California Center for the Native Nations

Neo Native

Events

History/Firsts

  • February 2020: CCNN and Mark Minch (English) host the first gathering of more than 20 California Indian scholars to discuss California Indian Studies and the formation of the California Indian Scholars and Studies Association (CISSA).
  • January 2020: Tamara Ho and Wesley Y. Leonard received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support CCNN and Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS).
  • 2019-2021: The Faculty Commons Workgroup on Reclamation and Native American Communities is convened by Wesley Y. Leonard (Ethnic Studies).
  • 2018: California Indian Nations College (CINC) opens its doors, becoming the first two-year tribal nations college in California in decades.
  • 2018: San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians donates $1.28 million to UCR’s NASP “to support the office’s long-term goal of expanding efforts to reach college-going Native American students and better serve them as they earn their degrees.”
  • 2017: American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) holds its first annual Healing the Earth Conference.
  • 2016-2017: The Contemporary Indigenous Arts and Knowledge Cluster Hire brings six full-time, tenure-track Native American faculty members to UCR.
  • 2011: Annual conference, “Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside” (ICR) is launched by Jacqueline Shea Murphy.
  • 2005: Annual Gathering of the Tribes Summer Residential Program, a summer program for Native American students grades 9-12, is established by NASP.
  • 2004 First “Red Rhythms: Contemporary Methodologies in American Indian Dance” conference is organized by Jacqueline Shea Murphy (Dance) and Michelle Raheja (English).
  • 2000: California Center for Native Nations (CCNN) is established.
  • 1994: UCR becomes the first UC campus to offer a Ph.D. in Native American History in the Department of History.
  • 1994: A bachelor of arts degree in Native American Studies is offered at UCR.
  • 1993: Indian Time Radio aired for the first time on the KUCR radio station and becomes a permanent segment on KUCR.
  • 1991: UCR develops a major and minor in Ethnic Studies with an emphasis on American Indians.
  • 1989: The Chancellor’s Native American Advisory Committee is established.
  • 1986: Rupert Costo (Cahuilla) and Jeannette Henry Costo (Cherokee) endow a faculty chair in Native American History.
  • 1981: Annual Medicine Ways Conference and Annual UCR Pow Wow are established.
  • 1980: Native American Student Programs (NASP) is established and UCR becomes the first UC campus to create an office/program for Native American students.
  • 1980: Academic Coordinator position is expanded to full-time and includes outreach to local Native American communities.
  • 1976: UCR hires the first part-time Academic Coordinator to conduct programs and outreach to Native American students.

Past Events

View Recent Events

  • 2021: CCNN, the Center for Ideas and Society, Reclamation and Native American Communities Faculty Commons, and Performing Difference Working Group presented in collaboration with Carolyn Dunn, Kimberly Guerrero, Sarah D'Angelo, and Kalani Queypo, a staged reading of a new Carolyn Dunn play, Chasing Tailfeathers. This celebration of Carolynn Dunn's new work and Native American Heritage Month was the first return to in-person (and hybrid) event since the pandemic.
  • 2020: CCNN hosted Chag Lowry (Yurok, Maidu, Achumawi) for a talk and book signing of his new graphic novel Soldiers Unknown (Great Oak Press, 2019), which explores the lives of Native American soldiers who fought in World War I.
  • 2020: CCNN and Mark Minch (English) hosted the first gathering of more than 20 California Indian scholars to discuss California Indian Studies and the formation of the California Indian Scholars and Studies Association (CISSA)
  • 2019: The Karrabing Film Collective, an aboriginal art collective from Australia, and Professor Elizabeth Povinelle visited campus to screen three of their films and lead a master class discussion with UCR faculty and students.
Neo Native
Neo Native
Toward New Mythologies
Symposium

NOVEMBER 1-4, 2017

Neo Native: Toward New Mythologies explores the vision of artists whose work is informed by traditions within tribal cultures, but whose themes express a newfound contemporary narrative.

Curated and hosted through a collaboration between the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation and the UCR California Center for Native Nations, this four-day series will feature guided tours of the Neo Native art exhibit at the Maloof Foundation and a major symposium featuring more than thirty Native artists, performers, photographers, cinematographers, practitioners, and scholars at UCR's Culver Center of the Arts.

November 1
Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts
5131 Carnelian Street, Alta Loma, California

November 2-4
UCR Culver Center of the Arts
3824 Main Street, Riverside, California

All events are free, public welcome
Eventbrite registration required: neonative.eventbrite.com

  • 2008: Sponsored by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, CCNN and CSU San Bernardino collaborated to host the California Indian Conference (CIC) in Palm Desert. It is an annual state-wide conference hosted at different places throughout California.
  • 2004: “Red Rhythms: Contemporary  Methodologies in American Indian Dance”, a conference organized by Jacqueline Shea Murphy (Dance) and Michelle Raheja (English). https://newsroom.ucr.edu/793

Awards, Achievements, and Recognitions

  • 2020: Gerald Clarke (Ethnic Studies) has a featured art exhibit titled Gerald Clarke: Falling Rock at the Palm Springs Art Museum and an exhibit titled Selling Democracy at the Crafton Hills College Art Gallery.
  • 2020: Tamara Ho and Wesley Y. Leonard received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support CCNN and Native American Indigenous Studies (NAIS) at UCR.
  • 2019: CCNN and the Costo Chair funded four UCR Native American Graduate students to travel to Aotearoa, New Zealand, to present at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) 2019 conference.
  • 2018: Gerald Clarke (Ethnic Studies) and Jacqueline Shea Murphy (Dance) were each awarded the “Teresa and Byron Pollitt Term Chair for Interdisciplinary Research and Learning in the Humanities and Social Sciences.”
  • 2018: Costo Chair Cliff E. Trafzer (History) received the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Indian Historians at the Western History Conference.
  • 2017: Allison Hedge Coke (Creative Writing) invited Michell Raheja (English) and Gerald Clarke (Ethnic Studies) to be part of an annual United Nations panel dedicated to Indigenous Writers representing challenged communities. In 2017, Hedge Coke was invited to field the forum panel. Raheja chaired the UN panel discussion and Clarke hosted the guest Native American authors. It is the only Indigenous literature panel at the UN forum and the first time UCR and CCNN participated officially in the forum.
  • 2012: Oregon State University Press publishes The Indian School on Magnolia Avenue: Voices and Images from Sherman Institute, co-edited by Clifford E. Trafzer (History, Costo Endowment Chair) and Lorene Sisquoc (Cahuilla, Ft. Sill Apache). Sisquoc was born in Riverside and serves as curator and culture traditions leader at Sherman Indian High School Museum.

 Annual Events

  • Fall: Native Jam Night
  • Fall: Spirit of the Tribes 5k
  • Spring: UCR Pow Wow
  • Spring: Medicine Ways
  • Spring: AISES Healing the Earth Conference
  • Spring: Native Graduation Ceremony
  • Summer: Gathering of the Tribes Summer Residential Program
  • Throughout the year: NASP Lecture Series
    Learn more about these events at nasp.ucr.edu
  • Indigenous Choreographers at Riverside (ICR)
  • Writers Week Conference featuring Native American writers

Current Projects