Navajo poet, playwright and scholar Tohe to speak

Office of Communications & Marketing |Northeastern State University
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- Northeastern State University welcomes guest speaker Laura Tohe, Navajo poet, playwright, librettist and scholar on April 7. Her presentation will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Webb Auditorium at the NSU-Tahlequah campus and will be followed by the showing of the documentary Navajo Codetalkers, a pre-symposium event, presented by the NSU Indigenous Scholar Development Center. After the showing of the film, Tohe will be available for questions.

April 7 marks the last day for the traveling Smithsonian exhibit, Native Words, Native Warriors, so to end the evening, Tohe, author of Code Talker Stories will provide a book signing on the second floor of the John Vaughan Library, where the exhibit, is being displayed for its last evening in Tahlequah, Okla.

Tohe currently lives in Mesa, Ariz. and has been published in several journals. She has read her poetry in the United States, Europe and South America. She even had one of her pieces of work translated into modern dance and music. Tohe has won several awards for her writing over the years. She received her bachelors degree from the University of New Mexico and her masters and doctorate degrees in Creative Writing and Literature form the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

Her book, Code Talker Stories was published in 2012. It provides personal accounts from Navajo Code Talkers and reveals how their war experiences affected themselves and the Navajo generations that followed. The Navajo Code Talkers speak in English and Navajo about both the present and the past. This book also includes words from the veterans children and grandchildren who express their feelings about their relatives experiences.

This presentation is sponsored by the NSU ISDC as part of their ongoing Visiting Indigenous Scholars Series and is held in conjunction with the Native Words, Native Warriors exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution. This event and all others associated with the exhibit are free and open to the public.

Native Words, Native Warriors, developed by the Smithsonians National Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, will be on view Jan. 25-April 7, 2014. It is devoted to World War I and II Native American code talkers and veterans from over a dozen different tribes; the exhibit is located on the second floor of the John Vaughan Library at the NSU-Tahlequah campus. The national tour was made possible by the generous support from Elizabeth Hunter Solomon, the Smithsonian Womens Committee, and the AMB Foundation.

For more information regarding Duncans presentation contact the ISDC office at isdc@nsuok.edu or 918.444.3042.