Wednesday, April 4, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 3
Dialogue explores citizenship
Native Americans discuss struggles
By Danny Phillips
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Members of a diversity dialogue panel share a laugh as Monica Te思lkilah, Tucson, Ariz., graduate student, far right, makes a remark regarding past Zuni and Navajo relations. The panel convened last night in the Kansas Union and discussed issues of Native-American citizenship. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
As a child growing up in a Catholic school, Shelley Bointy didn't have much patience for teachers who mispronounced the names of Native-American historical figures.
"I got tired of listening to her murder the name." Bointy said. "It was a beautiful name."
The KU graduate from the Dakota and Ottawa tribes remembered when her fourth grade teacher constantly butchered the name Sacajawea.
But even when Bointy taught her teacher the correct pronunciation, she said the teacher refused to change.
"We were conditioned to keep our voices silent," she said.
Bointy and five other panelists spoke last night in the Kansas Union during the last installment of the Diversity Dialogue series, entitled "First Nations, First Citizens? Exploring the Concept of Citizenship."
The panelists discussed what citizenship meant to them and how their upbringings contributed to their outlooks.
Bointy said overall she had a quality education growing up, which was a vital part of understanding one's citizenship.
The problem she saw was how history — especially concerning Native Americans — was portraved.
"History is not taught accurately," she said.
Schools always have taught history in a way that sheds a positive light on the United States, Bointy said, and that usually came at the expense of multicultural groups.
Panelist Monica Tsethlika,
member of the Zuni tribe and
"We were conditioned to keep our voices silent."
Shelley Bointy
Native-American graduate student
Lawrence graduate student, said while growing up in Tucson, Ariz., she always was told by her educators she would never make anything of her future and she should go to a community college.
"I went to the University of Notre Dame instead," she said. "I graduated in three and a half years."
But even with her academic success, Tsethlikai said some people discredited her accomplishments and she only made it into the university because of affirmative action.
She said the bottom line was not that Native Americans were incapable of achieving their academic goals, but that they learned in different ways and were exposed to substandard education.
Michael Stewart highlighted another topic relating to Native-American citizenship.
Stewart, a member of the Choctaw tribe of Oklahoma, said dual citizenship and blood quantums, the amount of a person's ethnic background that is comprised of Native-American tribes, also played heavily into Native-American citizenship and how people identified their loyalties.
Stewart pulled his laminated certificate degree of Indian blood from his pocket and showed it to the crowd. He calls it his "pedigree card" because he has to have it to be recognized legally as a member of his tribe.
Stewart said arguments could be started easily among tribe members whenever the level of blood was a topic.
Instead of identifying someone by their cultural beliefs and practices, Stewart said, "We're conditioned to look more at our quantum."
The event was sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the KU Coalition Against Racism and Discrimination.
Handbill spurs rival claims
Edited by Matt Daugherty
Studentsenate
Bv Brooke Hesler
By Brooke Hesler
writer@kanson.com
Kansan staff writer
Some members of the Delta Force coalition were upset last week about what was printed on VOICE handbills.
The handbills listed thingsVOICE had done for students and cited a tutor referral service and a book-exchange program. Both were initiatives spearheaded by Michael Rossler, a Delta Force candidate. However, Katie Holman, a VOICE candidate, also helped with the programs.
Jessica Bankston, VOICE candidate for student body president, said those initiatives appeared on the handbills by accident. She said she and Holman came up with the fliers, but Bankston decided the tutor referral service and the book exchange should not be printed because of Rossler's work. Bankston said the wrong handbills were accidently printed, but once the error was realized, they were reprinted without the two programs listed.
took them off." Bankston said.
"We thought those would be issues of contention, so we just
Rossler said he thought it was honorable that VOICE removed the programs from the handbill.
Holman said coalitions fighting about to which group initiatives belonged took away from the programs.
"By removing this issue from the handbill, we're not saying I didn't work hard on these things." Holman said.
Bankston said it was a fine line between what could be classified aVOICE initiative and what could be called a Delta Force initiative. Bankston said Senate's plans for the new building for the Hilltop Child Development Program and implementation of the University's first fall break in October 2001, both issues Delta Force had taken credit for, were really bipartisan efforts.
"There were definitely people who were involved with that from Delta Force, but they weren't the only people involved to my knowledge." Bankston said.
Kyle Browning, Delta Force vice-presidential candidate, said he considered the Hilltop and fall break to be more Delta Force initiatives.
"It's who took the leadership, who got it started and who did the leg work." Browning said.
According to University Daily Kansan archives, Jason Fizell, 1997 Delta Force presidential candidate, worked on the fall break and child care initiatives. In the 2000 campaign, Fizell said it was Delta Force that lobbied the administration and worked to get the break.
During the 97 campaign, child care was listed as one of the top priorities for both Delta Force and the Unite coalition, headed by Scott Sullivan, who went on to become student body president.
Also in 1997, then-student body president Grey Montgomery successfully negotiated a deal between Hilltop, the administration and Senate to finance the new Hilltop building. Delta Force did not exist at the time Montgomery was elected.
Last year, Ben Walker, current student body president, also cited his own work and that of Marlon Marshall, current student body vice president, on the implementation of fall break.
Students could get laundry discount
Edited by Joshua Richards
By Erin Adamson
By Erin Adamson
writer@kansas.com
Kansan staff writer
Students who use their smart cards to do laundry in residence halls may receive a discount if Student Senate approves a petition and University administration concurs.
The resolution asks that students receive a 10 percent discount on laundry services.
Senate will consider a smart card petition tonight that says the smart card was intended be a convenience for students, and offering a discount in residence hall laundry rooms would save students money.
Katie Bartlett, Nunemaker senator, representing freshmen and sophomores, was a resident assistant in McColum Residence Hall last year and said she felt students would be eager to receive a laundry discount on their smart cards.
"I had residents who put $100 on their smart cards for laundry money," Bartlett said.
erance alcohol policy for all students without exceptions.
Branden Bell, off-campus senator, is sponsoring the alcohol policy resolution asking that the Naismith Room in Allen Fieldhouse and scholarship suites at Memorial Stadium be included in the University's zero-tolerance alcohol policy.
Senate also will consider a petition asking that the University enforce its zero-tol-
"The alcohol-on-campus policy is very hypocritical right now," Bell said. "You can drink alcohol now if you have enough money to purchase a room at Memorial Stadium."
— Edited by Megan Phelps
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Into the Streets Week Today's activities
Clothesline Project
Stauffer-Flint lawn
11 am to 3pm
This on-campus display allows survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence to express their feelings through art.
Empty Bowls
Stauffer-Flint lawn
11am to 2pm
Buy a ceramic bowl with soup for $8 to benefit the Jubilee Café, a restaurant-style café that provides the hungry with breakfast two days a week.
Upcoming activities
Friday
Homeless Sleepout
Burcham Park, 8pm to 8am
Pledge forms can be downloaded online at www.ukans.edu/~cco
Saturday 5K Run/Walk Lied Center, 9am Registration materials available in the CCO office
College Coke
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