The week of March 17-22, 2025, UNC Pembroke’s campus will be filled with events and activities showcasing the history, culture, accomplishments and contributions of American Indian people.

The week’s events include the Lloyd Oxendine Artist-in-Residence featuring Gene Locklear, the Southeast Native Studies Conference, a fireside chat with fashion model and Indigenous land protector Quannah Chasinghorse and the BraveNation Powwow and Gathering. 

Everyone is welcome to attend the week-long celebration.

March 17-22: Lloyd Oxendine Artist-in-Residence featuring Gene Locklear

The Museum of the Southeast American Indian (MSAI) will host the inaugural Lloyd Oxendine Artist-in-Residence featuring Gene Locklear.

Locklear, an enrolled citizen of the Lumbee Tribe, is a lifeline artist and former professional baseball player. He has produced works of all sizes in oils, acrylics and pencil. Locklear’s styles include realism, impressionism and abstract, with subjects that include Native American and Western figures and landscapes, professional athletes from countless sports and animals. Locklear played major league baseball with the Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees and in Japan from 1969 until retiring in 1979.

Lloyd Earl Oxendine (1942-2015), who was Lumbee and from Pembroke, devoted his art career to raising the profile of Native American art while fighting for its place within the American art canon. In 1972, he opened one of the first art galleries in SoHo in New York City, devoted exclusively to showing contemporary American Indian art. Oxendine later served as the director of Native North American Artists and curator for the American Indian Community House, where he curated more than 40 art shows.

During the residency, Locklear will participate in studio hours open to the public, co-curate an exhibit, create an exhibit based on public programming and participate in a program discussion about Southeastern American Indian art, culture, history, identity and personal legacy. Events to be held in the museum in Old Main include:

• March 17: Drop-in Studio Hours, 9 a.m.-noon and 1-2:30 p.m.

• March 18:

  • Drop-in Studio Hours, 2-4 p.m.

  • Exhibition Opening and Panel Discussion: “From the Pitcher’s Mound to the Easel: The Life and Career of Athlete and Artist Gene Locklear,” 6 p.m.

• March 19: Drop-in Studio Hours, 10 a.m.-noon

• March 20: Drop-in Studio Hours, 9 a.m.-noon

• March 21: Drop-in Studio Hours, 9 a.m. -noon

• March 22: MSAI open house and art activity, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

To learn more about the Lloyd Oxendine Artist-in-Residence, visit uncp.edu/museum. 

March 20-21: Southeast Native Studies Conference

The 20th annual Southeast Native Studies Conference will be held March 20-21 in the Museum of the Southeast American Indian in Old Main.

The conference provides a forum for discussing the cultures, histories, and contemporary experiences of Native Americans in the Southeast United States. It is a critical venue for scholars, students, community members, and all persons interested in American Indian/Native American studies in the region.

On March 20, guest speaker Dr. Lydia Jennings [Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Yoeme) and Huichol (Wixáritari)], who is an assistant professor and environmental soil scientist at Dartmouth College, will discuss Indigenous data sovereignty at 11 a.m. That evening, at 6:30 p.m., a screening of Lumbeeland, followed by a discussion with Dr. Malinda Lowery (Lumbee) and cast members, will be held in the Upchurch Auditorium at Thomas Hall.

Dr. Ashley Minner Jones (Lumbee), a community-based visual artist and folklorist from Baltimore, MD, will deliver the conference’s keynote address on Friday, March 21, at 1:30 p.m. She will discuss methods and lessons learned through her many years of collaboration with Baltimore Lumbee elders on the Baltimore Reservation Project and their current work for the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. 

To learn more about and register for the conference, visit uncp.edu/ais/snsc.

March 21: Native American Speakers Series presents Quannah Chasinghorse

Fashion model and Indigenous land protector Quannah Chasinghorse will participate in a fireside chat on Friday, March 21, at 7 p.m. in the Upchurch Auditorium in Thomas Hall as part of the Native American Speakers Series. Admission is free.

Chasinghorse is from the Han Gwich’in from Eagle Village, Alaska, and Sicangu/Oglala Lakota tribes from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. Chasinghorse is the face of a new generation of models and a powerful advocate and activist for Indigenous rights, sovereignty and representation, including justice for the movement MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People).

In all she does, Chasinghorse celebrates Indigenous practices and fashion and works to increase representation and break the trail for those following in her footsteps. Chasinghorse has walked the runway for Gucci and Chloé and starred in Calvin Klein and Chanel campaigns, among other high-end brands. She has appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle, Allure and National Geographic and was honored on Teen Vogue’s 2020 list of “Top 21 Under 21.” Chasinghorse and her mother were recently featured on an episode of Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s Apple+ TV series Gutsy, which celebrated environmental activists and was the subject of the documentary Walking Two Worlds. 

The event is sponsored by 15 Orchids Skin & Wax Studio, American Indian Heritage Center, American Indian Studies, I Love Kicks, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Metcon, Inc., Native Angels, Southeast American Indian Studies and Undergraduate Admissions.

March 22: BraveNation Powwow and Gathering

The BraveNation Powwow and Gathering (BNPG) will be held on Saturday, March 22, in the Jones Athletic Center.

Grand entry is at noon; doors open to the public at 10 a.m.

Join BraveNation as we celebrate America's Indigenous peoples' rich history and culture. The powwow and gathering features competition dancing and various art, food and information vendors. Last year, the BNPG – the largest college powwow in North Carolina – had over 2,000 people in attendance and 100 dancers.

The American Indian Heritage Center and the BraveNation Powwow and Gathering Planning Committee host the BNPG. To learn more about the BNPG, visit uncp.edu/powwow.