In honor of Native American Heritage month, there will be a short film and discussion about the relationship between Miami University and the Miami tribe of Oklahoma at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 10 at Miami's Hamilton campus.
Bobbe Burke, coordinator of Miami Tribe relations and off-campus affairs, will speak at this event, along with George Ironstrack, assistant director and education coordinator for the Myaamia project.
The Myaamia project's main purpose is to help advance tribal education by maintaining the tribe's culture and language and to introduce the tribal efforts to the university students and the Oxford community.
Burke and Ironstrack will speak to students, faculty and others about the strong relationship between the university and the Miami tribe.
The same video that was shown in August at the convocation ceremony will also be shown at this event because it is a valid representation of the Miami Tribe and contains credible speakers like President David Hodge, as well as the late Chief Floyd Leonard.
"(The video is intended to) educate what the Miami tribe is today," Burke said.
Burke and Ironstrack's main focus will be to reiterate the relationship between the university and the tribe and to educate the students and faculty members about the Miami Tribe and its activities.
"I will be talking about the direction, goals and accomplishments thus far with the Myaamia project," Ironstrack said.
He said he has been participating in the project for five years, since he was a graduate student at Miami.
"The most important thing is that people realize that (the) Miami people are not a people locked in the past, but a contemporary people," Ironstrack said.
According to Ironstrack, this celebration event will be a good chance to tear down some of the misunderstandings and stereotypes that some people might have about the Miami Tribe. The event is also about the relationship between the tribe and the university.
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The discussion is also an opportunity for students and faculty to become acquainted with the tribe's accomplishments and intentions and to become a part of the project by contributing.
"I hope more people in the school as well as the people who work here understand the relationship (between the tribe and the university)," Burke said.
A couple of weeks ago, Burke did a presentation on the Miami tribe to an audience at the Miami University Middletown campus.
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