DECATUR, Ill. - Millikin University's Office of Campus Life will celebrate National Native American Heritage Month with an evening of vivid storytelling by Dr. Nichole S. Prescott on Monday, Nov. 27, from 7-8 p.m. in the Bob and Debi Johnston Banquet Rooms in the University Commons.
This event is free to members of the Millikin and Decatur communities.
National Native American Heritage Month is celebrated each November and aims to provide a platform for Native American people in the United States to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways and concepts of life.
Dr. Prescott will inspire students to look at leadership, culture, and belonging through stories grounded in her cultural identity as an Indigenous woman. Her keynote address, “More than an *Asterisk,” uses historical and contemporary references to explore how Indigenous people are rendered invisible in the national narrative and in data, stereotyped in popular culture, and how Natives are taking back their narrative. This program also provides practical guidance on appreciating Native culture without appropriating it.
Dr. Prescott currently serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas System. She is a proud citizen of the Miami Nation of Oklahoma (Myaamia) and actively participates in the culture and language revitalization efforts of her people.
Dr. Prescott was born in an Indian hospital in Oklahoma and raised on the Texas/Mexico border before she moved to Austin to pursue a college degree at the University of Texas as a first-generation college student. Dr. Prescott has maintained a strong engagement with the broader Native American community, currently serving on the Governing Council of the National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education and as a Director, Secretary, and Vice-Chair of the Miami University Foundation Board.
She is a fierce supporter of the Myaamia Center, a tribally-driven language and culture research center situated at Miami University, one of her alma maters.
Please email campuslife@millikin.edu for more information on this event.
