Former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell gave the opening keynote address. Asked during his college years why he wanted to participate in a government that had taken so much from Indian people, he had replied, ''Because it's the only game in town. You can hide your head in the sand or you can get active and try to make public policy better.'' Campbell served in public office for 22 years doing just that.

Campbell spoke of the ancient past, saying, ''Our ancestors were here when Socrates drank the hemlock and when Plato wrote the Iliad.''