Conference Rescheduled

Dear Colleague:

Over the past several months the College of Menominee Nation, Sustainable Development Institute has kept vigil on international activities while planning for its international conference in June, 2003. No doubt many organizations are faced with the reality that planned activities, including international travel, will be affected by current global unrest. We join the world’s communities in continuing to hope for peaceful resolutions to international crises.

However, due to current realities and after careful deliberation, the Sustainable Development Institute and its major conference funding partner, the Kellogg Foundation, have decided to postpone the upcoming conference: Sharing Indigenous Wisdom: An International Dialogue on Sustainable Development. The new conference dates are June 6 -10, 2004. Please visit our conference website for up-to-date information on the conference. We hope you will join us next year as we engage on this important dialogue.

If you have questions or if you need additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact me at the address below or by e-mail.

Thank you,
Delia M. Kundin
College of Menominee Nation
P.O. Box 1179
Keshena, WI 54135
E-mail: dkundin@menominee.edu

LAND & SOVEREIGNTY

Are integral to the process of sustainable development. The Menominee Nation has a firm experiential basis for their understanding of this process. They know first hand the horror of termination, and the struggle for restoration of their status as a federally recognized Indian tribe. While political restoration has been accomplished, other aspects of restoration are yet unattended. Central to our research and extension mission is the commitment to those topics and activities that re-affirm tribal sovereignty and preserves the tribal estate.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The long and successful Menominee experience in sustained yield forestry is the cornerstone of its community's sustainable development. SDI has prioritized forest products, forest ecology, enhanced commerce of timber products, and value added forest products as immediate topics relevant to its scholarship and research and extension mission.

INSTITUTIONS

In aiding in the development and maturation of the institutional life of the rural and reservation communities which we serve, we ensure the longevity of our efforts, maximize the impact of our initiatives, and position our own institution firmly within the community context which has chartered our mission.

TECHNOLOGY

SDI works collaboratively with the Menominee Telecommunications Design Team to enable a multi-media telecommunications infrastructure capable of serving our rural and reservation community institutions. The Design Team includes the College, the Tribal and County governments, and the Menominee Tribal Enterprises. We believe rural and reservation communities are dependent on the foresight of their institutions to assure access to the new wave of information technology. We are committed to forwarding the development of information infrastructure. We are attuned to the potential of electronic commerce, medicine, and judicial practice, advancing local access to technological innovations, and complementing our academic goal of advancing technological literacy.

ECONOMY

Initial entry into extension services to forward this dimension are in nascent development, with an initial emphasis on cooperating with the local business incubator, offering workshops for potential entrepreneurs and service as a research resource for tribal enterprise. We anticipate the local regions designation as an enterprise community will provide additional training opportunities.

HUMAN PERCEPTION, ACTIVITY & BEHAVIOR

A priority for research lies in projects which assure access to safe and reliable food and water resources. To that end, we anticipate complimenting research efforts in sustainable forestry with new initiatives in permaculture, ethnobotany, and preliminary investigation of the feasibility of aquaculture and hydroponics production.

Decision Making

Today we remain dependent on this land and water to sustain us. Therefore, we must make the necessary decisions to sustain it for future generations. We believe Menominee Autochthony is the centerpiece by which decision making must take place for successful sustenance of this nation and land.

AUTOCHTHONY - n. from the land itself; nativeness by virtue or originating or occurring naturally as in a particular place. (Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913).