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Native journalist to discuss challenges faced by urban Indians (September 10, 2007)

Seattle newspaper editor Mark Trahant will deliver the Oregon Council for the Humanities' Commonplace Lecture on Oct. 26 in Portland.

The 38,000 Native Americans who reside in the Portland area comprise the nation's ninth-largest urban Indian population, according to the Native American Youth and Family Center in Portland.

Journalist Mark Trahant, the editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, explains that many of these urban Indians find themselves torn between the opportunities available in the cities and the history and culture of the reservations. He notes that this group is a significant--and perhaps unplanned for--population that faces specific challenges in the fields of education, employment, and health care.

As an example, Trahant, who is a member of the Shoshone Bannock tribe of Idaho, says, "In recent years the Bush Administration has been trying to zero out programs funding urban Indian health care programs. That means many Indians choose to return to the reservation for care, which adds to the financial pressure on the Indian Health Service."

Trahant will discuss these ideas in a free public lecture at Portland State University's Native American Student and Community Center, 710 SW Jackson St., Portland, on Friday, October 26, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., with a public reception to follow. The lecture is part of the Commonplace Lectures series, sponsored by the Oregon Council for the Humanities (OCH).

Trahant's lecture coincides with OCH's publication of the book, The First Oregonians, a collection of essays written primarily by representatives from Oregon's nine federally recognized tribes that provides a comprehensive view of Oregon's native peoples from the past to the present. The book will be available for purchase in fall 2007.

Trahant was a finalist for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in national reporting as co-author of a series on federal-Indian policy. In 1995, he was a visiting professional scholar at the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Pictures of Our Nobler Selves, a history of American Indian contributions to journalism published by The Freedom Forum, and The Whole Salmon, commissioned by Idaho's Sun Valley Center for the Arts. His most recent work is in the anthology, Lewis & Clark Through Indian Eyes, edited by Alvin Josephy.

OCH's Commonplace Lectures are offered three times a year throughout the state and are also published as chapbooks. Past presenters include University of Oregon geographer Susan Hardwick, who spoke about Russian and Ukrainian refugees in the Willamette Valley; the Oregonian's architecture critic Randy Gragg, who discussed the past and future of planning and architecture in Oregon; Portland writer Matthew Stadler, who talked about rebuilding communities; Whitman College professor Don Snow, who spoke about "rurban" development; and University of Puget Sound professor Mott Greene, who discussed science and democracy.

The Oregon Council for the Humanities (812 SW Washington St, #225, Portland, OR 97205) is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) that is dedicated to the belief that knowledge and ideas are fundamental to the health of our communities. More information about OCH's programs and publications, which include Oregon Chautauqua, Humanity in Perspective, Young Scholars Grants, Teacher Institutes, Commonplace Lectures, and Oregon Humanities magazine, can be found at www.oregonhum.org.

For more information, please contact Kathleen Holt, Communications Director, at (503) 241-0543 or kholt@oregonhum.org.