2026 NASU Summit hosted at Willamalane

This year’s Native American Student Union Summit brought together more than 70 middle and high school students for a day of reflection, networking, and creative hands-on learning. The event was held on Feb. 19 at Willamalane’s Bob Keefer Center.

This year’s event featured speaker was Roshelle Weiser-Nieto (Modoc, Yahooskin Paiute), who is the Native Youth Wellness program coordinator for Lane Education Service District.

Special guests included Sheens Puls (Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Arapaho), Leah and Rena Dunbar, Kunu Bearchum (Cheyenne, Ho-Chunk), Nicole Butler-Hooton (Siletz, Apache), and Fish Martinez (Siletz).

Aside from getting a chance to interact and make new friends, all students have access to special guests and several educational activities, including Native American drumming, Native crafts workshop, tribal history lecture, and ethnic studies discussion and the opportunity to help paint an outdoor temporary mural.

The event culminated with round dance led by Sheena Puls.

Pictured above, Native American artist Fish Martinez teaches Native drumming to middle and high school students from different backgrounds.