The 27th Annual American Indian Symposium, beginning today, combines the knowledge of respected scholars and the talent of artists to teach everyone about the people who lived here before Columbus.

A special ceremony today will welcome the Indian Maidens of the Christian Petersen sculpture, “Fountain of the Four Seasons,” at 4 p.m. at the fountain north of the Memorial Union.

The sculptures have been gone since the spring of 1996 for restoration, said Irma Wilson-White, co-chairwoman of the American Indian Symposium Committee.

Wilson-White is also program assistant for minority affairs and member of the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska.

Tobasonakwut Kinew, of the Ojibway Nation of Onigaming, Sabaskong, of Ontario, Canada, will speak on the healing power of language and culture for education tonight at 8 in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

Kinew is a visiting instructor of Anishinaabe language and thought at the University of Minnesota and has led actions to improve treaty rights, language, culture and the socio-economic situation of all American Indians.

“He’s the perfect person to do something like this,” said Devery Fairbanks, temporary sociology instructor at ISU and member of the Ojibway tribe, White Earth Reservation, Minnesota. “He really is a spell-binding orator.”

Award winning Ojibway artist Jim Denomie, of the Lac Court Orielles nation, will conduct “Gallery Talk” in the Gallery Room of the Memorial Union. Denomie will give an overview of the Gallery’s art exhibit, said John Weinkein, member of the symposium committee and professor of art and design at ISU.

“It’s not what people may think of as stereotypical Indian art, like pottery,” Weinkein said of the exhibit. The show includes both contemporary and traditional works, he said.

The art exhibit will continue through Saturday.

Also on Friday, ISU alum Richard C. Lundy, interim academic dean and chairman of the Indian Studies Division for Nebraska Indian Community College and member of the Lakota tribe, will be giving the Richard Thompson Memorial Lecture at 8 p.m. in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

“He’s well-known among American Indians for education in the Midwest,” Fairbanks said.

Lundy was also co-founding president of the United Native American Student Association at ISU and a founder of the symposium.

Tobasonakwut Kinew and Richard Lundy will both be on the panel discussion about American Indian education Saturday at 9 a.m. in the Gallery Room of the Memorial Union.

Saturday night, a master of ceremonies will lead the audience in a pow-wow in the College of Design atrium at 7, Wilson-White said.

The pow-wow will include three Meskwaki drum groups and their families, she said.

All of the events, she said, are designed to help people understand American Indians and to dispel stereotypes.

“Culturally, we are changing. Culturally, we are maintaining,” Wilson-White said. “We are just like non-Indians.”