Aya ceeki neehi meentitohkaalilakakoki weehki-kihkatwe
‘Greetings and welcome to a New Year!’

The Myaamia Center staff just returned from our winter stomp and storytelling in Oklahoma and are still dusting off from all the activities. It was such a great pleasure to see so many relatives, students, and staff from all over our homelands and beyond. Our winter gathering just keeps getting bigger each year!

Now we turn our attention to the spring semester, our tribe students, and the upcoming Myaamiaki Conference. It looks like another busy semester for all of us here at the Myaamia Center. Our conference is shaping up nicely with registration open on our website - please register here. This year we will celebrate our 10th biennial Myaamiaki Conference. Our first conference was held in 2004 but since we had to cancel one of our conferences in 2020, we will be holding our 10th conference on May 4th, 2024. In 2022 we had approximately 300 in person and 200 joined virtually and we anticipate an equal number this year.

For those of you who will be attending in person, remember to visit the Minohsayaki: Painted Hides exhibit at the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum here on campus. A collaboration between the Myaamia (Miami) and Peewaalia (Peoria) communities, supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the Humanities Without Walls Consortium, which is administered by the University of Illinois, the exhibit explores the revitalization of hide painting and the use of geometric designs that link culture, history, and stories among the Myaamiaki and Peewaaliaki.

We are all looking forward to this semester and engaging with our friends and family as we bring in this new year.

Kikwehsitoole ‘respectfully’

Daryl