Ways of Knowing: Indigenous Connections to Landscape and Place in Central Appalachia
Saturday, November 9
Myles Center, Davis & Elkins College, Elkins WV from 9:30 to 4:30, followed by a reception closing the 2024 Creating Home exhibit at Appalachian Forest Discovery Center.
The Ways of Knowing symposium is the culmination of our year-long project exploring Indigenous Appalachia. The speakers at this one-day event will discuss various approaches to Indigenous knowledge. Discussions will cover archeological insights, Native culture, traditions, language, and folklore. Comparing traditional Indigenous knowledge to western versions of archaeology, history, ethics of land use, and religion will open insights to modern social concerns of Indigenous communities. Admission is $30 and lunch is included in ticket price. Scholarships for free attendance are available for students, AmeriCorps members, Indigenous people, or needs-based applicants.
Speakers include:
Dr. Joe Stahlman, Tuscarora descendant, Primary Indigenous Consultant for Creating Home exhibit
Gavin Hale, Monongahela National Forest Tribal Liaison
Joshua Garcia, Wyandotte Nation Communications Associate
Kenneth Branham, Chief Emeritus Monacan Nation
Francis Day, President Future Generations University, Eastern Band of Cherokee
More info TBA!
Presenters:
Joe Stahlman
Joe Stalhman:
Dr. Joe Stahlman (Tuscarora/Pennsylvania Dutch) is an anthropologist, historian, scholar, and researcher. He has over 30 years of research experience working with First Peoples and allies. His research focuses on culture and history, as well as ongoing socio-economic and health & wellness related endeavors with Native communities. He takes an active role in addressing the spaces Native peoples occupy in North American museums, arts, archaeology, cultural resource management, and scholarship. Regularly, Joe talks on the need to promote equity, equality, and justice among all peoples in North American society through a number of reconciliatory processes which are inclusive for all and empowers people to express agency through creative and intellectual endeavors.
Joshua Garcia
Joshua Garcia:
“Preserving the Future of our Past”. In this talk, I hope to show the struggles that tribal nations must face in cultural revitalization in order to preserve their cultural practices and how my tribe (Wyandotte Nation) is working to maintain our cultural knowledge.
Kweh. My English name is Joshua Garcia. I am the oldest of three boys to Kim and Arturo Garcia. I am a proud citizen of the Wyandotte Nation. I graduated with my Bachelors of Science from Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS in May of 2020. While there, I had the opportunity to run collegiately, represent the University as the 2019-2020 Haskell Brave, and have had the opportunity to travel to other communities with my friends from college and have been able to see the similarities and differences between our communities. After college, I moved back home and became the Media/Communications Specialist for the Wyandotte Nation Cultural Center & Museum."
Chief Kenneth Branham
The Honorable Kenneth Branham, Chief Emeritus of the Monacan Indian Nation, served as Chief of his Nation for sixteen years. During his lifetime the Monacan Nation went from a time of obscurity and isolation to full federal recognition.
The Monacans, under the leadership of Chief Branham, provided living history demonstrations at Natural Bridge, Virginia, showing the ways that people lived in pre-contact times through early American periods. This provided a learning experience for the public, but also for tribal members. Ancient forms of dwellings, food preparations, and woodcraft that had been nearly lost or forgotten were rekindled. This led to renewed interest in traditional arts and crafts, as practiced for millennia. Today, Monacan artists and artisans are experiencing new opportunities to share their culture with the world.
Chief Branham will present one of the primary addresses at the event, discussing the rediscovery and renewal of tribal knowledge and traditions for the Monacan Nation. He will also participate in the discussion panel.
Francis Day
Francis L. Day is President of Future Generations University and a Tribal Member of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. She has a B.S.E. from University of California, Los Angeles, and M.A. from University of Tennessee.
She has over four decades of experience as a nonprofit manager at the senior leadership level, focusing on moving organizations to higher level functioning by building and re-building management systems, ensuring mission-driven programmatic initiatives.
Fran was instrumental in helping create Future Generations University, and has recently returned in the position of President. Her early career positions include CEO of the Haskell Foundation at Haskell Indian Nations University, Dean of Development at College of the Atlantic, and Vice President at Unity College. She was Chief Officer of Institutional Advancement at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, one of the oldest craft schools in the United States.
Fran Day will present one of the primary addresses at the event, discussing the intersection of Indigenous heritage and community development.
Gavin Hale
J. Gavin Hale is Tribal Liaison and Heritage Program Manager for the Monongahela National Forest, U.S.D.A Forest Service. He has a BS in Anthropogy from Middle Tennessee State University, and is nearing completion of a MS in Environmental Science with Archaeology concentration from Murray State University. He has twenty years of professional experience in archaeology and tribal relations. Prior work experience included serving as archaeologist for the Forest Service and private sector, and previous service as Historic Preservation Specialist for Seminole Tribe of Florida, Tribal Historic Preservation Office.
Gavin is responsible for cultural resource management, heritage, and archaeological projects for the National Forest. As Tribal Liaison his responsibilities include serving as primary contact and coordination of government-to-government consultation with sovereign Tribal Nations.
Gavin Hale will be a primary speaker at the event about understanding from archaeological analysis, as well as on relationships with Native Nations and their connections to Appalachia.
Bonnie Brown
Bonnie M. Brown is the Coordinator of the WVU Native American Studies Program. She holds a Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree from Iowa State University and an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.
She joined WVU as an assistant professor of journalism in 1996, but her professional and academic interests in media (mis)representations of Native Americans and other groups led her to begin working for the Native American Studies Program in 2001 and being appointed coordinator in 2005. She teaches Introduction to Native American Studies and has developed courses on Contemporary Native American Issues, Native Women in Leadership, Sovereign Tribal Nations, Native Leaders in Action, Black Indians, and a seminar with Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee Nation) called “Courts of the Conqueror” (based on his book, In the Courts of the Conqueror: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided). She has been a non-voting member of the National Congress of American Indians since 2005 and member of the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association. Brown has organized a West Virginia Teacher Institute, multiple service learning projects, a 2021 workshop for educators and librarians centered on the Carlisle Indian Boarding School, and more than 40 public lectures, symposia, and colloquia.
Ms. Brown is helping with planning and understanding scope of the topic, and will lead and facilitate the discussion panel involving all of the presenters, that will wrap up the event.
This program is supported with funding from the National Park Foundation.
