Honoring the Wisdom Keepers: A Panel Discussion for National Native American Heritage Month

On November 22, 2016, in honor of National Native American Heritage Month, join AIR for a panel discussion on Cultural Competency through an Indigenous worldview. Presenters will share aspects of their life work in developing evidence-based programs and practice-based evidence programs to promote and support the health and well-being of Native youth and Native communities.

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 actual 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).

RSVP to Amber Meadows, (202) 403-5057

Speakers

Teresa LaFromboise, Ph.D., is a professor of developmental and psychological sciences in the Graduate School of Education, chair of Native American Studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences, and an affiliated faculty member in the Child Health Research Institute, School of Medicine at Stanford University in Stanford, California. Dr. LaFromboise is a recognized contributor to American Indian/Alaska Native mental health initiatives and has published extensively in that area. She has authored a number of prevention intervention manuals including the American Indian Life Skills Development Curriculum (AILS) and Circles of Women: Skills Training for American Indian Professionalization.

Sina Ikikcu Win (Takes the Robe Woman), Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs, is enrolled with the Oglala Sioux Tribe and also has Crow blood on her mother’s side. Ethleen provides training and technical assistance in the areas of tribal youth program development, suicide prevention, trauma-informed care, Lakota mental health and cultural competency and is an adjunct instructor for Oglala Lakota College. She serves on the Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Organization board of directors and the Rosalyn Carter Mental Health Task Force. She is currently studying for a doctoral degree in education at Colorado State University.

Hmuya Mani (Walks With a Roaring), Richard Two Dogs, is from the Mato Oyate, Kiyuksa Band, and is Oglala Lakota. He has served as an adjunct instructor with Oglala Lakota College and does volunteer service on the board of directors of the Tiyospaye Sakowin Education and Healing Center, Knife Chief Buffalo Nation Organization and also with Tasunke Wakan Okolakiciye (Medicine Horse Society). These groups are dedicated to the revitalization of the Lakota culture and language. Richard provides cultural mentorship to Native youth in juvenile corrections facilities in South Dakota and Colorado.

Moderator

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