The Stories We Tell: Literature and Law in Indian Country
Depopulation in Indian Country: 21st Cnetury Style
Professor David E. Wilkins
Thursday April 9th 2009 Griggs Center, University of Minnesota Duluth
5:00pm Feast & 6:00pm Lecture
Since the early 1990s there has been a surge of banishments and disenrollments in Indian Country. This talk explores why these native "depopulations" are taking place with greater frequency, discusses the rationales being used by tribal governments to justify such expulsions, and examines how such proceedings compare or contrast with traditional ways Native Nations exiled individuals.
Professor David Eugene Wilkins (Lumbee) is McKnight Presidential Professor in American Indian Studies, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Law, and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. He teaches int he areas of comparative Indigenous politics, federal Indian law and policy, tribal government and diplomacy, and American political theory. He had authored several books and articles including American Indian Politics and the American Political System, American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Making of Justice, Uneven Ground: Americna Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law, co-authored with Tsianina Lomawaima, Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations, co-authored with Vine Deloria, Jr.
This event is made possible with support from the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative, the department of American Indian Studies, and the Anishinaabe Student Organization.
P.O.V. Film Screening: Standing Silent Nation by Suree Towfighnia & Courtney Hermann
Tuesday, April 14th at 2:00pm in Bohannon 90
What does a family have to endure to create a future for itself? In April 2000, Alex White Plume and his Lakota family planted industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota after other crops had failed. They put their hopes for a sustainable economy in hemp's hardiness and a booming worldwide demand for its many products, from clothing to food. Although growing hemp, a relative of marijuana, was banned in the U.S., Alex believed that tribal sovereignty, along with hemp's non-psychoactive properties, would protect him. But when federal agents raided the White Plumes' fields, the Lakota Nation was swept into a Byzantine struggle over tribal sovereignty, economic rights and common sense. A co-presentation with Native American Public Telecommunications.
Optional discussion after the film facilitated by American Indian Studies Instructor Heidi Stark.
P.B.S. Independent Lens: Taking Root by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater
Wednesday, April 15th at 4:00pm in Bohannon 90
Taking Root tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy--a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspirations.
Co-sponsored by Women's Resource and Action Center
Optional discussion after the film with Women's Studies professor Beth Bartlett
Spring Sustainability Fair: Energy, Campus, and Community
April 21 in the Kirby Lounge
Panels and Presenters
11:00 a.m. Wind Power! Community wind projects in NE Minnesota, and results from wind resource research on the UMD campus: Mike Mageau, UMD Geography and Center for Sustainable Community Development
12:00 p.m. Campus Energy Research: Malosky Solar Array: Jeron Smith, Tom Soldner, Drew Jensen, David Buszmann, and Scott Norr: UMD Elect & Comp Engr
12:30 p.m. Campus Energy Research: Multiple-Energy Source Integration: Andrew Bentley, Brandon Eberle, and Paul Weber: UMD Elect & Comp Engr
1:00 p.m. Energy: Choices, Issues, and UMD's Role: Tom Ferguson, 3M McKnight Professor, UMD Elect & Comp Engr
2:00 p.m. Go lean before you go green: Why energy conservation comes first: Dean Talbott, Residential Program Specialist, Minnesota Power
3:00 p.m. Twin Ports Campus Sustainability Panel: How are Twin Ports Universities and collleges addressing sustainability?: Mindy Granley-UMD, Janice Crede- UWS, Deanne Roquet- LSC, and Tom Brekke- CSS
4:00 p.m. Hartley Nature Center's Electron- Search For Smart Energy: Outside at Kirby Bus Hub
Booths and Presentations
David Syring's Anthropology Senior Seminar Class Sustainability Projects, NE Minnesota CERTs, Duluth Community Garden Program, Duluth Community Supported Herbalism, Western Lake Superior Sanitary District, Jes Durfee Glass Blowing, UMD Office of Sustainability/Facilities Management, UMD Office of Civic Engagement, Minnesota Power, Conservation Technologies, True North AmeriCorps