March 26, 2008

Prophetstown Revisited: A Native American conference

Chris Eyre
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"Prophetstown Revisited: An Early Native American Studies Summit" marks the anniversary of this Native American woodland village, which was founded by Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, who is called The Prophet. The village, which was meant to be a meeting place for Native American tribes who wanted to resist European settlement, was destroyed in 1811. The site is located near the Wabash River in Historic Prophetstown at the Prophetstown State Park.

"An Evening with Chris Eyre" is 8-9:30 p.m. on April 4 at the Lafayette Theater, 600 Main St., Lafayette, and will include a screening of his 2005 film "A Thousand Roads." Scenes from his "We Shall Remain: Tecumseh" documentary, which is scheduled to air on PBS in 2009, also will be shown. Tickets are $5 and will be available at the door at 7:30 p.m. The ticket price includes concessions. Eyre, who is of Cheyenne-Arapaho descent, is best known for his 1998 debut film, "Smoke Signals," which won the Sundance Film Festival Filmmakers Trophy and the Audience Award.

During the same dates, the American Indian Studies Consortium Conference graduate student conference, known as CIC-AIS, is taking place. The conference considers all topics on Native American studies. Information can be found at https://www.cic.uiuc.edu/programs/AmericanIndianStudiesConsortium/archive/
ConferencePresentation/GradConference2008/home.shtml. Conference participants also will visit Indianapolis' Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.

The conference sessions for both are free for Purdue faculty and staff. W. Richard West, founding director of the National Museum of the American Indian, will give the opening keynote address for both events. He will speak at 7:30 p.m. on April 3 in the Purdue Memorial Union, North Ballroom.

"In addition to academic scholars, others in attendance will include librarians and archivists working with tribal institutions, as well as representatives working with language rehabilitative programs, preservation offices and museum professionals," said Kristina Bross, event organizer and an associate professor of English at Purdue. "Also, middle and high school teachers can receive continuing education credit for participating."

Middle and high school teachers interested in continuing education credit should contact Susan Imbarrato, vice president of Society of Early Americanists, at simbarra@mnstate.edu. For more information about the teaching workshop, contact Zabelle Stodola, a professor at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, at kzstodola@uair.edu or Cassie Smith, research assistant to the conference, at smigh491@purdue.edu.

"Prophetstown Revisited" is organized by members of the Society of Early Americanists and is sponsored by Purdue University and Michigan State University.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Kristina Bross, (765) 494-3745, kbross@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: Journalists interested in attending sessions at the conference can contact Amy Patterson Neubert, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

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