researcher and leads research initiatives for AISES. Dr. DeerInWater strives to support tribal communities and strengthen tribal sovereignty through education and workforce development in STEM.

Dr. Melissa Lewis is an assistant professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in the Department of Family & Community Medicine. Dr. Lewis received her PhD in Medical Family Therapy and is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and her research interests span preparing healthcare professionals to work with Indigenous populations effectively, examining the role of stress and trauma on cardiovascular disease in Indigenous populations, and interventions aimed to empower Indigenous families and communities by privileging Indigenous knowledge and practices.

Vann Bighorse is member of the Wa.Zha.Zhe (Osage) community, as well as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. He was Director of the Osage Nation Cultural Center for 10 years and currently serves as the Director of the Osage Nation Language Department. Additionally, he is currently a graduate student in the Department of Educational Leadership at K-State where he is pursuing his Masters degree. As Director of the Osage Language Department, he has recently overseen the distribution of CARES Act funding towards enhancing technological capabilities in the delivery of Osage Nation language instruction.

Stephanie Fryberg, Ph.D. Keynote

12:30 p.m. CST – Keynote

Stephanie Fryberg, Ph.D. (Tulalip)

University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan

"Reclaiming Native Truths: How Stereotypes and Invisibility Shape Native Mascot Use and Other Biases Toward Native Peoples"

Introduction: Laura Baldwin (Diné)
President, KSU American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Computer Science Major

Question Moderators:
LaVerne Bitsie-Baldwin (Diné) and Alex Red Corn (Osage)

Stephanie A. Fryberg (a member of the Tulalip Tribes) is the University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. As a social and cultural psychologist, her primary research focuses on how social representations of race, culture, and social class influence the development of self, psychological well-being, and educational attainment; and on designing interventions that reconfigure educational spaces to improve outcomes for racial minority and low-income students.

Select publications include: The truly diverse faculty: New dialogues in American higher education (Edited volume with E.J. Martínez), Cultural models of education and academic performance for Native American and European American students (with R. Covarrubias & J. Burack), Unseen disadvantage: How American Universities' focus on independence undermines the academic performance of first-generation college students (with N.M. Stephens, H.R. Markus, C. Johnson, & R. Covarrubias), When the world is colorblind, American Indians are invisible: A diversity science approach (with N.M. Stephens); and Of warrior chiefs and Indian princesses: The psychological consequences of American Indian mascots on American Indians (with H.R. Markus, D. Oyserman, & J.M. Stone).

In recognition of her work and service to the field, Dr. Fryberg received the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Louise Kidder Early Career Award, Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Award, University of Arizona Five Star Faculty Award, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Service Award, and in 2011 was inducted into the Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame at Stanford University. Dr. Fryberg also provided testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs regarding the impact of racist stereotypes on Indigenous people, was lead psychologist on an Amicus Brief for Harjo v. Pro-Football, served as an expert witness in the Keepseagle v. U.S. Department of Agriculture class action lawsuit, and currently serves as the lead researcher for Illuminative, a national research-based effort to shift the narrative about and decrease bias toward Native People.

2:00 p.m. CST – Kansas Association for Native American Education (KANAE) Business Meeting