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   John Barbry (far left), director of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe’s Language & Culture Revitalization Program, leads his team in final selection of photographs for the soon-to-be-published update of The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe: It’s Culture & People. Working on the project are (from left) LCRP Lifeways instructors Donna Pierite and Elisabeth Pierite Mora and project editor Brian Klopotek, an associate professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. 
   The project will update the 1987 book and is expected to be published and available to the general public in November -- a somewhat belated observance of the tribe’s 35th anniversary of federal recognition, which was granted on Sept. 25, 1981. {Photo by Raymond L. Daye}

Tunica-Biloxi to observe 35th anniversary of federal recognition Sunday

There will be no official ceremony, no speeches, no festivities at the Tunica-Biloxi Reservation in Marksville today, but tribe members will be observing the 35th anniversary of federal recognition.
John Barbry, director of the tribe's Language & Culture Revitalization Program, said tribe members mark Sept. 25, 1981 as "the most important day in the tribe's modern history."
Tribal Chairman Joey Barbry said the tribe has never celebrated the day, but every tribal member remembers it in their heart.
The Tunica-Biloxi achieved federal recognition as a Native American tribe under the leadership of Tribal Chairman Earl Barbry Sr., the father of the current tribal chairman.