It is important to support American Indian cultural traditions among all people, said a pioneering American Indian Friday night.

A crowd of more than 150 people listened in the Sun Room in the Memorial Union as Ada Deer gave her presentation of “Indigenous People: Bringing Traditions Into the Next Seven Generations.” The prominent Menominee Indian Tribe member of was guest speaker for the 2001 Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture as part of the 30th Annual Symposium on the American Indian.

Deer spoke about moral and legal challenges American Indians have faced in past and present cultural clashes.

“American Indians were the first people in the country, and the last people to receive citizenship,” she said.

A pioneer among American Indians, Deer was the first member of her tribe to graduate from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the first female director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the history of the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.

Deer spoke on environmental issues such as the debate over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska and the rapidly decreasing salmon population in Oregon.

“The pressures are never gonna stop,” she said. “Land, water, timber, fish – other people want what the natives have. The challenges are there for all of us to undertake.”

Deer said she is unhappy with the profile American Indians are given.

“Indian programs need to be nurtured by administration, who make it possible for the faculty to do work,” she said. “If this is a multicultural world, we have the means for this to occur. Everybody can make a difference and can discover new truths.”

Katie Theisen, senior in environmental science and president of the Student Environmental Council, attended Deer’s lecture.

“Dealing with Native American issues ties very closely with the environment, she said. “The Native Americans have lived so closely with the land for so long.”