This year’s American Indian Symposium will help celebrate Iowa’s Sesquicentennial birthday. The symposium has already begun, and it lasts through April 6.

There are a lot of misperceptions and misunderstandings of American Indians in Iowa, said Paul Brooke, chairman of the symposium.

“We need to reeducate people and tell them the honest truth. When I was growing up, I didn’t know much about Indians,” Brooke said.

The American Indian Symposium began in 1971 by Richard Thompson and Donald Wanatee, two guest lecturers in this week’s events, to promote a dialogue for Native Americans and Caucasians living in Iowa. “They were trying to link the public and the settlement because there isn’t a lot of interaction with the settlement,” he said.

Brooke said the symposium tries to help educate, get rid of misperceptions and break down stereotypes.

“People need to understand that Indians have their own ways and people need to respect them. Respect is hard to teach,” Brooke said. “It takes a lot of years.”

Brooke said he has seen and heard prejudice toward Native Americans, but not necessarily at ISU. However, prejudice does exist in Iowa and “we can learn from that in a broader context,” he added.

With only 41 Native Americans at ISU, the university is “sort of insulated from some things,” but is a nicer place than others and people are more open-minded here, he said.

Sometimes people can learn about themselves by learning about other cultures and “what other people do in their lives that is different, but good and interesting,” Brooke said.

One of the events, a powwow, is being held on Saturday on the east side of Kildee Hall with the grand entries at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Brooke said he thinks the sense of friendship and healing culminates in the powwow, ceremonially speaking.

The first event of the symposium was a poetry reading with the writers series “The Woman Who Fell from the Sky,” which was held in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union last Thursday.

“We were very pleased with the turnout. It was a packed house. . . we had to bring in extra chairs,” he said.

All the events are free to the public and everyone is encouraged to attend.