{"id":22050,"date":"2025-05-26T15:33:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T21:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/class-of-2025-leads-the-way-for-indigenous-graduation-regalia\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T21:33:46","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T21:33:46","slug":"class-of-2025-leads-the-way-for-indigenous-graduation-regalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/class-of-2025-leads-the-way-for-indigenous-graduation-regalia\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2025 leads the way for Indigenous graduation regalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Farmington
Farmington High School graduate Tayen Johnson (Din\u00e9), center, celebrates with her family at the conclusion of the commencement ceremony on Tuesday, May 20, at Hutchison Stadium. Curtis Ray Benally\/for New Mexico In Depth\/High Country News<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The cliff fendlerbush\u2019s blooms offered countless nibbles for one hungry young deer. Its mother watched the feast from several steps away, on the other side of a nature path crossroad below Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Getting impatient, or perhaps not feeling worried, the elder deer headed off to the Animas River and left her child behind in the bush to find its own way. Sooner or later, all parents have to let their offspring go. In the human world, we often call this \u201cgraduation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downriver in New Mexico, near an entrance to the football stadium where thousands would watch Farmington High School\u2019s graduation ceremony, Keira Manuelito quickly sold eight of the translucent starry light balloons she had made with the help of her cousin, Ashlyn Chee. An older white woman desperately wanted to purchase number nine: \u201cI need one for the valedictorian \u2013 he\u2019s my nephew, I only have $5 cash.\u201d But Keira stood firm: The balloons were $10. The lady was persistent. Keira\u2019s mom, Valerie Benally, stepped in, took the lady\u2019s money, gave her the balloon and handed her daughter an extra $5. \u201cHere, now you\u2019re even,\u201d she said, pointing to the next person with $20 in hand and no need of change to buy the last balloon.<\/p>\n

The trip to Farmington had been a surprise; Benally wanted to encourage her daughter\u2019s balloon-selling enterprise. That morning, they left their home in Twin Lakes on the Navajo Nation and drove east to Crownpoint to deliver a turquoise cluster bracelet that Benally had made for a graduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like that they are here to get experience talking to people and seeing others,\u201d she said about her daughter\u2019s balloon selling venture.<\/p>\n

Blossoming flowers and graduation ceremonies showcase seasonal changes that celebrate the individual in the midst of the larger group: the bright bud on the fendlerbush, the high school senior wearing a cap beaded with colors on The Medicine Wheel amid a sea of green caps and gowns and tassels.<\/p>\n

\"Beaded
Beaded cap and feather of Farmington High School graduate Andre Slim at the commencement ceremony on Tuesday, May 20, at Hutchison Stadium. Curtis Ray Benally\/for New Mexico In Depth\/High Country News<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In New Mexico, graduation is central to the colonial experiment shared by the Apache, Din\u00e9, Pueblo and people who have lived and taught in the area for time immortal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy graduation is all love for my family and their support,\u201d Farmington High School graduate Landon Sombrero said, clutching his Pendleton-design stole and the graduation lei his aunt, Amy Poyer, had made for him, using Mini Cheetos Crunchy Flamin\u2019 Hot chip bags and Sour Patch Kids boxes. \u201cI\u2019m going into welding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation\u2019s what helps us here with our Native people,\u201d Poyer said. \u201cIt just adds to us \u2013 it adds how far we can go. It shows that they can\u2019t keep us down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class of 2025 is taking its role in this transition and leading in a new way. The students\u2019 ideas might seem simple \u2013 perhaps showing up for graduation wearing your grandma\u2019s squash blossom necklace or sporting the lei your aunt made from your favorite snacks.<\/p>\n

But something simple can still be very fragile \u2013 especially something that is everything to you.<\/p>\n

Viral reaction<\/div>\n

Hunkpapa Lakota student Genesis White Bull was standing with her class for the national anthem at her 2024 Farmington High School graduation ceremony when two faculty members came up and removed her cap, which was beaded with an eagle plume attached to the top, and replaced it with a plain one. The incident was captured on video and sparked a national outcry, including from Navajo Nation leaders.<\/p>\n

Some critics wondered why the removal of White Bull\u2019s cap had not been prevented by a law that New Mexico passed in 2021 that prohibited discriminating against students for wearing particular hairstyles, such as cornrows, or cultural or religious headdresses.<\/p>\n

State Indian Affairs Secretary Josett Monette said in an NMPBS interview<\/a> a couple of weeks after the incident that the New Mexico Legislature could easily amend the 2021 law, which did not include the words \u201cregalia\u201d or \u201ctribe.\u201d But another option was to craft new and more specific legislation, and that is what the agency ended up doing.<\/p>\n

\"Farmington
Farmington High School graduate Myah Growler waves her diploma to her family as she exits the stage at the commencement exercises on Tuesday, May 20, at Hutchison Stadium. Curtis Ray Benally\/for New Mexico In Depth\/High Country News<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

At the start of New Mexico\u2019s legislative session earlier this year, lawmakers introduced a bill, written by the Indian Affairs Department, that would protect the right of students who are enrolled or eligible for enrollment in a federally recognized tribe to wear regalia at school events. While the U.S. Constitution might theoretically protect those rights, local laws should, and often need to, offer more. New Mexico joined 18 states with similar laws on the books, leaving Wyoming<\/a> as the only Western state without such protections, according to the Native American Rights Fund.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dozens spoke in support of the bill during committee hearings, including a handful of young Native people wearing their own regalia, who told lawmakers that White Bull was not alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy great-grandmother was only able to attend up to the sixth grade, and so when I graduated high school, I shared that accomplishment with her,\u201d Alysia Coriz (Santo Domingo Pueblo), a staff member for the nonprofit NM Native Vote, said in a February meeting of the House Education Committee. Wearing regalia at her graduation ceremony would have been a way to honor her family, Coriz said, but school officials told her it was not allowed because it was \u201cdistracting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both chambers of the Legislature passed the bill unanimously, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D, signed it in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of sad we had to pass a law, because these are our ancestral homelands,\u201d the bill\u2019s co-sponsor, Sen. Benny Shendo, a Democrat from Jemez Pueblo, said in an interview. \u201cBut let\u2019s pass the law to be able to do this. We want our children to be proud of who they are \u2013 and respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not here, there<\/div>\n

That New Mexico is willing to consider cultural expression in new laws shows that tribal values are moving into local and state policies, among other things.<\/p>\n

In his book, \u201cAmerican Indian Tribal Governance: A Critical Perspective,\u201d the Ojibwe author Stephen Wall argued that \u201ctribal culture is not the problem; the problem is the expectation, based on Western cultural values, that hold non-Western tribal governments to Western standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t really the feather in the cap that caused the issues at White Bull\u2019s graduation; it was the system\u2019s rules and the action the school decided to take. In response, the community asked for laws to protect its members from another such overreaction. As a result, the class of 2025 is the first in New Mexico to graduate with the necessary legal protection.<\/p>\n

\"Farmington
Farmington High School graduate Moraes John (Din\u00e9) wears a bandana with his cap and red ceremonial face paint at the commencement exercises on Tuesday, May 20, at Hutchison Stadium. Curtis Ray Benally\/for New Mexico In Depth\/High Country News<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For Temagami First Nation fashion designer Lesley Hampton, her cultural influence is seen in the models wearing her clothes in New York City, London, Milan and most recently during Santa Fe\u2019s Native Fashion Week. She is the person who gets the call when award-winning actress Lily Gladstone needs a new dress for a movie premiere, because every stitch, every bead, comes with Hampton\u2019s full understanding of how vital clothing is to Indigenous culture.<\/p>\n

Her contemporary designs come from a brand focused on promoting Indigenous worldview that \u201cshows the expanded representation that reflects society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graduations are paramount to that, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to wear our regalia, especially during graduation ceremony, which is so many years of hard work being put into a single five-second walk across the stage \u2013 it\u2019s so important, and you want to feel most comfortable and confident in that. And if you\u2019re representing your culture, representing your family with the designs that you\u2019re putting on your body, it\u2019s massive.\u201d<\/p>\n

That moment came full circle for Hampton when she was invited to be the eagle feather bearer and to open the graduation ceremony at her alma mater, the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

Back in Farmington this spring, families embraced, celebrating graduation with hugs, smiles and reflections.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom\u2019s right here,\u201d FHS graduate Kyrstyn Clark-Bekis said, pointing out her crowd in the group standing around her on the 30-yard line. \u201cMy friend Roxy, my other mom, Felicia. My grandma, my sister, my brother, my uncle, my uncle\u2019s girlfriend, my aunt. Yeah. And my mom\u2019s friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the interview, Clark-Bekis fit-checked her outfit while holding back tears every time she looked at her mom, who was recording the moment on her phone. \u201cI was struggling kind of a little bit mentally, because my family\u2019s been going through some stuff. But my family and my friends have just really helped through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s really improved herself, you know. I love her, and she\u2019s my baby. She\u2019s our last one,\u201d Sheryl Bekis said.<\/p>\n

Mocs, ribbon skirts, jewelry and leis, so many leis. This and that came from those people there, and that person helped with money. The materials ranged from intricately woven ribbons in school colors to ones made entirely out of cash, or candy, or hot chips.<\/p>\n

\"Farmington
Farmington High School graduate Megan Yazzie (Din\u00e9) celebrates with her diploma on stage at the commencement exercises on Tuesday, May 20, at Hutchison Stadium\/ Curtis Ray Benally for New Mexico In Depth\/High Country News<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Another graduate on the Farmington football field held a University of Arizona flag and sign that read \u201cfuture engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne last photo with Nathan!\u201d his mom shouted while corralling three dozen relatives around a student rocking a Din\u00e9 Club stole to honor his time in school with Native American students\u2019 services. The family snapped several photos and exited together, past the Twin Lakes girls, who had sold out of their balloons.<\/p>\n

Keira Manuelito, one of the two, was smiling, thinking about a future that includes applying for a summer program at Fort Lewis College, and planning what to wear when she walks with the class of 2027 at Gallup High School. \u201cI already have my ribbon skirt and moccasins. I\u2019m gonna save for new leather,\u201d she said, describing the k\u00e9ntsaa\u00ed. \u201cI\u2019ll probably need fresh ones for my graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by New Mexico In Depth<\/a> and is republished here with permission. <\/em><\/p>\n

This article was produced in partnership with High Country News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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