News Release

By KELLY OCHS
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL — The principal chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians will speak Thursday (Nov. 10) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, describing contributions that American Indians have made to the state and the South.

"The Cherokee People 2005" will be the title of the free public lecture by Michell Hicks at 5 p.m. in 116 Murphey Hall. The program will recognize November as National Native American Heritage Month, proclaimed annually by the president.

"We are a community of learners and scholars, and this is an important opportunity to advance our knowledge and understanding of Cherokee history and Indian culture in general," said Dr. Archie Ervin, UNC’s associate provost for diversity and multicultural affairs.

"Chief Hicks will be able to give, from the perspective of the Cherokee, some important aspects of the contributions, past and present, of the American Indian to North Carolina," he said.

Elected principal chief in 2003, Hicks has held several positions in the Eastern Band since 1987. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Western Carolina University in 1987 and an associate in arts degree from Southwestern Community College in 1990. He became a certified public accountant in 1994.

Danny Bell of the American studies curriculum said the Eastern Band of the Cherokee has overcome many challenges and developed and maintained its heritage and culture.

"It’s Indian heritage month, an opportunity to raise awareness of our presence in America," said Bell, who is of Lumbee and Coharie descent. He said he hopes Native American Heritage Month will raise awareness of UNC’s efforts to reach out to American Indians, which include a minor in American Indian studies.

"Chief Hicks’ visit is part of a broader, university-wide effort to build upon the partnership that UNC’s Research Laboratories of Archaeology began forging with the Eastern Band more than a half-century ago," said Dr. Valerie Lambert, assistant professor of anthropology and an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

The lecture is sponsored by UNC’s Diversity and Multicultural Affairs Office, the Provost’s Committee on Native American Issues, the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, the history department, the Center for the Study of the American South, the Graduate School, Carolina Indian Circle, First Nations Graduate Circle and the American Indian studies program.

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(Ochs is a senior journalism and mass communication major from Winston-Salem.)

Anthropology department contact: Valerie Lambert, (919) 843-7808 or vlambert@email.unc.edu

News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595