The American Indian Program (AIP) at Cornell is recognizing Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month with events on campus focusing attention on Native perspectives, issues and cultures.

A Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Social held Nov. 1 launched the observances on campus. Academic events have included an AIP conference, "Sovereignty, Indigeneity, and the Law," Oct. 29-30, attracting international scholars on legal issues involving Native lands; a Nov. 3 roundtable on the Arizona immigration law (SB1070) and its impact on Native peoples; and two visiting scholars discussing pedagogy, identity and the Native student experience, Nov. 4 at the Akwe:kon (pronounced "A-gway-go") residential program house on North Campus.

Upcoming events open to the community include a performance by Native American band Cornbred, Nov. 12 at 9 p.m. at Townhouse Community Center; a colloquium by anthropologist Marge Bruchac, Nov. 12 at 3:30 p.m. in 125 McGraw Hall; storytelling with Bruchac and Saanii Atsitty, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. at Akwe:kon; and a Harvest Celebration Dinner, Nov. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in Risley Dining Hall.

"I think we've become more visible on campus in trying to do what we do -- educating the Cornell community about Indigenous affairs and communities," said AIP Director Eric Cheyfitz, the Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters.

Cheyfitz noted that AIP has several staff and affiliated faculty with tribal heritage, and that the program, which offers undergraduate and graduate minors in American Indian Studies, "has developed expertise in Iroquois studies."

The multidisciplinary program, founded in 1975, commits its efforts to education, outreach and the recruitment and retention of Native students, in particular helping them succeed at Cornell. Housed in Caldwell Hall, AIP provides support for the 170 Native students currently enrolled across all Cornell colleges. This fall, the university welcomed 75 new Native students, 63 of them undergraduates.

Campus and national student organizations supported by AIP include Native American Students at Cornell, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, and the Indigenous Graduate Association; the latter and AIP co-hosted poet and novelist Adrian Louis last month.

Students also attend an AIP seminar series and weekly dinners with faculty fellows and participate in events at Akwe:kon.

Extension and outreach to Native peoples involves promoting community-based learning with an emphasis on cultural and environmental sustainability. Student interns and volunteers work in collaboration with nearby Haudenosaunee communities on Cayuga Nation lands and in the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse. Cornell sits within the traditional homeland of the Cayuga Nation, Cheyfitz said.

"We're working on education issues with the local communities to prepare younger people for college," he said.

AIP-affiliated Cornell students participate in work days and social events at the Cayuga SHARE Farm, and lead a tutoring program once a week at Lafayette High School, where they provide academic help, mentoring and friendship to young Native students.

Outreach and research are often enjoined, as in an AIP-sponsored summer institute on integrated water law.

When several professors and graduate students inquired last spring about engaging Native communities in their research, AIP helped organize a workshop in September "for 25 to 30 Cornell outreach coordinators," AIP Associate Director Carol Kalafatic said. "We invited two Haudenosaunee people to speak to them about what the priorities are in the Onondaga Nation School and the Cayuga SHARE Farm. It's possible some collaborations will result from that."

AIP also facilitated a number of summer jobs in a Cornell nanofibers lab for Lafayette students, "part of our effort to collaborate with Cornell faculty to expose high school and grade school students to what life in a STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] field can be," she said.

Another collaborative initiative is in development, to strengthen science education "for [Native] students who are interested in renewable energy and sustainability," Kalafatic said. "There's been some interest in hands-on projects and curriculum development."