Introducing Your Speaker

INTRODUCING YOUR SPEAKER Kansas Humanities Council

For questions about your program, contact Leslie Von Holten at KHC [email protected] 785/357-0359

Your program for today – Native American Civil Rights 100 Years Ago Native Americans in the 1910s faced devastating poverty and governmental policies that favored whites who wanted water and land resources. Prevalent racial attitudes depicted Native Americans as a vanishing race that must assimilate or die out, or incompetent to manage their own resources. To combat these prejudices, the Society of American Indians lobbied Congress, promoted Native American achievements, and educated white Americans through articles and cultural performances. The presentation discusses how activists like Charles Eastman and Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) fought back with words and organizing to stop hostile policies and attitudes toward Native Americans.

Please use the following to welcome your speaker along with highlights from bio – Our program is brought to you by the Kansas Humanities Council, a non-profit organization promoting understanding of the history and ideas that shape our lives and strengthen our sense of community. So we may all enjoy the program, please take a moment to turn off any cell phones.

For publicity and introduction, a biographical sketch of your speaker follows – Dr. Gretchen Cassel Eick is a professor emeritus of history at Friends University in Wichita. In 2009, she was awarded the Friends' Excellence in Teaching Award. Her scholarly work has been on the civil rights movement 1950s-1970s and on Native American history. Her first book, Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954-1972 won three awards and stimulated others in Wichita to examine this history, resulting in curriculum materials she developed, a public television documentary, two museum exhibits, and two commemorations of participants in the 1958 Dockum Drug Store sit-in, the first successful student led sit-in. CBS and CSPAN both featured this part of Kansas history in 2011-12. Dr. Eick joined the KHC Speakers Bureau in 2010.

Gretchen Cassel Eick, Ph.D. 316/682-8818 [email protected]