Native Heritage Event: The World We See and the World We Know

Since the 1700s, mainstream American and European anthropologists, writers, historians, and others have depicted Native Nations with acute inaccuracies and a lack of informed factual knowledge or truthfulness. As a result, generations of Americans have been miseducated and ill-informed about Native Nations and people. Tribal Nations have been depicted as having either analogous cultures, languages, beliefs, ceremonies, and life ways or as lacking social systems, educational pedagogies, and governance structures. Nothing can be further from the truth. Native Nations are as varied, rich, textured, and diverse as the multicolored hues and designs of a Lakota star quilt.

Native Nations and their scholars have produced evidence of complex and multifaceted oral and written histories, philosophies, holistic and pedagogical education, unique social systems, and highly organized and coordinated forms of self-governance. This tribal diversity comes from continuously living for thousands of years on what native peoples call Turtle Island (the Western Hemisphere).

Join the American Institutes for Research for a webinar discussion on cultural competency through the lens of the Native worldview. Presenters will share perspectives of Native life experiences in the United States—past, present, and future.

Guest Speakers

Dr. Edward Valandra, Sicangu Titunwan from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. He teaches Native Studies at the University of Manitoba and is an author. He is also the Native Studies senior editor for the Living Justice Press, and he is the founder of the Community for the Advancement of Native Studies, a tribally chartered and reservation-based community organization.

Shannon Crossbear, Ojibwe, Tribal Resource Specialist, Project LAUNCH, an early childhood mental health promotion initiative at AIR. She has worked with tribal and nontribal communities in creating Systems of Care and Circles of Care utilizing traditional intervention and promotion of culturally congruent practices.

Moderator

Stephanie Autumn, Hopi Nation, Senior Technical Assistance Consultant, National Resource Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, AIR.