"Mending the Circle"
Native American Conference
“Mending the Circle”
Columbia Conference Center
169 Laurelhurst Avenue
Columbia , SC 29210

Friday, November 18, 2005

Dear Cherokee Descendants , Native American Indian members, Members of ECSIUT & Enrolled members of the Cherokee Indian tribe of South Carolina:

I am forwarding the below letter from Minority Affairs Office

Please send me your name if you would like to attend  the Statewide Conference on November 18th

I need your, name, address and other contact information.

IMMEDIATELY

Thanks

Dr. Will Moreau Goins

 Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois and United Tribes of SC

(803) 699-0446

Email: TayGoinRes@aol.com

In October I sent a letter to all of the tribes and groups that I know of in South Carolina.  I have received only 7 responses out of 22 contacts. 

This is a problem.  So I am cutting and pasting the letter below, and appealing to all of you who have NOT responded to do so immediately.  We can not begin registering anyone as sponsored until we know who we have and how many we have. All of the sponsorships are not in, and there is not a tremendous outpouring of money, but we do want to be sure that each sponsorship is utilized.  I need this information immediately please, or we will have to start allowing sponsorships without all the tribes’ and groups’ input.   We may very well NOT have enough sponsorships for all 220 names, but we do want to be sure we use what we do receive.

 This is the letter I sent:

 To:                  Native American Leaders

 From:              Barbara MorningStar Paul

                        Program Coordinator

                        Native American Affairs

 Reference:    Native American Conference - “Mending the Circle”

 Date:               October 20, 2005

 As you know, the first Native American Conference - Mending the Circle will be held in South Carolina on November 18, 2005 at the Columbia Conference Center and will be an historical event.  It will allow Native American people the opportunity to interact and discuss issues that have affected the quality of their lives, and will connect Native people with agencies and businesses who may have services and opportunities that you were not aware existed. We will also hold an Honor Circle to recognize the tribes and groups that have received State Recognition for the first time in the history of South Carolina.

 We have discussed with you our belief that it is extremely important that all Native Americans who wish to attend have the opportunity to do so.  At this point, we have obtained several sponsorships, but we can not guarantee attendance for any tribe or group yet. 

However, it is critical that you compile and submit to us a list of the ten members of your organization that you would like to have sponsored to attend the event immediately so that we can register them when and if sufficient sponsorships arrive prior to the conference. 

Please list the people you are requesting in order of priority in the event that we can not sponsor all ten members of any one organization.  In other words, the first name on the list will be the first person to receive sponsorship and the tenth name will be the one that will NOT receive sponsorship if ten sponsorships are not available.

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