Students meet to talk about environment

This weekend, over 100 environmentally conscious high school and college students gathered at the University for the Eastern Bays Student Environmental Action Coalition's regional conference. Gail Chehak, a Native American of the Climouth tribe, kicked off the weekend conference with her keynote speech entitled "Indigenous America: The Last 500 Years, the Next 500 Years." "Environmental awareness is key to the survival of American Indians," Chehak said. "The environment means so much more to native peoples." Chehak, who urged the students to get involved in environmental and Indian culture protection organizations praised the students for holding the conference. "These people here at the conference are primarily interested in saving the environment," she said. "I think that they realize that by doing so they are helping to save the American Indian population." Chehak said that she opposes celebrating Columbus Day because it labels the explorer a "hero" when she said he was actually the leader of genocide. "It's hard for me to imagine these tiny little white men coming out of this ship and these strong Indian people falling at their feet," she said. "Columbus was able to take advantage of the unsuspecting Indians, not because they were weak, but because they trusted him. To make him a hero is really a sad commentary about our country." Chehak's comments also centered around the serious problems Indians have encountered since the first European landing in 1492. She said that 80 million Indians were killed by 1510 and that by 1960 only 250,000 Indians remained in the United States. Chehak said that in recent years there is a "new type of Indian massacre" in which "teenage Indians are killing themselves at four times the rate of the national white average." College senior Elise Granek, who is a member of the Penn Environmental Group, said Chehak's speech adressed important national issues. "I've been interested in the subject for a while and this speech reflected many of the things I've looked into in the past," Granek said. The conference featured numerous seminars and workshops and on several subjects including Indians and America's forests. It particularly focused on organizing grassroots groups to promote change.