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The Northwest College campus in Powell and the NWC Cody Center will serve as hubs for several upcoming video broadcasts and other events linked to the history of the Heart Mountain Relocation Center.
A mock trial exploring the conflicting ideologies surrounding the military draft of Japanese-Americans incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center during World War II will be broadcast live in Powell and Cody Monday, April 10.
The screenings will be held in NWC’s Fagerberg Building Room 70 in Powell and in Cody at the NWC Cody Center, located in the Park County Complex. Both showings begin at 6:30 p.m.
Hosted by the University of Wyoming’s College of Law, the Spence Law Firm Historic Trial is a mock trial created from the facts of a chronicled historic event that never actually produced a trial, but could have.
Aura Newlin, an NWC instructor of sociology and anthropology and board secretary for the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, along with NWC students Aaron Dacus, Kristie Hernandez, Quentin McHoes and Natalie Sarvey, will serve as trial jurors. UW law students will act as attorneys and former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson will preside as the trial judge.
On Tuesday, April 11, a live broadcast of a UW College of Law panel discussion “Lessons from Heart Mountain,” will be shown in conjunction with a free luncheon beginning at noon at the NWC Intercultural House, located at 565 College Dr. in Powell. Newlin, whose grandmother’s family was incarcerated at Heart Mountain, will share the stage with three other panelists. RSVP for the luncheon by 5 p.m. Monday, April 10, by calling 307-754-6424. Video from the event will also be shown at the Cody Center.
“Parallels of the Past and Present: Exploring Executive Orders,” a panel discussion about the executive order which targeted Japanese Americans 75 years ago as well as the recent executive orders imposing travel bans from certain countries, will be broadcast at the Cody Center beginning at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 11.
On Wednesday, April 12, Heart Mountain Interpretive Center Museum Manager Dakota Russell will speak in Grizzly Hall at the Cody Branch Library. His 6:30 p.m. presentation, “Remembering Heart Mountain,” will discuss the reasons the camp was built, what life was like inside, and how the effects of the Japanese-American incarceration are still felt today.
A book discussion of Eric Muller’s 2001 nonfiction work “Free to Die for Their Country,” will be held Thursday, April 13. The narrative re-creates the emotions and events that followed the arrival of draft notices to Japanese-Americans forced into detainment camps. Newlin will lead the conversation beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Powell Branch Library.
Local observance of Heart Mountain Week wraps up on Friday, April 14. The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center between Cody and Powell will offer free admission from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
For more information about Heart Mountain Week, visit www.heartmountain.org or the UW College of Law website at www.uwyo.edu/law/events/heart-mountain-events/.
Admission is free to all live-streamed events and the book discussion.