Numerous speakers and bands to entertain and inform throughout November

Factoid:For more information on scheduled events, contact Nichole Boyd at 201-9854.

A Native American sun dancer and pipe keeper will open the month-long celebration of Native American Heritage Month with a free lecture at 7 p.m. tonight in Student Center Ballroom D.

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Quentin Young is a member of the Lakota Sicangu tribe and will speak on Native Americans and ceremonial rites. The event is the first of 13 that will take place throughout November in celebration and discussion of all things great about Native American culture.

Nichole Boyd, a junior in university studies from Bolingbrook, set up this month’s events in hopes of not only celebrating her culture but also raising awareness of it on campus.

Boyd said there are 95 Native American students on campus who checked that box when applying to SIU. She also said there are others who are part Native American and some who do not know they are.

“There is a high amount of African Americans on campus who also have native blood,” Boyd said. “And there’s a few on the committee who claim to be Native American as well.”

Boyd said she has contacts with speakers and other guests from meeting them up north. She asked groups, such as Milwaukee Bucks, to come down and celebrate the culture.

Milwaukee Bucks play at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Free Forum area and at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Center Ballrooms. They are a drum band that has opened for Lenny Kravitz and should be one of the more popular events of the month, according to Carl Erwin, coordinator of student development and the multi-cultural program.

“I’m really looking forward to the drum group and the Black Indians,” he said. “They’re sort of a fusion between African Americans and Native Americans, and I’m very curious about that.”

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Erwin said November started being formally celebrated as American Indian Heritage Month in 2000 at SIU and since has raised awareness of native cultures.

“Sometimes people and cultures are overlooked, and one group that seems to be forgotten is Native Americans,” Erwin said. “Learning about different cultures and different people is part of the education process. It breeds awareness.”

Reporter Brian Peach can be reached at [email protected]