With events like a talk with Native American entrepreneur Joey Montoya, a celebration with President Carol Folt and a panel on Hahn Plaza, Native American Heritage Month is full of cultural celebrations across USC.
Native American Heritage Month, which spans the month of November and kicked off last Wednesday, is a time to honor and celebrate Native American traditions and ancestry.
Anthropology Professor Tok Thompson has done plenty of work in his 18 years at USC to increase Indigenous representation.
“If you’re an American citizen or have been influenced by American culture, which is most people in the world, then you’ve been influenced by Native Americans,” said Thompson.
He’s described marveling at the misinformation repeated by students about Native Americans when they first take his course.
“I get these students coming into my classes and they’re the best and brightest, right?” he said. “These are these USC students, and they’re horribly informed.”
The Native American Student Assembly, or NASA, has been working to put these events together to showcase Indigenous cultural traditions such as beadwork and bird singers. These events are open to anyone who wants to learn more about Native American culture.
NASA and other communities will present events throughout the month that are open to all students to “[come] together with community, Indigenous joy, and standing in solidarity with Indigenous peoples globally,” as stated by @uscnasa on Instagram.
Dineh Barragan, a freshman environmental studies major associated with the Gabrielino tribe, spoke about what Native American Heritage Month means to her.
“Me and my fellow classmates within NASA strive to represent our community in a meaningful way by pursuing higher education and trying our best to connect with our roots while maintaining our progress toward our degree,” Barragan said.
Thompson encouraged students who want to support Indigenous communities to take one of his classes, go to public events like Powwows and do research online.
“There’s a tremendous wealth of culture that is largely unexplored and unknown by non-natives due to our historical past,” he said.
“We know so much more about all these other places on the globe than we do in our own home country about the cultures here,” he said. “And there’s just a lot of beauty to them. There’s a lot of wonderful, wonderful things to learn philosophically, spiritually, artistically.”
To see the calendar of events and more Indigenous celebrations, visit @uscnasa on Instagram.