Program date: Jan. 31, 2025
Air date: Feb. 3, 2025
From the City Club of Eugene:
Every community needs to raise the leaders of the future to ensure continuity in its values and culture. The University of Oregon has a robust, collaborative program with the various tribes in Oregon. UO offers specific programs for Indigenous students, including an array of activities at the Many Nations Longhouse. These programs nourish skills preparing students to assume leadership roles in tribal governance and in the wider society.
In this program recorded at the Many Nations Longhouse on the University of Oregon campus, you will learn about tribal governance and the UO’s programs developing leaders. You will also meet two of the students who already have leadership roles on campus.
Speakers:
Te’e Philips Brown is a member of the Pauma Band of Mission Indians. He is a second-year student majoring in linguistics and Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) at the University of Oregon. He comes from the Pauma reservation located in Pauma Valley, in SW California. He chose to attend UO because he wanted to study in a place where he would feel represented and make a difference. He is the 2024-2025 Mr. Indigenous at UO.
Christina Thomas is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, from both Wasco and Warm Springs tribes, and grew up on the Warm Springs reservation in Oregon. She is a third-year student majoring in Human Anatomy and Physiology, with minors in Chemistry and NAIS, and a pre-med focus. She serves as the 2024-2025 Cultural Ambassador at UO, as well as the lead Assistant Steward of the Long House, and a co-director of the Women’s Wellness and Marginalized Genders program. She also works part time as a medical assistant.
Jason Younker, PhD, is the Chief of the Coquille Tribe, located in Southwestern Oregon, and the Assistant Vice President and Advisor to the President on Sovereignty and Government-to-Government Relations at the University of Oregon. He earned a PhD in Anthropology from the UO (2004) and taught at Rochester Institute of Technology for a decade before returning to Oregon. Younker received the prestigious Ely S. Parker Award from the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (2014) for his work with tribal governments and students in higher education. He is the Past-President of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists and is originally from Coos Bay, Oregon.
About the City Club of Eugene:
The mission of the City Club of Eugene is to build community vision through open inquiry. The Club explores a wide range of significant local, state, and national issues and helps to formulate new approaches and solutions to problems. Membership is open to all, and Club members have a direct influence on public policy by discussing issues of concern with elected officials and other policy makers. The City Club’s mailing address is PO Box 12084, Eugene, OR 97440, and its website is cityclubofeugene.org.
Video and Broadcast
This program will be live streamed, and the videotape will be made available on the City Club of Eugene’s Facebook page and You Tube Channel, in addition to our website. It will be broadcast on Monday, Feb. 3, at 7:00 p.m., on KLCC 89.7 FM.
Contact: For more information, visit CityClubOfEugene.org.