CORVALLIS — A new Native American Philosophy lecture series will start at the beginning of the spring term at Oregon State University and spotlight the work of 11 distinguished Native American writers, performers or political leaders through early June.

The series is sponsored by the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature and the Written Word, the departments of Ethnic Studies and Philosophy, the Native American Collaborative Institute, the Hundere Endowment for Religion and Culture and the USDA Forest Service.

“The project will provide a place where Native voices will be heard and carefully considered,” said Kathleen Dean Moore, a professor of Philosophy, who along with OSU ethnic studies professor Kurt Peters is one of the organizers of the project.

“Music, poetry, discussion and storytelling can help us all re-examine what we most deeply believe about who we are in the world and what sustains us physically, emotionally and spiritually.”

All lectures are scheduled for Wednesday evenings and will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Gilfillan Auditorium on the OSU campus.

Lecture series events are as follows:

April 4: Leslia Marmon Silko (Laguna/Pueblo), poet and novelist

April 11: Kurt Peters (Blackfeet/Powhatan), OSU professor in ethnic studies

April 18: Ishmael Hope (Iñupiaq/Tlingit), playwright, actor and storyteller

April 25: Wilma Mankiller (Cherokee), former chief for the Cherokee Nation

May 2: Deanna Kingston (King Island Inupiaq), OSU professor in anthropology, member of Northwest Iñupiaq Dancers

May 9: Jeanette Armstrong (Okanagan), educator, activist, artist

May 16: J. Carlos Peinado (Mandan/Hidatsa), film director

May 23: Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), poet, fiction writer, playwright, essayist

May 30: Allison Davis-White Eyes (Kiowa/Cheyenne/

Muskogee Creek), poet and coordinator of the OSU Indian Education Office with Mitchel Wilkinson (Osage), ecologist and storyteller

June 6: Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach (Kalapuya), Native flute musician