Due to unforeseen circumstances, the event had to be canceled.

Chowan University will celebrate Native American Heritage Month November 14th, at 11:00 AM, in the upper level of Whitaker Library, with guest speaker Sheila Spencer-Stover also known as Firehair Shining Spirit.

Spencer-Stover will present the lecture “From Whence We Came – 400 Millennia via Time, History, and DNA”. The lecture will explore the need for DNA work and how DNA can be used as a tool. This topic extends beyond ancestry and touches on history/population areas, migrations, Indian slavery/mass removal, and effects.

Spencer-Stover will examine population groups in North America, varying backgrounds, and reasons for different appearances. She will share her knowledge on inter and over marriages/clan system and ethnic admixtures. Reservations as opposed to general population will also be addressed. Following the presentation, Spencer-Stover will take questions.

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions of first Americans to the establishment and growth of the United States, resulted in a month-long celebration. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution to designate November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants of the name, including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month,” have been issued each year since 1994.

For more information, please contact Syble Shellito at 252-398-6365 or shells@chowan.edu.