Before they performed on Wednesday, November 13, at USC for Native American Heritage Month, the Torres-Martinez Bird Singers, a Cahuilla-style music group, had performed the previous week at the Clippers game. Earlier in the year, they performed alongside Blur at Coachella, where their tribes originate.
According to Derek Duro, one of the group’s vocalists, Gwen Stefani complained about them taking too long onstage. Their first thought: “This is our land.”
For the second time on campus, the Student Equity and Inclusion Programs (SEPI) office and the Native American Student Assembly (NASA) celebrated Native American Heritage Month in Hahn Plaza next to the Tommy Trojan statue with speakers and performances from the Torres-Martinez Bird Singers, returning from last year’s event.
“Native American Heritage Month is not only about reflection but also action,” said Caroline Bhalla, a doctoral student and commissioner for the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission. “It offers us all a chance to listen, to learn and to support Native American communities in our ongoing fight for justice, self-determination and cultural preservation.”
After rain plagued last year’s event, NASA celebrated Native American Heritage Month the same year their senior class of eight students graduated. Dylan Goodwill, the senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions, remembers when the organization struggled to be recognized by USC.
“I’ve been here since 2019, when our organization wasn’t even considered an organization, and so we had to petition for the right to be even considered a cultural organization,” Goodwill said. “So to come from there all the way to now, being able to have a university-wide celebration means a great deal.”
Native American students make up less than 1% of the student body at USC, the smallest demographic across all degree programs following students of unknown origin. Out of the incoming freshmen for the fall of 2024, Native American and Pacific Islander students made up less than 1%.
“My very first student that I admitted had actually graduated this last May, which was amazing,” Goodwill said. “And then came our biggest class of eight to 10 students who now shuffled around, and that has been the biggest increase we’ve ever had of Native students. To see them now coming into their senior year, and having a 100% retention rate of that class is unheard of.”
On top of the songs from the Torres-Martinez Bird Singers, the event also hosted information booths from NAPL, SEIP, the credit union and NASA itself. Also at the event were free cookies and tote bags for the student and faculty attendees, who mingled before and after. USC President Carol Folt was also in attendance.
“It’s a time to honor our resilience and our culture and our stories, especially for our ancestors and our families, our communities and particularly to our Native students here,” said Claradina Soto, an associate professor teaching population and public health sciences. “It’s also a time to educate our experiences from challenges and from stereotypes, from violence, from being displaced and the impacts of colonialism [and] colonization.”
Although dedicated to all Indigenous people, the event acknowledged the Gabrielino/Tongva land on which USC is located. USC also occupies the land of the Chumash, Tataviam, Serrano, Cahuilla, Juaneno and Luiseno people across Los Angeles.
Daniel Williams, a senior who grew up on a Navajo reservation in southeastern Utah, is one of the eight students graduating this year. Williams finds that pushing for awareness takes time, so much so that hanging up the Native American Heritage Month flags took time.
“We didn’t have these initiatives or these events kind of centering or raising awareness towards our community,” Williams said. “So I’m really glad that the younger folks get to step up, show out in their traditional regalia, and enjoy one another’s company.”