Reporter Volume 26, No.9 November 3, 1994

By LISA WILEY
Reporter Contributor
Obtaining college degrees, setting career goals and maintaining tribal
links were the main messages of Native American professionals and
guest speakers at Onkwehonwe, the fourth Native American Educational
and Career Opportunities Conference, held at UB Oct. 28-30.
	"This is what your charge isQgo outside the logic that is now
housed in the leadership of all the six nations. They do not have the
answers. Our people are split more than they ever have been in the
history of the Longhouse," said Lloyd Elm, principal of Buffalo School
No. 19, the Native American magnet school, at the keynote address
Saturday evening in the Student Union.
	"Onkwehonwe" means the "The Real People/The Original Beings"
in Mohawk, according to conference co-chairs Roland Garrow, a senior
counselor in the UB Educational Opportunity Program and a member of
the Mohawk tribe, and Michael Gendrue, an academic advisor in the UB
Office of Vice President for Public Service and Urban Affairs and a
member of the Seneca tribe. Students need Native American role models
to talk to and motivate them, Garrow said. 
	Representatives from all eight tribes in New York State,
including the Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga, Tuscarora,
Shinnecock and Unkechaug, attended the conference. Students came from
nearly 30 school districts throughout New York StateQapproximately 14
from Western New YorkQand Canada, Garrow said. A total of 300 people
participated.
	Elm, a member of the Onondaga nation, told students several
times during his address to look beyond the "habitual logic" of
today's leaders, who are faced with problems on reservations such as
tax-free cigarettes and casinos. "We are caught in a strand of
habitual logic that is tearing at our hearts right now. Don't limit
yourselves to what you know right now," he said.
	"One of the vehicles to solving those problems is having a
degree," Elm said. He also noted that students must recognize that
they will soon become the new leadership.
	Native American professionals from major career
areasQincluding law, business, education, engineering, science,
medicine, art and communicationQshared information about their careers
and educational preparation at panel discussions during the Saturday
morning session. 
	 "I felt like I had won the Miss America contest," said Nancy
Johnson, describing her reaction when she received her acceptance
letter to UB Law School. The Onondaga member and recent UB law
graduate shared her experiences with students who attended the law and
business panel. Her daughter, July, a 16-year-old junior at Lafayette
High School, attended the same panel.
	Will she follow in her mother's footsteps?
	"She won't let me," July said. "She's going to be a genetic
engineer," her mom said.
	"If you know the rules, you can help change them. The hard
part is knowing what the rules are. Fundamentally, that's what lawyers
live, eat and breathe," said Robert Porter, an assistant professor at
the UB Law School and the attorney general for the Seneca Nation.
	"I think anyone is capable of doing it. There are second
chances which you can avail yourselves of," said Porter, a graduate of
Harvard Law School, who grew up on the Allegany reservation.
	Edward Valandra, a UB graduate student in American Studies,
spoke to students about the importance of obtaining a culturally
relevant education, during the engineering panel. "If you are going to
work in your communities, you need to know how to articulate what is
expressed in your language," said the member of the Lakota tribe.
	"I want you to become indigenous engineers and scientists of
Native descent," Valandra added.
	"Right now is a really important time in your lives. You have
the power in your hands to change whatever situation you are currently
in," said Bebe Curley, a technical analyst with the Bank of Nova
Scotia.
	"In order to achieve what you want, you have to set goals. Set
your goals high, so you have the ultimate choice when you enter the
workplace," Curley, a member of the Mohawk nation, told her audience. 
	Curley also described the fulfilling and rewarding aspects of
her career in computer technology and why she chose the field.
	Students said they were inspired by the speakers and also met
other Native Americans who share similar concerns about the future of
their people.
	"This year, it's been a really big plug for college,"
according to Mary Abrantes, 17, a senior at Henninger High School in
Syracuse. A member of the Mohawk nation who attended the conference
last year, she echoed a sentiment she said she had heard many times
throughout the conference. "Get your degree. They can't take that away
from you," she said.
	Self-esteem workshops were held Friday evening. The conference
concluded Sunday with summer, precollege and financial aid workshops.