Welcome

Author Leslie Marmon Silko is 2008 Native American Studies Elder-in-Residence. Click here.

The WVU Native American Studies (NAS) Program is housed in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. Our academic minor is becoming an ever more attractive choice for students who desire an educational experience that will serve them well as graduates in the 21st Century. The increasing globalization of economies, communication, and media, along with our highly mobile society, have created a broadening culture of ideas, study, and discourse. These trends pose great challenges to preserving tradition, language, and cultural individuality while understanding and honoring our connectedness to other living beings and all of creation. This connectedness is embodied in the beautiful Lakota expression, “Mitakuye Oyasin” (“all my relatives”). The NAS program at West Virginia University stimulates both intellectual consideration and practical application of many important concepts, asking students to critically consider how the essential balance might best be achieved in today’s world.

It is my pleasure to serve as coordinator at this exciting time when students are seeking expanded opportunities to learn about Native America. There are many ways NAS can enrich your university experience. more information…