NOTICES
OSU Indian Education Director to Forge
Links with Tribes
Lee, Bobby, and Halona Butler dance at
Taft High School in Lincoln City.
Nominations Open
for Oregon Family
Business of the Year
Applauding the innovation and hard
work of family-owned businesses, Oregon
State University’s Austin Family Business
Program has opened nominations for the
2000 Oregon Family Business of the
Year Awards.
Strengthening ties between Oregon State University and the nine sovereign Native
American tribes of Oregon is one of the first goals of the university’s new Indian Education
Office coordinator.
“Oregon State University has long-standing relationships with the tribes, going as
ar back as the 1930s, said Allison Davis-White Eyes, adding that she would like to expand
and enhance the university’s efforts to build bridges to those cultures.
New programs to preserve Native American culture, language, and tradition are a
major part of Davis-White Eyes’ initiative. Some natural fits would be for the university and
tribal governments to work toward expanding opportunities for collaborative research in
fields such as land and resources, including forestry, fisheries, and wildlife Davis-White
Eyes said.
Key to the success of the OSU tribal initiative is smoothing communication between
tribal and university government, first regionally and eventually nationwide.
Davis-White Eyes, whose tribal affiliation is Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Muskogee
Creek, received her bachelor’s degree in history and her master’s in American Indian
studies from UCLA. She then worked at the University of Oregon as assistant director of
admissions before accepting the Indian Education Office position at OSU.
While in Eugene, Davis-White Eyes proposed a project that eventually resulted in
the Aboriginal Rights Project, which addresses Native American tribes that have been
split by modern political boundaries or forced out of their original homes. The project
recognizes the sovereignty of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes and grants
in-state tuition rates to students who are members.
Students who are members of other Native American tribes whose traditional tribal
boundaries once included the state are included.
The OSU Indian Education Office works to expand awareness of and
responsiveness to the skills, knowledge, and history in Indian cultures and values, she
said. Services offered to the community include recruiting and retaining Indian students,
faculty and staff; support and counseling on academic, career, and personal issues; Indian
scholarship information; and serving as a liaison between OSU and tribal communities.
The office was a model for the university’s Minority Education Offices, which opened
in 1997.
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The university also maintains the Native American longhouse, a cultural center
that offers an array of social, cultural, and recreational events to the community each year
The longhouse focuses on supporting students of color as well as educating the community
In conjunction with corporate partner
U.S. Bank and award sponsors MassMutual,
Perkins & Co., P.C., and Tarlow, Jordan &
Schrader, the awards are open to any family
business (except for prior winners who may
not win again in the same category). Anyone
can nominate a company, including
employees and business associates, and
nominations are due by May 15.
Once elected, nominees will receive
an invitation to apply and instructions on
applications. Applications are due by June
30 and remain active for three years.
Winners in six categories - large
businesses, small, old, new and women- or
couple-owned — will be honored at Family
Business Day, an educational and award
event set for Nov. 15, at the Oregon Zoo
in Portland.
For nomination forms or information,
call OSU’s Austin Family Business Program
at 1-800-859-7609.
OSU Hosts Sacred Landscapes Conference
Oregon State University will host its second annual Sacred Landscapes conference
in Corvallis on May 18-19, hoping to draw several hundred Native Americans from Pacific
Northwest tribes to campus to talk about the environment.
This year’s conference theme is “Walking Softly on the Earth” and the roster of
Native American speakers will address several topics relating to the environment from
their unique points of view. Siletz Tribal member Bob Tom will serve as emcee on May 19.
The conference is designed to present Native American perspectives on the
environment and our relationship with it - a viewpoint often overlooked at scientific social
and political gatherings.
The keynote speaker at the conference is Winona LaDuke, a well-known activist for
Native American and women’s rights, who lives on the White Earth Reservation in
Minnesota. LaDuke, who once served as the vice presidential running mate for Ralph
Nader, will speak on “All Our Relations” and read from her book of the same title.
LaDuke’s talk will begin at 6:45 p.m. on May 18 in Lasells Stewart Center. Her readings
and a reception will follow later in the evening.
Last year, nearly 500 people attended the inaugural Sacred Landscapes conference.
The conference is free and open to the public. More information is available on the Internet
at http://osu.orst.edu/dept/ethnic_studies/sacredlands/main.htm or by calling the
Department of Ethnic Studies at OSU at 541-737-0709.
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