The annual West Virginia Native American Heritage presentation is rooted in WVU’s Mountaineer Week festivities, which take place in November, Native American Heritage Month. The series was established by former NAS Coordinator Dr. Ellesa Clay High.
Several years ago Dr. High observed that Native people and representations of Native culture seemed virtually absent in the typical Mountaineer Week line-up and decided to work to change that. She developed a literary performance program called “Heart Medicine” with colleagues Joann Dadisman and Dr. Anna Elfenbein of the WVU English Department. Mountaineer Week coordinator Sonja Wilson applauded this special program and encouraged Dr. High to continue to add Native programming to Mountaineer Week each year.
Dr. High conducted research throughout the region during her sabbatical leave in 2002-2003. Her work with Native people in West Virginia, and the enormous amount and variety of material she collected, highlighted the many resources available to help convey the Native heritage of West Virginia. Using her own personal contribution as seed money, she was then able to solicit additional funding to support an ongoing series. The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the Reyer Endowment for Native American Studies, Mountaineer Week, the West Virginia Humanities Council, and others have generously helped sponsor the various presentations over the years.
If you’d like to help support the West Virginia Native American Heritage Series, consider making a personal contribution. Click here for more information about giving opportunities.
Past presentations have included:
- 2003 The Turtle Island Band (contemporary Native American music performance, and storytelling)
- 2004 Documentary filmmaker Steven Shaffer (discussing his film on the petroglyphs of our region, “Written in Stone: The Prehistoric Native American Rock Art of the Ohio River Valley”)
- 2005 Dan Cutler as Chief Logan of the Cayugas (History Alive! Presentation)
- 2006 Doug Wood as Man Killer Ostenaco (Cherokee) (History Alive! Presentation—set for Nov. 6, 2006, look for details on our web calendar)