Native Americans at USC celebrated the Indigenous People’s Day over zoom this year.
It was not until earlier this year that USC recognized the Native American Student Union (now the Native American Student Assembly) as a cultural assembly rather than a religious group. With changes happening slowly, faculty and students begin to build cultural sensitivity in classrooms.
Moakeah Rivera, a Native American and Chicana, described her experience at USC as “interesting.” “I have a lot of outside factors to worry about, and USC has thrown me through hoops. There aren’t a lot of us, and when we present our work, even to different organizations, we’re put on the back burner or used so much we cry it out.”
Responding to what USC can do better, she recommends admitting more Native American students. “It shouldn’t be just one person representing an entire group, such as what I do oftentimes and I just can’t do that, because there are so many diverse tribes. To condemn someone to represent all of them is just a burden that no one can handle.”
Rivera, currently enrolled in the “Native Americans in American Public Life” course, said most students lack basic knowledge of history when entering that class.
"Americans lack empathy because of the cultural structure that has been set up since the beginning of ‘American history,’ " she added. “I don’t have a country or home to go back to. Most people can’t fathom the amount of Natives there were across the Northern Americas, and when we were ‘given’ land, we got the most uninhabitable [bits of land].”
Tok Thompson, the professor of “Native Americans in American Public Life,” noticed that everyone in his class is aware of the genocide in Germany. But, most do not know about the state-sponsored genocide lasting through the mid-1880s in California. The genocide targeted Native Americans and awarded those who killed a Native American.
“This is the main lesson, and struggle of my courses— how to get students to understand how incredibly wrong most of what they have learned about Native Americans actually is. America is built—very recently—on stolen ground,” he said.
Another student in the class, Carol Alata, extended her support for Native Americans and said the course changed her views about U.S History.
"I basically learned a lot of things that I would have probably never learned, either in college or within the education system that I’ve gone through. I think there are just a lot of things that just aren’t told, or only half truth, or just not true at all, as a way, kind of, erasing Native American history, " she said.
Rivera encourages people to foster cultural sensitivity by diversifying their friend groups and media consumption. “My identity is complex. There are many facets to my identity. I am a woman. I’m pansexual. I am Native American. I am Chicana. I am the daughter of an immigrant. My identity grows as I grow. My identity teaches me empathy, it is the basis to my core,” she added.
At USC, only 6% of the undergraduate student population has two or more ethnicities. “In Anthropology we learn that everyone has their own culture and has grown up in their own lives, so a way to grow cultural sensitivity is to literally get out of your comfort zone and care about others,” Rivera added.
Thompson said his class helps students build cultural sensitivity, especially toward Native Americans. “Once students begin to get past their institutionally installed blinders, they can begin to appreciate many varied and beautiful aspects of Native American cultures, including the way their own lives have been vastly influenced by Native Americans,” he said. “I’m not talking about wearing a fake eagle headdress at a rave, but rather a sustained exploration of cultural aspects, knowledge, and world views.” Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a widely taught psychology concept originated from Native American ideologies, is one example.
In the past 15 years, Thompson expressed his support to Native Americans on campus by having workshops, film watching event and working with Native American students. He also organizes pow-wow, where Native Americans meet, dance, sing, socialize, and honor their cultures.
A home of Native American students at USC and an educational resource center, the Native American Student Assembly hosted events including a frybread workshop. Rivera said the assembly is planning to expand and expecting to bond with other cultural assemblies.
There is more than learning about the real history of Native Americans. Thompson mentioned why we should also get to know the lives of modern Native Americans. “I see ideas of sustainability that have been highly developed in Native America, ideas that this world desperately needs to stave off the impending biological collapse of earth-based life.”