NORTH CHEROKEE TO POWWOW AT SEMO

School will promote area Indian culture

The Northern Cherokee Nation plans to hold a daylong powwow Nov. 15 at Southeast Missouri State University.

Southeast is co-sponsoring the powwow, which will feature Indian dances and crafts. The event will be held at the Student Recreation Center from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Northern Cherokee descended from Cherokee who migrated west to what is now Missouri and Arkansas in 1721 to escape the British, and from others who settled in the area after escaping the forced march of the Trail of Tears in 1819.

The powwow has been in the planning stages for months and coincides with a university committee's recommendation that the school take steps to educate students and the public about the area's Indian culture.

The committee, chaired by Jim Biundo, assistant to the president for university relations, came up with recommendations for a new mascot this spring.

In the past, the school had traditional Indian mascots, Chief Sagamore and Princess Otahki. The university experimented briefly with two other mascots. But for the past several years the school has operated without a mascot at its athletic events.

Committee members have recommended a sun figure as a mascot. The committee's second and third choices are a hawk and an eagle. The committee also wants the school to retain its Indian nicknames.

Biundo said the powwow meshes with the committee's educational goals even though the committee didn't come up with the idea.

Carol Morrow, assistant professor of anthropology at Southeast, helped set up the powwow. "Part of dealing with the mascot issue is to show respect to Native Americans," she said Monday. "You don't just study them; you participate with them," she said.

"We are cosponsoring it with the Northern Cherokee Nation as part of a sense of community with the Northern Cherokee," Morrow said.

A November date was chosen because November is Native American Month, she said.

The university plans to have exhibits on Indian culture displayed at Kent Library during the month. Last year the anthropology department bought a number of teaching videos, books and literature that focus on Indian culture.

"The university is trying to do a lot to recognize and participate and give back to the Native American culture," Morrow said.

Morrow said she wants to educate the public about Otahki, the Indian woman for whom the school's Otahkian women's teams are named. She died on the Trail of Tears in what is now Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau County.

Women played an important role in Cherokee society. They had status in Cherokee society that was equal to that of men, Morrow said.

While the powwow is scheduled to run the entire day, no major activities will be scheduled during the football game that afternoon between Southeast and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Morrow said.

School officials said they saw no problem with having the university's athletic team, the Indians, take the field on the same day as the powwow.

Morrow said powwows promote a sense of community. "You talk, you mingle, you eat," she said. "It is very much an observer, participant, interaction type thing," she said.

Morrow said she hopes as many as 1,000 people might attend the powwow.

She said the area has a rich Indian heritage, dating back to the late, prehistoric mound culture of the Mississippian Indians. "We were a hotbed of cultural activity a thousand years ago," said Morrow.