Native Americans Together Insuring Our Nations’ Sovereignty will host a three-day conference titled “All My Relatives.”

The conference, which started as a teacher’s conference, is open to anyone and will feature crafts, guest speakers, classes and panel discussions. It will begin on Friday afternoon with the lighting of the sacred fire, and will continue through Sunday.

“This is the 10th year of the conference, but this is the first year it will be here on campus. It is usually held at the Loredo-Taft campus,” said Rita Reynolds, conference coordinator. “One of the benefits of having the conference here is that more students are able to attend.”

The conference will cover topics such as Native American family dynamics, reparations and casinos. Speakers will include tribal leaders, cultural experts and educators.

Teachers and future teachers are encouraged to attend the conference for numerous reasons, one being the lack of information about Native Americans in the classroom.

“Books are not always correct,” said Reynolds. “It is good to learn firsthand from Native Americans.”

As an incentive for attending the conference, education students will be offered colloquium credit. They also will be given handouts on colloquium resources.

People should attend the conference for historical reasons as well.

“It is important for everyone to know where they come from,” Reynolds said.

Van Amos, program director for the Center for Black Studies, agrees with Reynolds.

“A person without knowledge is like a tree with no roots,” said Amos.

Amos will attend the conference and said African-Americans in particular should attend because of the cultural and social ties they have to Native Americans.

“I believe it is something like one out of every five African Americans have Native American in them,” said Amos. “Native American history is our history.”

Reynolds hopes the conference will not only have short-term effects, but long-term effects as well.

“I hope this will be a stepping stone toward establishing a Native American Studies program on campus.”