American Indians revisit roots at UNL POWWOW from page 1 out each category of dance. A powwow was originally an American Indian ceremony to cure disease or assure success in a war. It was full of feasting and dancing. Lawrence Cook, Grant’s grandfather and an elder, said the powwow was a way of celebrating the creations of the earth. The designs on the costumes, he said, represented those creations. Powwows are held almost every weekend year-round some where in the country, Grant said. These powwows still celebrate creation, but also focus on six cat egories of competitive dance. Over two days, the powwow brought nearly 500 dancers and spectators to campus. “There’s no other event that brings this many Indian people to this university,” said Helen Long Soldier, education specialist in the Multicultural Affairs office and president of Nebraska Indian Education Association. Long Soldier hoped the event would help in the recruitment of American Indian students to the university. The powwow also gave non American Indians an opportunity to learn about the culture, Grant said. Oscar Baeza has attended the powwow since his freshman year and said the atmosphere is “just amazing.” “The feeling is overwhelming - it’s indescribable,” Baeza, a junior psychology major, said. Jim Johnston, an Omaha resi dent who ran a booth at the event, has traveled to powwows across the country, selling beads and other materials for costumes. “I get to see a part of a culture most people don’t even see exist,” he said. And, Johnston said, this part of the culture will continue to be important. “The longer they have the pow wow, the more they preserve their culture.” HIV infection rampant in Africa, expert says ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — More than 20 million people in sub Saharan Africa carry the virus thal causes AIDS, and most of them don’t even know it, an expert told an international conference Sunday. “The situation in this region is unprecedented,” said Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the U.N Program on HIV/AIDS. Piot was addressing the opening session of the 10th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa, a five-day gathering bringing togeth er hundreds of researchers who will discuss methods for stemming the disease’s spread on the continent. French President Jacques Chirac also was to address the gathering. A UNAIDS report released two weeks ago estimated 30.6 million live with HIV or AIDS globally, two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa. One in every 13 men and women between the ages of 15 and 49 are carriers of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Piot said. But he said that UNAIDS esti mates that nine out of 10 people don’t know they are infected and therefore never seek medical assis tance or arrange care for themselves and their children when they become ill. The developing world’s lack of access to the latest, and most expen I 6( Only a very small proportion of people in the developing world have access to (the latest) treatments!’ Peter Piot UNAIDS executive director sive, treatments plays a major role in the spread of the disease in Africa, according to Piot. He noted that many industrialized countries were seeing a drop in AIDS deaths as a result of new therapy whose price is far beyond the reach of most Africans. “Only a very small proportion of people in the developing world have access to these treatments,” Piot said. The solution, Piot said, is an “unprecedented global effort” to make drugs more accessible in developing countries, and to improve health services so that more people can be tested and respond early to the disease. United States Navy Serving America Twice 1-800-USA-NAVY www.navyjobs.com tHMoh rrom page 1 manager, said customers like the all university-made, hand-wrought nature of the boxes, which become more popular each year. The Dairy Store, now celebrating its 80th anniversary, started making the gifts between 30 and 40 years ago, she said. But the operation wasn’t as large back then. In the last decade, the store began aggressively marketing the gift boxes by sending a mail-order form to every person who has ordered a cheese box during past holiday seasons, Vokoun said. The list started at 2,000 names, but now reaches nearly 5,000. The store still sells some boxes from a refrigerator case decked with Christmas wrap and tinsel, but the ■" ■ ■■■ - _ majority now are mail-ordered and shipped. Yet few corporations mass order the gifts, she said. Instead, individual Nebraskans interested in supporting the state and the university- or in dis playing their Cornhusker pride - make up most of the mail-order cus tomers. Those customers often ask store employees to include “some really weird notes” in the gift boxes, Vokoun said. “They’ll say, ‘To Pookie’ or some thing,” she said. Other notes have read, “Here’s another winner from Nebraska,” or, “Eat this while you’re watching us win.” “Sometimes, we’ll get a chuckle over them,” Vokoun said. When the hand-crafted boxes are shipped out, stuffed with their per sonal notes and locally made goodies, the not-for-profit Dairy Store counts $125,000 in revenue—more than half the amount needed to operate annual - Laurie Keller, general dairy plant manager, said competition to sell the boxes has increased from other local vendors over the years, especially from large wholesalers like Sam’s Club. But the store continues to improve both its cheese box sales and its plans to make the box contents more appetizing, she said. Next year, some boxes may include tortilla chips made on East Campus. Then, sales could top 9,000 boxes, Keller said. “It’s small potatoes for major companies, but a good deal for us.” Chr1 out _www.unl.edu/DailyNeh/ . tt childreach U S. MEMBER OT S IKTCRNATIONAL To learn more about Childreach, please call 1-800-599-9797 or write: Childreach, Dept. U304 155 Plan Way Warwick. R102886 ChiUira-h »a JL. i;W 11 Wf f lO \JJ ItU Where lifetime relationships begin. FOR A COMPLIMENTARY ENGAGEMENT PACKAGE, CALL 1.800.642. GIFT ■' .. .f ■*' ■ ■ .-' • BORSHEIMS. A Berkshire Hathaway Company Regency Court, 120 Regency Parkway, Omaha (402) 391-0400 (800) 642-GffT