Wilma Mankiller is a speaker at American Indian forum, Nov. 29-Dec. 2

Former Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller will be among two dozen prominent Native Americans to speak at "American Indian Millennium: Renewing Our Ways of Life for Future Generations," a forum that will examine the trends and challenges facing native communities in the 21st century. The forum will be Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 at Cornell's Statler Hotel.

Other prominent scholars and tribal leaders will include Darryl Kipp, Blackfoot language educator, and John Mohawk, a Seneca historian.

"The Native American world contains deep cultural knowledge," said José Barreiro, editor of Native Americas magazine and a conference organizer. "At this historical moment, we are asking culture-bearing elders as well as intellectual voices to conceive a message for their seventh generation to come." The seventh generation is a future generation.

Said Tim Johnson, executive editor of Indian Country Today, "Now, at the beginning of a new century, we want to assemble American Indian leaders to share their experiences. We've asked them to think deeply about what they would say if they could speak directly to the seventh generation. What have they learned through their own struggles? Why have they dedicated themselves to their peoples and communities? What hopes do they hold dear for their children's children?"

John Mohawk, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said, "We need to make fundamental changes in the way we view, process and present our culture to the next generation. We must center our traditions in a way that young people who have an education can embrace them without feeling that they are acting on something that doesn't apply to them or doesn't make sense. We want to see our traditions made coherent in the world."

The conference is being hosted by Cornell's Akwe:kon Press/Native Americas Journal, Life Way and Indian Country Today. The forum is being supported by contributions from W.K. Kellogg Foundation, First Nations Development Institute Opportunity Fund, the Ettinger Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, French American Charitable Trust and Joshua Mailman.

Seating capacity is limited, but it is expected there will be a live video-feed of the conference to selected sites at Cornell. For more information, contact Brendan White at 255-0421 or bfw2@cornell.edu or at Akwe:kon Press, Cornell University, 450 Caldwell Hall, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853.