A taste of Native culture


UNITY midyear conference
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The United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY) hosted its' midyear conference in Mesa this past weekend, bringing scores of students from across the United States to participate in Native youth leadership exercises and to build community amongst Native youth.

The three day conference was supported in part by the Arizona State University American Indian Initiatives, the Yavapai Apache Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe and 12News. UNITY, in its 40th year, seeks to foster the spiritual, mental, physical and social development of American Indian and Alaska Native youth and to help build a strong, unified, and self-reliant Native America through greater youth involvement. Sessions featured subjects from environmental advocacy to budgeting for young adults and the importance of voting. The local Mesa Strength Youth Council also invited students attending to a "Taste of the Southwest," encouraging visitors to learn about different Arizona tribe's food and drinks from prickly pear preserves of the Hualapai to the Pascua Yaqui's atole.