12/14/95

Janet McCoy (mccoyjl@mail.auburn.edu)

AU'S HUMANITIES CENTER SETS SERIES ON STATE'S EARLY HISTORY

AUBURN -- An eight-city public lecture and discussion series on Alabama's native American heritage and early Colonial history will be administered in 1996 by Auburn University's Center for the Arts and Humanities.

Funded by a $8,500 grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, "Visions of Our Past: Native Americans, Naturalists, Soldiers, Settlers" will bring together noted scholars in history, anthropology, cultural geography and archaeology to discuss the history and cultures of native American groups, the exploration and colonization by Europeans of the state and the legacy of Africans in Alabama. Faculty from AU and other Alabama universities as well as experts from Georgia and Florida universities will participate.

The series is co-sponsored by AU and the Alabama Historical Commission.

The first session will be Sunday, Jan. 28, at 2 p.m. in the Milo B. Howard Auditorium of the state Archives and History building in Montgomery. Other cities participating include Fairhope, Eufaula, Birmingham, Enterprise, Valley, Marion and Fort Payne. The dates will be announced later.

Topics to be discussed at each session include the interaction of diverse ethnic groups and the development of a multicultural society, the role of women in tribal societies and the effects of intermarriage between groups, the mapping of the region, which historically has reflected the territorial claims and ambitions of dominant groups and what this heritage means today.

"Maybe it's because, as William Faulkner said, 'there is no such thing as was, only is' that we ought to know more about what we call the past," says acting center director Bert Hitchcock. "For Alabamians a very interesting, important and particularly educational part of our history is that time of initial and early contact between old and new inhabitants of our region. This program offers a compelling subject and an exceptional learning opportunity for present residents of our state.

"We are very gratified that in these particularly competitive times, the Alabama Humanities Foundation has provided funding for another center program."

Center assistant director Jay Lamar said previous programs sponsored by the center "revealed a deep interest in early Southeastern groups that encountered one another in the Alabama wilderness and frontier -- native American, Spanish, British, French and African -- and the effects of their interaction on the future of the region make it a compelling and important subject."

Lamar says the arrival of various groups brought many changes to the state, and "their contact with one another and with the native inhabitants would influence the fate of the native tribes and mark indelibly the material, social and religious culture of Alabama."

One goal of the program is to bring a greater understanding to the history and culture of Alabama's native Americans, the complex interaction of European cultures in the Southeast and the significance of the interaction of native Americans, Europeans and Africans.

"A better understanding of the rich cultural heritage and ethnic and racial diversity of Alabama's Indians is important not only for those of Indian ancestry but also for modern Alabamians who seek to better understand their own past and the history of their state," she said.

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CONTACT: Hitchcock and Lamar, 334/844-4946.