Campus Life

Heard on Campus: Wilma Mankiller at the Lewis and Clark Conference

"I am grateful to Penn State for hosting this conference and providing an opportunity for looking at the Lewis and Clark expedition from a Native American perspective.... The Shoshone people were indispensable in helping Lewis and Clark map, providing them with knowledge, providing them with horses, supplies and information about food preservation and ways to survive. As Americans prepare to celebrate the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, I want them to reflect on the native peoples they met along the way, not as icons or as symbols, but as mothers, fathers and children who celebrated their lives and their ceremonies and who shared their valuable knowledge with Lewis and Clark."
-- Wilma Mankiller, social activist and principle chief of the Cherokee Nation, speaking last week at the national "Lewis and Clark: The Unheard Voices" conference held on Penn State's University Park campus. For more information about the conference, visit

Last Updated March 19, 2009