As Halloween festivals came to a close and a warm fall day rolled in the beginning of a new month, Nov. 1 marked the start of National Native American Heritage Month, which will be celebrated on campus through a mix of cultural events still in the scheduling phases.
According to Aaron Bird Bear, a recruitment and retention specialist at the University of Wisconsin School of Education, the Native American community on campus consists of about 300 students and 24 faculty and staff members.
Bird Bear said these individuals use the month as a means to celebrate the variety of cultures brought together by the university.
“Native American Heritage Month is a catalyst for the small American Indian campus community at the University of Wisconsin to organize and celebrate our many cultures,” said Bird Bear.
From these students, a Native student organization, Wunk Sheek, was spawned to organize events to educate the UW community about the various histories and cultures of indigenous peoples today, Bird Bear said.
Bird Bear added this group serves as a learning experience for everyone, allowing students within it to learn about other Native American cultures outside of their own.
“Of the 564 federally-recognized American Indian and Alaska Native nations, more than 40 are represented in our campus community,” Bird Bear said.
Last year, Wunk Sheek coordinated a beading workshop to educate students on different arts and crafts, said Ryan Young, the group’s co-secretary, in an email to The Badger Herald.
Young added that while the student organization does not currently have a set list scheduled, other organizations will be putting on movies throughout the month.
Bird Bear said UW students also have the opportunity to take two Native American languages to connect both indigenous and non-indigenous students to these cultures through the UW curriculum.
Young said ze believed Native American issues should be recognized outside of just these 30 days.
“As much as I respect that we have a month for native heritage, I believe that education about Native Americans should not be specific to just the month of November,” Young said.
Young also spoke on native appropriation to be seen around the UW campus, especially following this past Halloween weekend and previous year’s Freakfest pictures. Some examples Young listed include “headdresses,” “war paint,” “brown clothes with fringe” and “moccasins.”
The campus, Young said, should also recognize the importance of education on the culture’s history.
“Everyone wants free education, but not a lot of people try to learn something new in their free time,” Young said. “I also feel that this month, while positive in promoting the education of our history, continues to push us back into history books and not show current native issues.”
Young mentioned the need to break the assumption that all natives were killed and pointed to a rise in unemployment, suicide, alcoholism and illness rates for indigenous peoples as concerns warranting further community education.
November was declared National American Indian Heritage Month in 1990 by then President George H.W. Bush after the first American Indian Day in May 1916, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs website. Since 1994, the name of the month has changed several times.
In the original article, Ryan Young, co-secretary for Wunk Sheek, had male pronouns attributed to him when gender-neutral pronouns should have been used. The article has been changed so the correct pronouns are used. We regret the error.
