Sun Staff Reporter
When Northern Arizona University's Frank Dukepoo first thought of the idea of an honors society for Native Americans, he didn't want to include students with a 2.5 grade point average or 2.9 or even 3.9.
No, for Dukepoo nothing less than perfect would do.
So the honors students that showed up at Friday night's National Native American Honor Society's third annual induction and awards banquet, all had 4.0's.
And it wasn't an empty room. Some 600 students with perfect GPA's showed up, along with their parents and relatives, nearly packing the NAU Field House.
"Some people didn't think it was a good idea, to only include 4.0 students," said Lee Cannon, who intro duced the guest speaker, famous Native American actor Iron Eyes Cody. "But Frank's idea was that these kids should aim for anything anyone else could do."
It seems to have paid off. There were 850 people in attendance from 69 high schools, as well as students from elementary school through college.
Tribes primarily from the four comers area of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado were in attendance. There were Apaches, Navajos, Zunis, Choctaws, Cherokees and Cheyennes, among others, enjoying the food and entertainment, which included Native American songs and skits.
Eleanor Gorman of Tsaile, Arizona, on the eastern half of the Navajo Reservation, drove three hours to get to the conference, to watch her grand-daughter receive recognition for perfect grades.
Iron Eyes Cody
Gorman said the best thing about the banquet was not that it was for Native Americans, but that it was put together by Native Americans. "I think it's important for children growing up to understand that they have their own people organizing this," Gorman said. "At this level, this is very important. Dukepoo, a Hopi, launched the Native American Honor Society in the Oklahoma area in 1989. That year, about 150 Native American high school and college students qualified for membership. A year later, 300 students-were honored at a bash at the University of Oklahoma. At the first awards banquet in the Four Comers Area, in 1990, the society expanded to include elementary school and secondary school students on the honor role. They began with 125 students from 20 schools. Still, Dukepoo thought the banquet needed some celebrity status and so invited the 85-year-old character actor Cody to speak at this year's banquet.