Native American Heritage Month features storyteller Dovie Thomason and historian Barbara Landis at Messiah College
October 18th, 2011
GRANTHAM, Pa. (Oct. 18, 2011) — Messiah College’s Office of Multicultural and International Student Programs will be sponsoring Native American Heritage Month for the duration of November. During this month, the college will provide a forum for people to learn about the unspoken history of Native Americans. To kick off the month, Messiah will be hosting guest speakers Dovie Thomason, world-known storyteller, and Barbara Landis, biographer, from the Carlise Indian School. The event will take place on Nov. 7 at 6:30 in Kline 110 and is open to the public. For more information, contact Tatiana Diaz at (717) 796-1800, ext. 6930 or tdiaz@messiah.edu.
About Dovie Thomason and Barbara Landis
Dovie Thomason, an award-winning storyteller, recording artist and author, takes her listeners back to the old Indian stories from her Kiowa Apache and Lakota ancestors. These stories often take the form of teachings, as they revolve around punishment or scolding so listeners may understand the values the Native Americans respect. Thomason began telling stories while teaching literature and writing at a high school in Cleveland. Since then, she has taken her stories all over the world, developed workshops on finding one’s voice, wrote books and even debuted in documentaries and television shows. She has received many awards, such as Parent’s Choice Gold Award, the Audiofile Award and the American Library Association and Booklist Editor’s Choice Award.
Barbara Landis is the biographer at the Carlisle Indian School, the first off-reservation government boarding school for Native American children. Since 1990 Landis has supplied information on the school to writers, alumni, filmmakers and students. She was a keynote speaker for the kick-off program of first Native American Indian and Alaska Native Month activities in Washington, D.C. in 1997. Landis also maintains a website for alumni of the Carlisle Indian School.
About Messiah College
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls 2,900 undergraduate and graduate students. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.
