Organization establishes Native American presence
PDF First-year Native American students may have difficulty adjusting to campus life, because culturally, they have different traditions and values, said Serina Cinnamon.
Cinnamon, vice president of the Native American Student Organization and a graduate student in education from Milwaukee, said without a Native American Resource Center on campus, resources such as NASO can be hard to find for first-year minority students, unless the Registered Student Organization advertises heavily.
Alejandro Franco, a member of the Omeyocan Dance Company of Milwaukee, performs a dance honoring fire Thursday in the Student Center Ballroom as a precursor to Native American Heritage Month. The Hispanic Student Council and Native American Student Organization planned this and other events, such as a bison cookout 5 p.m. Thursday at the Campus Lake Boat Dock, throughout November to celebrate the culture and heritage of Native Americans. Genna Ord | Daily Egyptian
November kicks off Native American Heritage Month, and members of NASO will host events to address issues relating to identity crisis, social status and racial segregation in the U.S. and to raise cultural awareness and increase their presence on campus.
Jo Nast, a visiting assistant professor in the School of Art and Design and former NASO faculty advisor, said although NASO caters to Native American students, it has little resources and can only accomplish so much.
“I truly believe there has to be a Native American resource center if we’re ever going to be serious about recruiting a significant number of Native American students, which I believe we can,” she said.
Peter Gitau, associate vice chancellor for Student Life and Intercultural Relations, said while the Native American student population is an important one, the resources are not available to create a center.
“We go by and have to look at the numbers of those we have, and I know that the Native American population is an important group,” he said. “It’s growing and the latest numbers I have for 2010 are 39 undergraduate students (disclosed) and two graduate students (disclosed).”
Gitau said he acknowledges the presence of resource centers for African Americans, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders, but the university has more student groups for those centers. Gitau also said the three resource centers available are relatively new on campus.
“I think the university is committed to diversity, but the way we approach this particularly in reserving space such as a resource center, we have to look at the numbers we have, and right now we just don’t have a whole lot of Native American students,” he said.
Cinnamon said regardless of the number of Native American students on campus, at the end of the day students need administrative support. Even without a resource center, Cinnamon said NASO puts on quality events during the month to bring issues to the front.
“It’s our hope and desire during Native American Heritage Month that we are putting together events that are of great quality, contemporary and speak to a broader audience,” she said.
NASO will also have events introducing traditional drumming, dance styles and food of Native American culture to inform students of the Native American presence at the university.
Nast said although Native American students may have different tribal affiliation, it helps if they know there are others like them on campus.
One way NASO helps Native American students stay close to their traditions is by collaborating with Black Affairs Council and Hispanic Student Council for events to bridge cultures together.
These events include “When Your Hands Are Tied,” a film and discussion forum to explore ways in which native youth express themselves in a contemporary world; Race and Citizenship Inside and Outside the Cherokee Nation, a lecture on issues surrounding tribal citizenship and the role of U.S. government in tribal politics; and Traditional Aztec Dancing along with many other events.
“It’s huge to have these collaborative efforts because identity issues are a big deal with contemporary Native Americans today,” Nast said. “There’s all kinds of ethnic backgrounds these Native American students are part of as well.”
NASO President Nichole Boyd, a graduate student in history from Chicago, said the organization wants to bridge cultures through these events because people indigenous to the areas of Canada and Mexico are considered distant relatives to Native Americans.
“It’s a concept to think of these continents without borders,” she said. “Just because the government decided to draw a line straight across the border of Mexico doesn’t mean that certain tribes didn’t live on those boundaries.”
Nast said the collaborative efforts, which focus on identity crisis, citizenship and racial segregation are creative and raise awareness outside of the Hispanic, African-American and Native American communities.
“There’s a lot of misinformation and other things,where one (ethnic) group doesn’t know about the other, and so I think these crossover events are very important and very valuable,” she said.
