Courtesy SWC
By Sahra Quiroga
Native American students and staff are making up for the 60 years that Indigenous people were mostly invisible at Southwestern College in a big way.
The club Native American Students and Allies (NASA) has been the fire and energy behind several of SWC’s best attended and most beloved events of the past two years, including two ambitious community powwows and beautiful flag raising ceremonies that recognize the ancient Kumeyaay history of this region. Native Americans rightfully say that they have never gone away and remain, but NASA helps let the rest of the community know.
NASA Club President Tyson Stover said the powwows were monumental events for the South County and the Indigenous community. Held on the college’s verdant soccer field, the powwows had an international look in line with the Pan-Native Movement that encourages Indigenous People from all tribes and regions to unite to celebrate life, faith and culture in their own ways all together.
“(They were) great bonding experiences for all of us and the intertribal dancing was the highlight,” he said.
Stover said the Indigenous community is rich with wisdom and great strategies by which to lead our lives.
“In the talking circles that we do, we have many influential and wise people who give me lots of new ways to look at life and my own identity,” he said. “I finally went to a talking circle and it finally opened my eyes to the Indigenous community here at school, that’s what got me on board (NASA).”
NASA is local but thinks global, according to Vice President Melany Garcia. Club members come from an array of backgrounds with different cultures.
“This room helps us have access to history and culture related to Native American culture regardless of your ethnicity,” she said. “As a Mexican, it helps me (embrace the idea) that, as Mexicans, we are largely Native American.”
Club secretary Mark Martinez Jr agreed.
“We do a lot of engagement because we feel like asking those types of questions fosters an environment that allows learning and understanding,” he said. “As long as you come into the community with a good heart and an open mind, we’re always welcoming new information and outlooks.”
Besides their celebratory powwows and flag raising ceremonies, NASA has been active in the effort to bring light to a terrible problem – the epidemic of missing and murdered Native American women and girls. NASA has hosted the screening of a powerful documentary on the subject and brought the traveling Red Tipi to Southwestern College. The tipi is red like the blood of victims with white handprints symbolizing the missing and the dead.
American entertainment media has been slow to the cause, but the recent film “Wind River” and the television program “Dark Winds” have helped to bring it to mainstream audiences. NASA members said they will continue to elevate the issue and hope the red tipi will make an appearance at the next powwow.
Southwestern College has a burgeoning Native American Studies program led by assistant professor David Solomon. NASA works to drum up students to take the new classes and make themselves aware of Native American history and contemporary issues.
