Native American culture highlighted this month

In America, November is most famous for being the month in which Thanksgiving is celebrated, but it is also Native American Awareness Month. This is fitting since the Pilgrims shared the first Thanksgiving with Native Americans.

President Barack Obama acknowledged the month by meeting with tribal leaders Nov. 5. He told the tribal nations that the U.S. must reverse its history with the Native Americans.

“I get it. I’m on your side,” Obama said, according to MSNBC.com.

The GCSU campus is also trying to let students know about Native American Awareness Month. The Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity has put up posters with the history of the month and various facts about the different tribes that live in the United States.

According to Dr. Ed Hale at the Office of Institutional Research there are 18 students at GCSU this year that say they are part or fully Native American. One of these is sophomore art major Sierra Busch.

Ever since she was little Busch has been exposed to the culture of her ancestors. She is part Creek, Cherokee and Choctaw and she is interested in learning about each of their cultures, she said.

Her father is very involved in the Native American community and has influenced her to be interested as well. Her father used to hold sweat room ceremonies, which Busch describes as kind of a “spiritual sauna” where they would pray and sing Native American songs. He also played drums and a Native American flute-like instrument at schools to teach children about his heritage.

Busch’s family goes to a lot of small gatherings of elders. One is in North Carolina where the elders of the tribe can talk as long as they want and they often tell stories.

“It’s a very tight-knit community,” Busch said.

Busch spent two weeks this past summer on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana where she learned about the culture and lives of the people there. She went with a group called Global Volunteers.

“I spent time volunteering there and that was an awesome experience,” Busch said.

There was a time, some say, when Native Americans shunned their culture and a lot of their language and traditions were lost. Busch believes that now is the time to change that and that observing Native American Awareness Month certainly helps. Now awareness is being raised and children are learning more and more about their ancestor’s traditions.

“I think as a part of Native American month it is important to not only celebrate Native Americans as a people, but more importantly, increase the awareness of the problems they face every day and have been facing since the white man was introduced into their culture,” Busch said.

Busch is very proud of her heritage and the culture of her ancestors, but she is humble about it. She says that she certainly does not know everything and is willing to learn more. She encourages others to learn about it as well so they can appreciate it like she does.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 13 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry