Holidays are a usually a time for celebration, unification and great food. Native Americans at Dartmouth recognizes this but asks that people take into consideration the reasons behind the merriment.
In last night's two-hour event titled "501 Years of Survival: A Celebration of Native Cultures," Native American students met in Brace Commons to cook food, play music and recite poetry that expressed the richness of surviving Native cultures, while at the same time encouraging people to think about the social implications of honoring the Columbus Day holiday.
As a tape of tribal music played, the festivities began with a feast, including Native culinary treats from across the country. The main course was an Indian taco of fried bread, chili and vegetables, which according to NAD member Nicole Adams '95, is a food common to various tribes. This was accompanied by corn soup, a specialty of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Some of the foods, which are not readily available in this area of the country, had to be shipped for the occasion. Smoked salmon and delicately sweet huckleberries, specialties of the Northwest, arrived in a shipment from Adams' mother in Washington state.
Reflecting NAD President Lloyd Lee '94's call for "peaceful coexistence," The Occom Pond Drummers, a group of Native American, performed music that Mishuana Goeman '94 described as Pan-Indianism because of its universality.
According to Sonny Baker '95, a Comanche student from the Midwest and member of the drumming ensemble, the lively music included a variety of songs, some with no words and others with lyrics in both Native and English tongues. A few pieces were part of the 49 songs, an intertribal musical series traditionally sung after a Pow-Wow by a gathering of Native Americans from a variety of tribes.
Baker was joined by Shawn Attakai '95, Lisa Cain '96, Chris Newell '96 and Woody VanderHoop '96, who sat in a circle and simultaneously rapped Attakai's authentic Navajo drum.
For a change of pace, Goeman performed "jumping through the hoops of history (for columbus, custer, sheridan, wayne and all such heroes of yesteryear"), a monologue by Native American writer Susan Harjo.
The impassioned piece consisted of a four women chorus singing "10 little, 9 little, 8 little Indians ... the only good Indian's a dead 1" while Goeman noted that Native Americans "read America's history where they weren't or were only bad news" and after a list of injustices against Native peoples, tauntingly wished everyone to "have a very nice Columbus year."
The moving piece, which left the audience in silence, was followed by Sherilyn Roanhorse '95's reading of NAD's statement concerning the celebration of Columbus day, which asks the Dartmouth community to recognize diversity, the likes of which was exhibited throughout the celebration.
The drummers returned to center stage to play the round dance. Nehomah Thundercloud '97 and Athena Pheasant '96 encircled the musicians, moving to the steady beat of the music and sporting brightly colored shawls with fringes that danced around their legs.
The music ended on a positive note as did the evening. The overall result was a celebration, which included a mix of fun and thoughtfulness. The message, in Lee's words, was to be "respectful and considerate" of other cultures.
