The Library’s scheduled programs for recognition of Native American History Month
Theme: Celebrating Tribal Nations: America’s Great Partners
November 4, 2008. 12 Noon Pickford Theater
Opening Event – A Musical Program, presenting the White Oak Singers
Founded by the late Colin Bears Tail (Arikara/Hidatsa), the White Oak Singers perform Northern Plains-style music from the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. On September 21, 2004, when NIMAI opened its doors on the National Mall, the White Oak Singers were given the honor of singing and drumming dignitaries and visitors into the new building. The group has also recorded music for the Discovery Channel and is included in the soundtrack of the documentary “How The West Was Lost.”
November 13, 2008 1:00 p.m. Mumford Room
Keynote Program, featuring Ms. Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee), a poet, writer, lecturer, curator and policy advocate, who has helped Native Peoples recover sacred places and more than one million acres of land. Ms. Harjo is President of The Morning Star Institute, a national Native rights organization founded in 1984 for Native Peoples’ traditional and cultural advocacy, arts promotion and research.
November 18, 2008 12 Noon Pickford Theater
Film – Indian Rights, Indian Law
The film examines the work of the Native American Rights fund in its efforts to protect American Indians in cases involving treaty rights, ownership of natural resources on tribal lands and trust relationships with the federal government. 60 minutes. Color.