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September 27, 2005
Author, actor to deliver Keynote Address
Matt Lutz
Editor in Chief
Dennis Banks will deliver the 2005 Commitment to Community Keynote Address this week.
Banks said his speech will focus on delivering a 100 year plan to the university, including “where we are and where we ought to be.” Banks said this concept will be similar to native people talking about the “seventh generation,” a group 150 years in the future, only more specific.
As an advocate for native peoples, Banks’ main focus is on education reform and returning native lands to native control.
“I would advocate an accelerated graduation program. Requirements would be met by the tenth grade,” Banks said.
Banks said the program would be tested in native schools first, then brought to the rest of the state.
In order to complete these requirements, Banks said he would extend the school week by one day, adding classes on Saturday, as well as increase the length of the school year by two months. Under this model, students would begin their year in September, go to school Monday through Saturday, and classes would end in July. Banks said this would improve graduation rates and better prepare students to enter junior colleges and universities, which would cause the students to be “better prepared [to enter] into many careers.”
Banks said Japan uses such a model, and they have the highest graduation rates in the world.
After graduation, Banks said, students would then go to junior colleges, where they would learn how “to do research and write their papers.”
After a two-year program, students would attend four-year colleges and universities. All told, students would have a minimum of six years of post-secondary education.
In addition to education reform, Banks said he would overturn the Nelson Act.
According to Banks, the Nelson Act took from native lands to establish the National Chippewa forests.
“It is a part of our forest,” Banks said. “The Department of Agriculture took away 300,000 acres.”
Banks, an Anishinabae, was born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Early in life he was taken away to a military boarding school in Pipestone, MN, and then to another boarding school in Wahpeton, ND.
He cofounded the American Indian Movement in 1968, and has also had roles in War Party, The Last of the Mohicans and Thunderheart. He also co-authored the book Ojibwa Warrior.
Banks will be speaking at 7 p.m. in the Hamline United Methodist Church on Thursday, Sept. 29. Free tickets are available at the Student Center Front Desk. For more information, contact the MISA Office at x2423.
Posted by msveum at September 27, 2005 11:57 AM
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