Professor of Indigenous and American Indian Studies to Speak on April 30

Daniel Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, will speak on Wednesday, April 30, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union Assembly Hall. He will also meet with a class, dine with students from the Native American Student Organization (NASO) at Campus House, and visit the Native American Community Services on Grant Street.

“We chose to invite Dr. Daniel Wildcat as part of our Native American Month,” said Brandon VanEvery, president of NASO. NASO celebrates Native American Heritage/Culture Month in April.

Wildcat is professor of indigenous and American Indian studies at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. He also is director of the non-profit Native American research center, Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Center, which he helped to create in 1994.

Wildcat frequently speaks to community groups and organizations on the issue of cultural diversity. In 1992, he was honored with the Heart Peace Award by the Kansas City organization The Future Is Now for his efforts to promote world peace and cultural diversity.

In 1996, Wildcat helped organize the celebration of Earth Day’s 25th anniversary and moderated a nationally broadcast dialogue between traditional American Indian elders, scientists, and engineers about the way we must live to ensure a healthy planet for our children. He helped design All Things Are Connected: The Circle of Life (1997), a four-part video series dealing with land, air, water, and biological issues. Recently, Wildcat has focused on forming the American Indian and Alaska Native Climate Change Working Group, a tribal college-centered network of individuals and biological issues.

He helped organize the 2008 Planning for Seven Generations climate change conference sponsored by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He co-chaired with Winona La Duke the 2009 national Native Peoples-Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop and co-chaired with Tom Goldtooth the 2012 Rights of Mother Earth Symposium of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Wildcat is the author and editor of several books including Power and Place: Indian Education in America, with Vine Deloria, Jr.; Destroying Dogma: Vine Deloria’s Legacy on Intellectual America, with Steve Pavlik; and Red Alert: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge, which suggests current global climate change issues will require the exercise of indigenous ingenuity and wisdom if humankind is to reduce the ecological damage well underway.

This event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Native American Student Organization, the School of Education, and the Native American SUNY Western Consortium.