Many faculty members are lined up to give presentations over the next few weeks in the Campus Community Book Project. This year’s selection is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.

Other events in the next few weeks include a recent documentary film, Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, with Clint Eastwood; and a presentation by P. Christiaan Klieger, cultural anthropologist and curator at the The California Museum, where one of the featured exhibitions now under way is the 100th Anniversary of Ishi’s Discovery, referring to “California’s best known and most misunderstood native.”

Read about the UC Berkeley conference "A Century of Ishi," in this article from the university's communications team: "A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach."

As most California schoolchildren know, Ishi was labeled “the last wild Indian in North America” when he stumbled into an Oroville rancher’s barn, unable to speak English or a known Native language, on Aug. 28, 1911.

Cited for vagrancy, Ishi was held in the Butte County Jail until San Francisco anthropologists T.T. Waterman and Alfred Kroeber determined him to be from a previously unknown Yana tribe in the Deer Creek region.

Klieger’s talk, “Ishi, Kroeber, and the Pronouncement of 'Extinction' – 100 Years On,” is scheduled from 12:10 to 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, in the Mee Room at the Memorial Union.

Other programs:

• Tuesday, Oct. 25 — “Telling As Listening: Storytelling in the Moment,” with Lynette Hunter, professor, Department of Theatre and Dance. 12:10-1 p.m., Mee Room, MU.

• Thursday, Nov. 3 — Breast Cancer and the Native American Community: Historical Trauma, American Indian Women and Cancer Health Disparities,” with Marlene M. von Friederichs-Fitzwater, professor, hematology and oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, and director, Outreach Research and Education Program, Cancer Center. 12:10-1 p.m., 1222 Education Building, 4610 X St., Sacramento.

• Monday, Nov. 7 — “When Grief Is So Deep, All That You Must Do Is Laugh: Spirit and Humor in the Work of Sherman Alexie and George Longfish,” with Ines Hernandez-Avila, professor, Department of Native American Studies. 12:10-1 p.m., Mee Room, MU.

• Tuesday, Nov. 8 — Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Shields Library Instruction Lab, Room 165.

• Wednesday, Nov. 9 — “Revitalization of California Indian Languages,” with Martha Macri, professor, Department of Native American Studies. 12:10-1 p.m., Mee Room, MU.

More book project programs

Shields Library is hosting a Campus Community Book Project exhibit and the C.N. Gorman Museum is hosting an exhibition titled Double Vision: New Works by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie.

Other programs are scheduled throughout the 2011-12 academic year, which is a change from years past when most book project activities took place in the fall quarter, leading up to the author’s talk in December. The author's talk in 2011-12 is scheduled in April, book project activities are spread throughout the entire academic year, coinciding with UC Davis’ annual Powwow and Native American Culture Days.

All programs are open to the public, and all are free except the author's talk. Click here for the complete schedule.

Author's visit

Alexie's talk is scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are available online, or by visiting or calling the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787. Box office hours: noon-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and one hour before ticketed events.

The book

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is available at UC Davis Stores (formerly UC Davis Bookstores) for $9.99.

Read more about the book selection.