Cultural center celebrates Native American Heritage Month
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/05/2009
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November is Native American Heritage Month, and Purdue’s Native American Educational and Cultural Center is hosting its “Celebrating Our History.”
The cultural center was launched in the spring of 2007 and is the newest of Purdue’s three cultural centers. The center is “devoted to creating and promoting positive relationships with and among Purdue University students, staff, and Native American communities,” according to its Web site.
The center has relationships with tribal communities to promote Purdue educational opportunities and research partnerships for Native Americans. The center is hosting activities throughout this month that are open to anyone in the Purdue community.
Tuesday was the Native American Heritage Month opening celebration. It featured a drum circle led by Tony Showa from the Navajo tribe, as well as a presentation by Kevin Welch from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. This event was also sponsored by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina.
The drum circle works to get grounded back to Mother Earth. It is meant to relieve stress by centering the person back to the earth from where they came.
Showa, in addition to leading the drum circle, spoke about respecting each other and the earth. He encouraged the audience to give silent thanks to the trees because they give freely and ask nothing in return. He encouraged the audience to be like the trees.
Whitney Winter, a senior in the College of Agriculture, was at the event for HIST 377, “Native American History,” but she said the Native American culture is interesting to her and is something she wants to learn about. Winter participated in the drum circle. She said she had stress about graduating but believes the drum circle helped.
“The drum therapy was fun. I really felt it,” she said.
Showa said that the point of Native American Heritage Month is to educate and raise cultural awareness. For Showa, he said his culture is not just centered in one month, but his way of living.
“Every breath, every step I take is part of it, not just this month,” he said.
Coming events include the viewing of “Tecumseh’s Vision,” an episode of the PBS documentary “We Shall Remain,” starting at 1 p.m. and followed by a discussion until 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 11 in Pfendler Hall.