The lectures begin at 9:00 a.m. on the 23rd, with a youth presentation to Kings Valley Charter School middle-school students and their teachers entitled "The True Intelligence of the Real Human Being." This talk will focus on the major elements of Merculieff's traditional upbringing from age 4 to age 13. Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., Mr. Merculieff will address a campus and community forum on "Indigenous Elder Wisdom for Modern Times: Why It is Needed To Shift Paradigms That Are Pushing Earth's Life Support Systems to the Edge." This talk will focus on the spiritual and practical wisdom of Indigenous elders from Merculieff'sAleut tradition and the traditions across the world. A reception will follow, providing opportunities for informal interaction with thespeaker.

On Thursday morning Mr. Merculieff and hosts will travel to Chemawa Indian School in Salem, about 20 miles from Monmouth. Chemawa, the oldest continuously operating Native American boarding school in the United States, will celebrate its 130th birthday Pow Wow a few days after Mr. Merculieff's visit. He will speak to high school science students on "Bridging Between Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Cartesian Based Western Science: Why Is It Needed and What Can Indigenous Ways Offer to Better Understand Nature." This will be a homecoming for Mr.Merculieff--he was a student at Chemawa in his youth. After lunch with students at Chemawa, Mr. Merculieff will return to Western Oregon to meet at 1:00 p.m. with a university anthropology class for highlights from the public presentation of the previous afternoon and the opportunity to ask questions raised by their study of arctic cultures.

The final event, on Thursday afternoon at 3:00 p.m., is a team buildingworkshop entitled "Traditional Ways, The Ways of the Real Human Being,Elder Wisdom, and Team Building That Can Change Self and the World."This interactive workshop will explore the myriad of ways used by Indigenous cultures to unify the "mind" of the group so that everyone's contribution is valued and used. Participants will learn how to express seemingly polarized viewpoints without alienating any participant on the team. Experientially, participants will learn a new way of listening,expressing their thoughts, how one's truth is as equally valid as another's truth, and why Indigenous ways are so critical in modern times.

The Arctic Visiting Speakers Series (AVS), managed by the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) with funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Arctic Sciences, funds researchers and other arctic experts to travel and share their knowledge in communities where they might not otherwise connect. Speakers cover a wide range of arctic research topics and can address a variety of audiences including K-12 students, graduate and undergraduate students, and the public.

For more information on the tour, please click here.

For further information on AVS, please visit the website.

Or contact:
Julie Griswold
Email: julie@arcus.org
Phone: 907-474-1600