[ Golden Gater Online - October 14, 1997 ]
Anthony Chu
Staff writer
While the American government observed Columbus Day, American Indians at SF State were reminding students that this day should be remembered for a decidedly different history.
A performance by Friendship House Drum kicked off a cultural celebration shortly before noon Monday. The beating of the drums serves as the heartbeat of life, said Michelle Maas, an Anishinabe Indian and a coordinator of the event, and that drumming usually brings in people from "all walks of life."
It certainly did.
Many students who went to the student union for lunch or were heading to their next class stopped at the Malcolm X Plaza to listen to Native American cultural music. As many as a hundred audience members sat on the grass and enjoyed the music while intermittent crowds of students came and went.
Sponsored by the First Nation of Higher Achievement Wisdom and Knowledge, a new American Indian organization on campus, the group celebrated Indigenous People's Day with music, poetry and food. According to organizers, the event was a success.
Indigenous People's Day is a day of celebration across the country, honoring the struggle American Indians endured for more than five centuries and celebrating that their history, language and culture remains intact. While there are hundreds of separate Indian tribes and different cultures, Native Americans collectively organized to remind the world of this truth: Western history did not begin when Columbus landed in America.
"The reason for making this Indigenous People's Day," said Dennis Jennings, a community activist from the Sauk and Fox tribe, "is because the process that was started 505 years ago still goes on on Indian land, in the Amazon, in the Arctic Circle and on Conga land as far away as Africa and Southeast Asia."
"Still, tribal people from all over the world defend themselves against so-called progress," he said.
During the celebration, Nanette Bradley Deets, a Cherokee Indian who is active in H.A.W.K.S, read a poem she wrote in honor of Barney Hoehner, a SF State faculty member who died recently.
Sam Levi, president of the Pacific Islanders Club and co-founder of Tao Omega Alpha, spoke in support of the American Indians. He has lived in Samoa most of his life, and said the diversity at SF State helped him meet other people.
"I appreciate the existence of the many people different in color, different in race because today is your day," Levi said.
"We honor this land; we honor these people, because this is their land," Levi said to the audience. "As a visitor all the way from across the Pacific Ocean -- 5,000 plus miles -- I am honored to say, to the natives of this land, I respect you and I take my hat off for you."
Other entertainers included folk singer Jesse Nighthawk and rapper Heath St. John. The size of the crowd increased with each successive musical presentation.
Fred Short, a Chippewa Indian and a member of the American Indian Movement, gave a prayer and a short speech after the drumming. He invited the audience to join a march to Sacramento later this month in protest of Proposition 209 and other perceived injustices for not only American Indians, but other disenfranchised groups.
Maas stressed that many issues that have gotten the public's attention are part of a bigger picture and should not be discussed individually. But she said the implementation of Prop. 209 has many Native Americans concerned about the future decline of American Indian college students.
Maas estimated that there are 200 to 250 students who identify as Native Americans at SF State. According to records from the University and Budget office, the number of Native American students enrolled at SF State averages about 1 percent. In 1996, the last year the statistics were available, 43 undergraduates enrolled, although 156 applied and the university accepted 111 students.
"I would say that a 1-percent Native population is average at most major universities," said Amanda Griffin, member of the Cherokee Nation and acting chair of the Native American Student Union at UC Davis. "Since there are so few native students at any major university, I think that Native (American) students choose a school based on the program they are interested in."
Griffin chose to go to UC Davis because she was interested in the science program and because the school was close to her parents' Concord home, but she knows a lot of Native American students who choose to go to trade schools or public or tribal community colleges.
"This decision is based on the level of preparation a student has out of high school, and if they think that they can succeed at a four-year university right away," she said.
At UC Davis, according to Griffin, there are programs that help American Indians enroll and move into university life, including a project where continuing students call to encourage new students to attend UC Davis. Stanford University, which has similar outreach programs, reported its retention rate for American Indian students is 90 percent.
The department of Administration and Interdisciplinary studies runs the American Indian Outreach program at SF State. Aside from the outreach program and First Nation H.A.W.K.S, there are several other resources Native American students can participate in, such as The Student Kouncil for Inter-Tribal Nations, American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the American Indian Journalism Association.
"All people of color are facing declining numbers in this nation's universities, especially in California," said Griffin. "The decline in Native students is a very serious and damaging trend."
Eradicating institutionalized inequities will only begin when an institution acknowledges history, according to organizers.
"(University president) Robert Corrigan is always talking about diversity on campus and his dedication to make this a truly multi-cultural environment," said Maas, who wants Corrigan to declare Oct. 13 Indigenous People's Day rather than Columbus Day, as the Associated Students did several years ago.
"That's where (Corrigan) could put his money where his mouth is," she said.
[ Golden Gater - October 14, 1997 ]