November is Native American Heritage Month, and at the University of Idaho it’s about educating the community on Native American culture and people, said Steve Martin, director of UI Native American Student Center.
“We as Indian people, don’t celebrate our Indian identities or heritage or cultures just once a year in the month of November,” Martin said. “It’s our livelihood. It’s what we do. It’s who we are. We celebrate who we are as Indian people every day of our lives. So Native American Heritage Month is just an opportunity to share with others.”
Effie Hernandez, Native American Student Association treasurer and UI freshman, said she appreciated seeing non-Native students participating in the month’s events.
“It’s a good thing, because they get to learn something about our culture, and different other cultures,” Hernandez said. “We are the same as anyone else. We are people here. And if you come with a good, open mind and you just want to come here and hang out, we’ll be welcoming.”
Preserving Native culture has been hard in the past, Hernandez said.
“We’re coming back,” Hernandez said. “I hope people embrace more into learning about our culture.”
Several events at UI have or will celebrate Native American culture this month.
HooPalousa
The English department is sponsoring HooPalousa ,a 5-on-5-basketball tournament between teams made up of distinguished authors and tribal leaders at 7:30 p.m. today in Memorial Gym.
Kim Barnes, UI English professor, said the event started as a way to bring successful authors to Moscow to speak to her creative writing master’s class.
“Sherman Alexie, an internationally known writer, film maker, and also a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian said, ‘I’ll come over for basketball and books,'” Barnes said. “When Sherman was on board, it just started steamrolling.”
Barnes said with Alexie’s involvement, the tribal leaders and community accepted the invitation to take part.
“So what it turned into was serious fun for a serious cause,” Barnes said. “A jump-start for the American Indian graduate fellowship for creative writing.”
Barnes said the event should bring the Moscow community together.
“It is a celebration of that place where basketball and books and their role in Native American culture comes together,” Barnes said.
The Native American Student Association will sell concessions, and the Vandal Nation Singers will open the event.
Indigenous concert and Native American art auction
The Native American Student Center auctioned Native artwork to benefit the UI Native American Scholarship Fund Friday, and also sponsored American blues-rock group Indigenous in concert.
Mato Nanji of the South Dakota Nakota Nation and leader of the band said he appreciated how the focus of the event was to help Native students attend college.
“A lot of Natives that grow up on a reservation have a hard time preparing for college,” Nanji said. “Whether it’s the politics or whatever, a lot of Natives have trouble getting the inspiration to go to school.”
Nanji said he had a good time at UI.
“Just doing a show like that — it’s really cool being a part of something like that,” he said.
One of the goals for Native American Heritage Month is to show people how Native Americans are part of the present as well as the past, Martin said.
“We are living here in contemporary times,” Martin said. “We are educators, doctors, lawyers, musicians. We are still artists, but through it all, we still celebrate our culture.”
Tribal foods event
Native American students and faculty held a tribal foods event Monday at St. Augustine’s Catholic Center on campus.
“Not all of them are what you consider traditional,” Martin said. “Native peoples have contributed throughout this world’s history when it comes to food. So it’s just a way for others, and for us as well, to have a taste of what our tribal foods are. Whether we got, you know, a dish from Navajo students, Nez Perce students, or I’m from Oklahoma.”
Not all the dishes brought in by the university’s Native population are old, Martin said.
“We will definitely have some that we grew up on,” Martin said. “It’s definitely an educational piece for others, but it’s also a way of having a good meal before the fall break.”
Following Native American tradition, Martin opened the meal by inviting the elders to be served first.
The dishes included elk stew, salmon dip and fry bread.
Charlene Weatherwax, a Nez Perce UI student, said the fry bread was not a traditional dish until after Native Americans were moved to reservations.
“We worked with what we had on the reservations. When we weren’t allowed to leave the reservations to hunt.” Weatherwax said.