Embassy Events

Honoring Nations Project, Harvard University

Students from Kosice and Bratislava speak to Harvard professors about Contemporary Native American Life

In commemoration of American Indian Heritage Month, Embassy Bratislava organized a video conference between high school students in the eastern Slovak city of Kosice, students of the Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology Department at Comenius University in Bratislava and Jackie Old Coyote and Amy Besaw Medford -- two Harvard professors in Boston. Jackie Old Coyote and Amy Besaw Medford are both American Indians and leaders of the 20-year-old Harvard project on American Indian Economic Development, which is housed in the John F. Kennedy School of Government.  The students from Bratislava study under Professor Marta Botikova and the students in Kosice attend the private Roma Gymnasium headed by Anna Koptova. The discussion first started with an Indian perspective on the Edward S. Curtis exhibit currently showing at Galéria Z in Bratislava, then turned to Native American life today. While the Bratislava university students contributed to the conference with interesting questions, the high school students in Kosice -- the majority of whom are Roma -- displayed their own culture through a lively performance of traditional Romani music