Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University is planning several events for Native American Heritage Month.

November was designated Native American Heritage Month by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1998. To celebrate the rich heritage and culture of American Indians, the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology and the Provost’s Initiatives for Excellence are sponsoring five campus events. All are free and open to the public.

The presentations include:

Nov. 1: “Native American Arts and Culture: Views from a Traditional Potter” by Steve Black Bear LaBoueff, 6:30 p.m. at Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center Recital Hall.

Black Bear is a member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana but makes his home in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. He is an award-winning potter who learned his craft from the Naranjo family of Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. He uses traditional materials and techniques in the production of his pottery. Black Bear will discuss how his pottery creations are informed by his cultural experiences and about Native American arts and culture.

Nov. 7: “Proto-historic and Historic Indians in Kentucky: An Archaeological Perspective” by Dr. A. Gwynn Henderson, 6:30 p.m. at Garrett Conference Center Auditorium.

Dr. Henderson, staff archaeologist with the Kentucky Archaeological Survey in Lexington and coordinator of the Kentucky Archaeological Registry, has been doing archaeological research and public archaeology education in Kentucky for more than 20 years. She is an expert on the proto-historic Fort Ancient archaeological culture in the middle Ohio Valley and has conducted excavations at a number of contact period sites in Kentucky, including Lower Shawneetown in northern Kentucky. She will dispel the myth that Kentucky was devoid of American Indians prior to and at the time of Euro-American settlement.

Nov. 8: “Cherokee Storytelling: Why Rabbit Has Long Ears” by Sequoyah Guess, 6:30 p.m. at Garrett Conference Center, room 100.

Sequoyah Guess is a full-blood member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma. He is a sixth-generation descendent of the original Sequoyah, who developed the Cherokee writing system or “syllabary” in the early 1800s. Sequoyah Guess speaks, reads, writes and teaches the language of his people. Under the tutelage of his family elders he learned the art of storytelling, and he has been telling Cherokee stories for more than 20 years. He is also the author of eight fiction books based on Cherokee culture, a film maker, a song writer, a musician and a cultural presenter.

Nov. 16: “The Archaeology of Prehistoric Indians in Kentucky” and artifact identification session by Dr. Darlene Applegate, 6:30 p.m. at Garrett Conference Center, room 100.

Dr. Applegate, associate professor of anthropology at WKU, has been doing archaeological research in western and eastern Kentucky for more than a decade. Her recent research projects have focused on documenting rockshelter sites in Edmonson County, analyzing collections from the Watkins Site in Logan County, and investigating mortuary practices at prehistoric sites in Barren and Allen counties. Her presentation will provide a summary of human occupations in Kentucky from 11,500 years ago to contact. Afterward, she will identify artifacts for the audience. Only legally obtained artifacts will be identified, meaning they cannot be from federal, state or municipal property, from military sites, from caves or from burials. She cannot give monetary appraisals.

Nov. 1-30: “Native Americans in Kentucky: 11,500 Years Ago to Present,” a six-panel display created by students in an Applied Archaeology course; Downing University Center lobby.

The displays describe how Native American tools, foods, settlements and beliefs changed over time as well as issues for contemporary American Indians in Kentucky. The Paleoindian Period (11,500 to 10,000 years ago) display was created by Savannah Brumley and Amy McCray; the Archaic Period (10,000 to 3,000 years ago) display by Erin Avery and Michael Hall; the Woodland Period (3,000 to 1,100 years ago) display by Debbie Rossi and Shara Snodgrass; the Late Prehistoric Period (1,100 to 250 years ago) display by Elizabeth Martin and Sheila Trageser; the Historic Period (250 years ago to present) display by Lindsay Ely, Gabrielle Frassinelli, and Hope Hawkins; and the Contemporary Issues display by Megan Barron and Cameron Knight.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Darlene Applegate at (270) 745-5094.