BROOKINGS, S.D. — Three days of events at South Dakota State University will explore the relationship between American Indians and the media.

The 17th annual American Conference on Indian Histories and Culture will take place at the South Dakota Art Museum and the Volstorff Ballroom Monday through Wednesday, March 30 – April 1. The conference is free and open to the public.

“The conference is slated to be a fine showing of indigenous scholars who have each used or engaged the mainstream media in their own way and on their own terms,” said Joseph Brewer, one of the co-coordinators of this year’s conference.

Charles Trimble will deliver the conference keynote address at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the South Dakota Art Museum Alumni Auditorium. Trimble’s theme reflects that of the entire conference, “American Indians and the Media.” Trimble, an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, was the principle founder of the American Indian Press Association.

Trimble’s keynote will be followed at 7 p.m. by the film “March Point” made by three teenage members of the Swinomish tribe about the impact of two oil refineries on their reservation.

The conference kicks off at 7 p.m. Monday at the SDAM auditorium with the film “Miss Navajo.” The film follows the experiences of Crystal Frazier, 21, as she faces the challenges of the pageant.

The final day of the conference will also be the fullest with four sessions taking place at Volstorff Ballroom B. At 10 a.m. Valerian Three Irons, a Mandan/Hidatsa and Crow, will comment on the film “Waterbuster.” Three Irons is a diversity and service-learning associate in the Office of Diversity Enhancement and the International Partnership for Service-Learning at SDSU.

Tiokasin Ghost Horse, a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota, will talk at 11 a.m. about “First Voices Indigenous Radio in New York: The City” where he has served as a journalist and host.

At 1 p.m. an American Indian student panel will discuss four films: “The Searchers,” “Peter Pan,” “Dances with Wolves” and “Smoke Signals.”

Ghost Horse will speak again at 2 p.m. His topic will be “Maintaining a Community Aspect: Indigenous Radio, an International Perspective Looking Inward.”