University Relations

The 15th annual Consider the Century conference will bring four prominent Native American speakers to the SDSU campus Friday.

The speakers are Charon Asetoyer, Roger Campbell, Merry Ketterling and Steven Martin.

The event, free and open to the public, will take place in the Volstorff Ballroom in the University Student Union from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Presenters will draw on their personal and vocational experience to address the conference theme: “Native American Perspectives on the Past 100 Years.”

Steven Martin, Native American advisor at Dakota State University in Madison, will start the program off at 9 a.m.

A 1994 sociology graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Martin is pursuing his master’s degree in counseling and human resource development at SDSU.

Martin, a member of the Creek (Muskogee) Tribe, has also served as a childcare worker at St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain and as a juvenile intervention center attendant and shelter counselor at the Cleveland County Youth and Family Shelter in Norman. He has taught at St. Joseph’s Indian School and at the Morning Star Native American Shop in Chamberlain.

This year alone, Martin received the American Indian Scholarship and the Outstanding Writing Award, both from SDSU, and the Appreciation Award from the American College Personnel Association – Native American Network.

At 10 a.m. Merry Ketterling, administrative secretary for the faculty of the Indian Studies Department at the University of North Dakota, will speak. Ketterling is also a part-time junior Indian Studies major. Advisor for the UND Indian Association and a well-known speaker and storyteller.

Ketterling, a Lakota enrolled with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, was raised on the Standing Rock reservation. She has served as advisor at UND for the Indians Into Medicine Student Organization and Native American Business Leaders.

She is very active in Building Roads Into Diverse Groups Empowering Students, an activist group at UND. She is a member of the Campus Committee for Human Rights, a group dedicated to changing the “Fighting Sioux” mascot at UND, is actively involved in Hospice and is on the Girl Scouts of American Board of Directors.

She does storytelling at area elementary schools, received the UND Meritorious Award and was nominated for the Martin Luther King Jr. Award.

Roger Campbell, director of the Office of South Dakota Tribal Government Relations in Pierre, will present his lecture at 1 p.m.

The Office of South Dakota Tribal Government Relations nominates Native Americans to state commissions and boards; introduces legislation to improve the quality of life for tribes in the state; and helps tribal governments with technical assistance.

Campbell, a member of the Pomo Tribe, earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology with an emphasis in personnel management from SDSU in 1993.

He has served as executive director of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing Inc., loan officer for Norwest Banks South Dakota, Veterans’ Affairs Representative for SDSU, Veterans’ Job Service Representative for South Dakota Job Service and Communication Center Operator for the U.S. Marine Corps.

He also served as Cultural Diversity Committee chairman for the Chamber of Commerce and a mentor for the Ateyapi Society, both in Rapid City.

At 2 p.m. Charon Asetoyer, executive director and founder of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center in Lake Andes and the Native American Community Board, will give the last talk of the day.

Asetoyer, a member of the Comanche Tribe, also developed a Native American Health Education Project for the American Friends Service Committee and worked to improve community health in San Francisco through the Urban Indian Health Clinic.

She has participated in many international forums concerning women’s issues, population and human rights issues.

The Consider the Century Conference is sponsored by the South Dakota Humanities Council, SDSU and the SDSU Native American Club, English Department and Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Contact Dr. Charles Woodard in the English Department with any questions.